Saturday, April 20, 2024

04/20 Links: Israel’s strike has exposed Iran’s fatal weakness; The illiberal crusade to defend antisemitic mobs; PA’s Abbas threatens to break ties with US after veto of UN membership bid

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: The illiberal crusade to defend antisemitic mobs
Just as troubling is the willingness of many in the chattering classes to defend the protesters and pretend that expressions of antisemitism are a matter of free speech rather than hate. The Guardian’s Moira Donegan attacked Shafik in a column for what she described as “colluding with the far right” by calling in the police to enforce the university’s rules. She treated the entire idea that antisemitism was present as a right-wing talking point rather than an awful reality for Jewish students, whose plight interested her not at all.

The Times’ Michelle Goldberg sounded a similar theme in her denunciation of both the House committee investigating antisemitism and Shafik.

Both quoted comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a committee member whose questions were aimed at denying the antisemitic nature of the mobs that had transformed Columbia into a hotbed of Jew-hatred. That someone who has been censured by the House for her own repeated antisemitic rhetoric should sit on such a committee (or in Congress itself) is an irony completely lost on leftists. Both Donegan and Goldberg thought it was an outrage that Omar’s daughter—a junior at Barnard College—was among those participating in the pro-Hamas demonstration and rightly suspended from the school, though that piece of information was not generally known when Omar was trying to sabotage the hearing.

As with the rest of the debate about whether the antisemitism being vented on college campuses in the six months since Oct. 7 should be protected free speech, most of the arguments in defense of these mobs are disingenuous. The notion that the pro-Hamas activists are defending free speech is risible considering that most of their efforts are focused on silencing defenders of Israel and the Jews. These are not idealists acting out their sympathy for Palestinian victims but, rather, ideologues who have embraced the cause of a terrorist war to destroy the Jewish state.

What must also be acknowledged is that the crusade on the part of much of the liberal commentariat to defend or rationalize this epidemic of antisemitism is profoundly illiberal. This applies to those who, like the Times’ foreign-policy columnist Nicholas Kristof, have sought to mainstream blood libels against Israel. Their goal is to change the conversation about the war against Hamas from a necessary campaign to eradicate terrorists to an effort to legitimize a genocidal movement and its Western apologists.

The saddest aspect of this debate is the way it has been politicized by the left to make it appear that the fight against antisemitism is a Republican issue. It is deeply unfortunate that much of the liberal activist base of the Democratic Party that has been captured by advocates for critical race theory and intersectionality has taken sides against Israel in the war against Hamas. It’s also true that—as the daily drumbeat of incitement against Israel and its Jewish supporters in the Times, The Washington Post and MSNBC show—left-wing journalists are doing their utmost to legitimize anti-Jewish hate.

The effort to curb the surge of antisemitism in this country should not be conducted along party lines. Democrats and Republicans, liberals as well as conservatives, should be lining up against those who agree with Omar and her cheering section that antisemitic mobs are principled idealists rather than self-entitled hate-mongers. All decent Americans should—if not agreeing with Cotton about roughly preventing illegal protesters from taking over our public squares—be actively seeking to treat these antisemitic agitators with the disdain and punishment they deserve. If the defenders of the mobs prevail, the alternative is a nation where antisemitism is mainstreamed and Jewish safety a thing of the past.
Andrew Pessin: The Indelible Stain of Antisemitism: The Failed Practice of ‘Jew-Washing,’ Part 2
The most famous here are perhaps the Neturei Karta, a fringe group whose members appear at anti-Israel events worldwide.[10] They are ideal for Jew-washers, since, in their ultra-orthodox appearance, they are quite visibly Jews—and what could better exonerate an Israel-hater from charges of antisemitism when such clear Jews hate Israel too? Yes, they are a small group, but they are real, and they do derive their anti-Israelism from their Judaism: the Hebrew Bible as they read it teaches that Jews will legitimately re-form their political collective in the Land of Israel only by divine means, upon the coming of the Jewish Messiah. The contemporary State of Israel, then, is a religious abomination. The fact that the state and its overall culture are largely secular—surely only worse. No wonder they have 3-D hatred toward it.[11]

But does the existence of Neturei Karta successfully exonerate the non-Jewish anti-Israelist from the charge of antisemitism? (Henceforth we focus only on the “invoking authority” mode of Jew-washing.)

To see why not, consider a distinction made by former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, who famously described campus attempts to boycott and divest from Israel as “antisemitic in effect if not intent.” Effective antisemitism will roughly be any position, policy, or behavior that de facto discriminates in some negative way against Jews, whatever its actual content or intent. Intentional antisemitism is much harder to define, but doing so should not be necessary for our purposes. Suffice to note that sometimes a person’s intentions can absolve even his effective antisemitism from counting as antisemitism simpliciter.[12]

Neturei Karta’s ideology does seem to be effectively antisemitic, after all, for it discriminatorily denies to the Jewish people (pre-Messiah) the same right to political self-determination in their ancestral homeland that presumably all other peoples enjoy in theirs. Members of the group themselves may escape the charge of being intentional antisemites (or antisemites simpliciter), however, since they sincerely derive their position from bona fide Jewish principles.

But the same is simply not true for the non-Jewish Israel-haters who Jew-wash with Neturei Karta. They share the group’s effectively antisemitic doctrine that the Jewish state is illegitimate while not sharing precisely those intentions that would exonerate their antisemitism.[13]

So Jew-washing with Neturei Karta fails. Neturei Karta provide an illusory cover for Israel-haters’ antisemitism, but they do not remove it.

We turn in the next part to what we might call “ultra-non-orthodox Jewish anti-Israelism.”
Gaza cease-fire alone won’t repair larger enduring rift, political scientist says
Calls for a cease-fire in Gaza may be well-intentioned, but a halt to the current fighting will not repair the enduring rift between Israelis and Palestinians. That can only happen once the Palestinians abandon an ideology that rejects the legitimacy of a sovereign Jewish state, said Israeli political scientist Einat Wilf ’96.

During a conversation Friday with Tarek Masoud, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance and faculty director of the Middle East Initiative at HKS, Wilf spoke about the war in Gaza and why she thinks there’s been so little progress reaching a resolution over the years. The talk was the fifth in an ongoing Middle East Dialogues series at Harvard Kennedy School, organized by Masoud, which aims to showcase a range of viewpoints on the current crisis and promote informed dialogue.

Describing herself as “the poster child of the Israeli Two-Stater Left,” Wilf served in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, from 2010 to 2013 as a member of the Labor Party, which supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state. She said she still favors such a goal, but no longer believes the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is just about land.

“I voted for [Yitzhak] Rabin; I voted for [Ehud] Barak,” she said of the former Labor prime ministers. “I was euphoric in the ’90s, like many Israelis … when Barak goes to Camp David,” she said. “I believed in the vision of a new Middle East.”

But in 2000 and again in 2008, she watched Palestinian leaders refuse the terms of proposals from the Israelis for a state in the West Bank in Gaza.

“And I began to ask myself, ‘What is going on? What do the Palestinians want — because it’s clearly not a state,’” said Wilf, a former intelligence analyst. “They could have had that, and they walked away” without being criticized by the Palestinian people.

She came to that realization after conversations she’s had with many highly educated, moderate Palestinians over the last 20 years. “They basically tell me things like, ‘The Jewish people are not a people. You’re only a religion. This idea that you have a connection to this land, you invented it to steal our own,’” she said.

“And I realized from the conversations with them that how they think about the conflict, and how I think about it, don’t even meet. For them, the very existence of a sovereign Jewish state is illegitimate.”


Col. Kemp: Israel’s strike has exposed Iran’s fatal weakness
Israel’s presumed counterstrike against Iran has proved Joe Biden and David Cameron wrong in their insistence that Israel should just “take the win”. Instead, it fought back – and yesterday Iran was trying to pretend that nothing had happened.

This was a profound humiliation for the ayatollahs who just days ago were saying they would deliver punishing retaliation for even the slightest Israeli strike; now they seem to be saying they will do nothing. We don’t yet know what happened at the targets. To save face, the Iranians are unlikely to admit there was any damage. For strategic reasons, Israel has not accepted responsibility and therefore has not made known its damage assessment.

The main target seems to have been Iran’s third city, Isfahan. The Hastam Shikari airforce base is there: it was involved in the April 14 drone and missile attack against Israel. There are drone production factories at Isfahan.

Of perhaps greater significance, the city is at the heart of Iran’s nuclear programme with a research site as well as a processing facility, including stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. Although the International Atomic Energy Agency has made clear that no damage was caused to the nuclear site, Israel’s apparent ability to penetrate Iran’s most heavily defended sites will have triggered enormous concern in Tehran as it gets ever closer to obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.

It is possible there may be a pause in the nuclear programme so as not to provoke further attacks until defences can be significantly enhanced. Perhaps Iran may be deterred from launching further direct strikes against Israel as it realises the extent of its vulnerability.

It was vital for Israel to launch a response to Iran’s aggression quickly to avoid an impression of weakness in a region where strength is everything. But among Israel’s calculations on how to calibrate its response will have been the need to build on the international defensive coalition that formed so quickly last week. This is of strategic importance given the range of threats in the Middle East, foremost of which is the array of 150,000 or more missiles in Lebanon, pointing at Israel.
Israel used radar-evading missile to hit S-300 defenses near Natanz nuke site – report
The alleged Israeli strike overnight Thursday-Friday on Iranian air defenses near the Natanz nuclear site used a high-tech missile that was able to evade Iran’s radar systems, in a move “calibrated to make Iran think twice” before launching another direct attack on Israel, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Two unnamed Western officials cited by the newspaper said the missile aimed to show Tehran that Israel is able to dodge and neutralize its defenses.

Two Iranian officials said the strike hit a Russian-made S-300 air defense system. They told the newspaper that Iran had not detected intrusions into its airspace from drones, missiles or aircraft.

The newspaper said the missile was from a warplane fired “far from Israeli or Iranian airspace.”

The report also said that neither the plane nor the missile entered Jordanian airspace — a calculated move to keep Amman out of any potential ramifications for the reprisal strike, after it helped shoot down some of the hundreds of drones and missiles fired by Iran at Israel last weekend.

Satellite imagery seen by the Times of Israel showed damage to the radar of an S-300 system at the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Isfahan, said to be part of an array defending the nearby top-secret Natanz nuclear site. The imagery was not immediately permitted for publication, per the policy of the agency that took the photo.

Additional synthetic aperture radar satellite images taken Friday also showed evidence that the radar site was targeted.

The New York Times said the strike was deliberately designed to send a message on how a wider attack could look, with Israel able to penetrate Iranian defenses undetected.

US defense officials also told The New York Times that there was concern the precedent set by the nations’ direct exchanges of blows this week could encourage further rounds of violence in the future.

Other effects could be an Iranian effort to better protect its nuclear assets and make them harder to attack, as well a potential push to move weaponry closer to Israel in case of another confrontation, experts told the paper.
PA’s Abbas threatens to reconsider ties with US after veto of UN membership bid
The Palestinian Authority will reconsider bilateral relations with the US after Washington vetoed a Palestinian request for full United Nations membership this week, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday in an interview with the official WAFA news agency.

The threat, which Abbas has previously made during US President Joe Biden’s tenure without following through, was published in Arabic by the PA’s news agency but wasn’t included in an English translation of what Wafa called an exclusive interview.

“While the world agrees on the application of international law and stands by the Palestinian right, America continues to support the occupation, refusing to compel Israel to stop its genocidal war,” Abbas was quoted as saying. “It provides Israel with weapons and funds that kill our children and destroy our homes, and it stands against us in international forums, in positions that do not serve security and stability in the region.

“The United States has violated all international laws and abandoned all promises regarding the two-state solution and achieving peace in the region,” he added.

The PA leader also accused the Biden administration of having “reneged on its promises and commitments… by remaining silent on [Israel’s] theft of Palestinian funds” while saying there won’t be regional stability without a “just” resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.


US to announce first sanctions against an IDF unit over actions in West Bank
In a historic first, the United States is set to sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces.

According to three sources speaking with Axios, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce sanctions against the IDF’s 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion. Notably, the sanctions are not due to any actions during the war in Gaza, but rather human rights abuses committed in the West Bank before Oct. 7, 2023. This photo released by the Israeli military on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, shows ground operations inside the Gaza Strip. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)

The battalion is made up of ultra-Orthodox Jews with an emphasis on accommodating their religious practices. Following the low enlistment rates among ultra-Orthodox Jews, the battalion recently began to accept far-right youth who were rejected from other combat units. It has not been involved in active combat operations in Gaza.

Among the human rights abuses cited was its involvement in the death of elderly Palestinian American Omar Assad, who died after he was handcuffed, gagged, and forced to lie on his stomach for an extended period. Israel launched an investigation into the incident but decided against pursuing criminal charges against anyone involved, choosing only to “reprimand” one of the commanders.

The sanctions against the unit will prohibit it from receiving any U.S. military aid, participating in activities receiving American funding, and taking part in training with the U.S. military.

Several other units were investigated by the U.S. for abuses but cleared after remedying the behavior. The sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda Battalion will be removed if they are seen to have taken credible moves to remedy the problem as well.

The unit was moved from the West Bank to the Golan Heights after reports of widespread abuses against other Palestinian civilians.


US House Passes $95 Billion Ukraine, Israel Aid Package, Sends to Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-held Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. The Senate is expected to pass the measure next week, sending it to Biden to sign into law.

The bills provide $60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, including $23 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities; $26 billion for Israel, and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.

The four-bill package also includes a measure that would give TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, a year to sell the video sharing app or face a ban.

Recent months have seen progressive Democrats express anger with Israel's government and its conduct of the war in Gaza. Saturday's vote, in which the Israel aid was passed 366-58, had 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans in opposition.

On the Republican side, Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Scott DesJarlais (Tenn.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Andy Harris (Md.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Troy Nehls (Texas), Cory Mills (Fla.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Chip Roy (Texas), Tom Tiffany (Wisc.), and Ryan Zinke (Mont.) voted against aid to Israel.

Biden, who had urged Congress since last year to approve the additional aid to Ukraine, said in a statement: "It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia." The vote on passage of the Ukraine funding was 311-112. 112 Republicans opposed the legislation, with only 101 in support.


Alan Dershowitz: The 'Better' Civilians of Gaza
Among the so-called innocent "civilians" who Hamas claims have been killed by Israel, there are thousands of guilty and complicit civilians without whose assistance Hamas could not have succeeded in their barbarisms.

When Hamas provides its self-serving numbers of those allegedly killed by Israel, they refuse to distinguish between combatants and civilians. They certainly do not identify complicit "civilians," nor do they indicate how many were killed by the "friendly fire" of Hamas and other terrorist groups, whose rockets routinely misfire and land within Gaza. In a deliberate effort to mislead, Hamas instead purports to list the number of women and children who have been killed. But they include terrorists under the age of 19 as "children" and female terrorists as "women."

All in all, the number of absolutely innocent Gazans — babies, children and adults who are not complicit in Hamas crimes — is a fraction of those claimed by Israel's enemies, including so-called human rights groups.

It is time for a thorough and objective investigation of the actual status of all those allegedly killed by Israeli military actions. The results will show that Israel has achieved a remarkably low and unheard of ratio of combatants and complicit civilians to innocent civilians.


Survey: 28% of Americans seek an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza
A poll conducted by Jewish Federations of North America documents how popular opinion on the war in the Gaza Strip has shifted in recent months but still shows a majority supporting Israel.

The group released its findings on Thursday after surveying 1,901 American Jews and 4,143 non-Jewish Americans from Feb. 23 through March 11. Weighing the data to mirror the U.S. population, researchers found that 28% of Americans want an unconditional ceasefire, enabling the Hamas terrorist organization to continue to control Gaza and plot future Oct. 7-style attacks. It shows an increase from 20% during the initial weeks of the conflict. The total number of American Jews who advocate this position has reached 11%.

“Americans understand that Israel’s fight against terrorism is also our fight,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America. “They know that a ceasefire without the return of the hostages and the eventual defeat of Hamas is wrong for Israel, wrong for Americans and wrong for the free world.”

The survey also asked about fear for personal safety, discovering that Jews were nearly twice as concerned (58%) as non-Jews (32%). Jews who wore visibly Jewish clothing or religious items reported feeling almost three times as likely to worry for their safety.

While a majority of Jews (79%) expressed an emotional connection to Israel and that it made them proud to be Jewish (72%), nearly a third of Jews (29%) described discomfort in publicly expressing support for Israel with 68% of them naming antisemitic targeting as why.

The poll also revealed that the 5% of those polled who identified as Hamas supporters feel much more confident in expressing their views publicly (83%) than pro-Israel advocates (69%) and those who sympathize with “Palestine” (63%).
Nearly One in Five Young People Sympathize With Hamas, 29% Say US Should Reduce or End Alliance With Israel: Poll
A greater proportion of young Americans sympathize with the Palestinian people and government than with the Israeli people and government, while almost one in five sympathize with Hamas and a growing number want the US to end or reduce its alliance with the Jewish State, according to a new poll.

The national poll — released by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School — was of Americans aged 18-29. It found that while 52 percent of young people sympathize with Israelis, 56 percent sympathize with the Palestinian people.

The story remained the same when it came to governments: 32 percent of respondents said they sympathize with the Palestinian government, and only 29 percent said they sympathize with the Israeli government. The question did not make clear whether it was referring only to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, or both the PA and Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that rules Gaza.

According to the poll, 17 percent of young Americans said they support Hamas; however, when asked with the added context that Hamas is an “Islamist militant group,” support dropped to 13 percent.

Meanwhile, 29 percent said they believe the US should either no longer be an ally of Israel or reduce its allyship toward the Jewish state, and 32 percent said Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre — when the terror group invaded southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and took more than 250 hostages — was not justified. For both of these questions, though, a plurality of respondents said they were unsure.

Notably, support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza was strong among young people — with 51 percent supporting it and just 10 percent opposing it. Only 6 percent of Democrats said they do not support a permanent ceasefire.
Girl seriously injured in Iran’s missile attack sees slight improvement to condition
Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba reported an improvement on Saturday in the condition of a seven-year-old girl who was seriously wounded by shrapnel during the Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend.

The girl, Amina Hassouna, from a Bedouin town near Arad, was breathing on her own on Saturday, according to the hospital, which still listed her in serious condition. Despite her slight improvement, the girl remained in pediatric intensive care.

Hassouna was injured when shrapnel from an intercepted ballistic missile fell directly on her family’s home early Sunday.

Iran had launched more than 300 drones, rockets and missiles, the vast majority of which were struck down by Israel and its allies in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory.

Hassouna was the only serious casualty in the attack.

“I don’t know what happened,” her father Mohamed told Channel 13 on the night she was injured. “We were all asleep. We have no bomb shelter and no protection. We heard sirens and then something hit the house and her mother noticed that she was wounded.”


IDF kills 10 Palestinian gunmen, arrests 8 in two-day West Bank raid
The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday continued a counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp, the military said on Saturday afternoon.

The raid, near Tulkarem, has been ongoing for more than 40 hours.

Amid the operation, the IDF said troops killed at least 10 gunmen and detained another eight wanted Palestinians.

The troops also discovered and destroyed a bomb-making lab; seized firearms, including assault rifles; and used bulldozers to rip up roads where bombs were suspected to have been planted, the military said.

Eight soldiers and a Border Police officer were wounded as of Saturday afternoon amid clashes with Palestinian gunmen and rioters. Their injuries were listed as light and moderate conditions.

Palestinian media outlets reported that senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, was among those killed by troops.


IDF strikes in Lebanon kill at least 3 Hezbollah gunmen; missile hits Metula home
At least three members of the Hezbollah terror group were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Saturday, as skirmishes on the border continued.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had carried out strikes on Hezbollah operatives in Ayta ash-Shab and Kfar Kila in the morning hours, after they were spotted entering sites belonging to the terror group.

Later in the day, the IDF said reservists of the Etzioni Brigade spotted several more Hezbollah operatives at one of the group’s sites in Jebbayn before fighter jets struck the building. Hezbollah announced that three of its members were killed in the strike in Jebbayn.

Their deaths brought the terror group’s toll amid the war in the Gaza Strip to 285.

Since October 8, Hezbollah has attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a daily basis with rockets, drones, anti-tank missiles and other means, saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

Sirens sounded in northern Israel throughout Saturday, warning of rocket attacks and possible drone infiltrations, some of which were later deemed to be false alarms.


New Play Opening in NY Recounts Verbatim Testimonies From Oct. 7 Survivors, Families of Victims
A trailer was released on Wednesday for a play opening in New York next month that is comprised entirely of eyewitness accounts of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel using only the actual words of survivors and families of victims.

The play, titled October 7, was produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, two Irish documentary filmmakers, screenwriters, New York Times best-selling authors, and veteran investigative journalists. The married couple traveled to Israel in November to interview those affected by the deadly massacre in southern Israel, in which roughly 1,200 people were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists who also took more than 200 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. McAleer and McElhinney traveled throughout Israel for roughly three weeks, speaking to survivors and also families of victims about how they went about their day on Oct. 6 and how their lives changed the following morning.

“We’ve covered many shocking stories but nothing comes close to what the men, women, and children of Israel faced [on Oct. 7],” McElhinney said in the trailer for the play, which provides first-hand witness accounts of what happened in their own words, without editing. “The world wants you to forget about what happened that day. The day that everything changed. We refuse to let that happen.”

McAleer added: “We’ll bring you the truth they don’t want you to hear.”

The filmmakers debuted the trailer for October 7 during the Wednesday episode of their podcast, The Ann and Phelim Scoop. McAleer also explained their desire for wanting to make the play.


Melanie Phillips | How Conservatism’s Chickens Came Home to Roost in Gaza | NatCon Brussels 2

Amichai Chikli | The War in Israel | NatCon Brussels 2

Libertarian: Richard Epstein: Protesting the War in Gaza: Anti-War or Anti-Semitic?
Hosted by Richard Epstein & Tom Church
Richard Epstein discusses Israel and Iran trading missiles, Columbia University’s decision to arrest protestors, and how far protests are allowed to go.


Fetterman slams media for leaving out Hamas hostages in coverage
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) continued to call for Hamas to release its hostages, six months after operatives kidnapped them from southern Israel.

Since the Oct. 7 attack, Fetterman has displayed the photos of all the hostages Hamas took on his Senate office walls. The terrorist organization is holding over 100 hostages, according to Israel Defense Forces, though exact numbers are unclear with Hamas’s recent announcement they did not have 40 hostages who fit the criteria for a deal with Israel. At least 30 hostages have died in captivity.

“With a somber Passover approaching, I remain committed to speaking about this travesty and acknowledge there can’t be true lasting peace until the hostages are home,” Fetterman wrote in the caption of a video on X.

“And I’ll never understand why we’re not talking about that more and why there’s not more stories about that in the media,” Fetterman says in the video. “It’s very clear that we always make sure that we always talk about this and demand that and make sure until every last one is accounted for and brought back home.”


Gigi and Bella Hadid’s father sends racist, homophobic messages to Congressman Ritchie Torres
It’s not model behavior.

Luxury real estate developer Mohamed Hadid — father of nepobaby models Bella and Gigi — has spent months bombarding Rep. Ritchie Torres with dozens of racist and homophobic messages, according to screenshots obtained by The Post.

The progressive Democrat apparently become a target for Hadid in the wake of his outspoken defense of Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.

The Hadids are Palestinian and Mohamed is reportedly living in a $4.5 million “cottage” in Beverly Hills.

“You worse than the rats of New York sewage system. They have bigger brains than you. You might get a job as bouncer at gay bar,” Hadid, 75, told Torres in an Instagram direct message sent from his verified account — adding the Congressman was a “slave to whites.”

“Make sure you dress as KKK to hide that ugly gray colored face of yours,” the developer added. “I know about Bronx.”

Torres, 36, made history in 2021 when he became the first openly gay African American, and first openly gay Hispanic member, of Congress.

“You are just unusual Black and colorful mouth for Israeli and AIPAC and looking for payday of over 500K,” Hadid saId in another message, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group.


Midtown mayhem Israeli beauty queen who served on frontlines of war assaulted in NYC by Hamas-loving psycho
Welcome to New York, Miss Israel.

A beauty queen who has been serving on the front lines of the Israel-Hamas war since the Oct. 7 massacre was assaulted during a pro-Hamas protest in Times Square, The Post has learned.

Noa Cochva, who was crowned Miss Israel in 2021, was smashed in the face with the butt of a protest placard during the March 30 rally, video showed.

Cochva, 25, had been in the Big Apple for several weeks speaking and doing advocacy work for Israel and was in Times Square that day with fellow Israel advocates — who had come to demonstrate as well.

“We just saw a huge pro-Palestinian rally, and we wanted to go and do our own thing . . . And then they recognized us when they saw our flag and they threw down our flag . . . and they came down and one of the guys hit me.

“I had a black eye, I have never had a black eye before,” she said.

Cochva, who is a combat medic in her homeland, received treatment in an ambulance after the assault.

Police on the scene told the beauty queen “we can’t do anything,” she said.

“I feel like if you’re a police officer, and you see a woman get hit in the face, you should probably find the guy because that’s your job.”

After first letting the issue go, she decided to press charges on April 10.

After initially saying it had no report on file, the NYPD eventually confirmed the details of the incident to The Post, adding that there had been no arrests and the investigation was “ongoing.”

Cochva competed in the Miss Universe pageant in 2021, which was held in Eilat, Israel.

When she’s not cutting ribbons and waving to fans, she’s on the front lines — serving just outside Gaza treating wounded soldiers.


Asylum seeker 'who stabbed pensioner to death in the street after shouting "Free Palestine"' tells court he felt 'unwell' and 'faint' before he launched the attack
An asylum seeker who fatally stabbed a pensioner in the street after shouting 'Free Palestine' has told jurors he felt unwell and that he might faint when he did it.

Ahmed Alid, 45, is charged with murdering Terence Carney, 70, in Hartlepool town centre, minutes after repeatedly knifing his sleeping housemate Javed Nouri, 31, in his bed.

The prosecution at Teesside Crown Court has said Alid, from Morocco and who moved with family to Algeria, was motivated out of 'revenge' for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Both men were stabbed six times in the early hours of October 15, eight days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, and Mr Nouri survived after fighting off his attacker.

Alid admits he stabbed them both and agrees it was wrong, but denies he intended to cause either serious harm or that he was 'responsible' for their injuries.
Farce as Met Police apologise for threatening to arrest man at pro-Palestine march for being 'openly Jewish'... then apologise for that apology
The Metropolitan Police has apologised and retracted a statement saying sorry for the actions of an officer who threatened to arrest a man he described as being 'openly Jewish' after the communication was slammed as 'appalling victim blaming'.

London's police service issued a statement on Friday afternoon apologising after Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) boss Gideon Falter was stopped from walking through a pro-Palestine march last Saturday by a Met officer.

The Met's initial statement accused counter-protesters at the regular rallies of being 'provocative' by filming themselves as they turned up on the routes to express their views. Mr Falter maintains he was 'going for a walk' after attending synagogue.

But after the CAA furiously accused the force of 'abject victim blaming' it pulled the statement, replacing it with a further apology for causing further offence which added: 'Being Jewish is not a provocation'.

And following the first Met bulletin the campaign group issued further footage of exchanges between the officer and Mr Falter in which the policeman says that his Jewish faith is 'part of the factor' as to why he can't cross the road during the march.

In the footage, which the group had not released as part of the earlier clip, the officer says: 'I'm sure there are an awful lot of people of all sorts of faiths and creeds who want to go where they want, but unfortunately today is different.'

Mr Falter then asks: 'So basically because I am Jewish, I can't cross the road today?'

The officer replies: 'Because of the march, that is part of... unfortunately part of the factor.'

Sharing the new statement, the Met said: 'Earlier we posted a statement about a video released on Thursday evening by the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

'That statement has now been removed. We apologise for the offence it caused.'

The statement read: 'The use of the term "openly Jewish" by one of our officers is hugely regrettable. We know it will have caused offence to many. We reiterate our apology.

'We have reflected on the strength of the response to our previous statement. In an effort to make a point about the policing of protest we caused further offence.

'This was never our intention. We have removed that statement and we apologise.

'Being Jewish is not a provocation. Jewish Londoners must be able to feel safe in this city.

'Our commitment to protecting the public extends to all communities across London. It's important that our public statements reflect that more clearly than they did today.'

The CAA labelled the earlier statement 'atrocious' and claimed the Met was not outlining how it would protect Jewish people in London.


Toronto parents from 'alternative' elementary school pull their kids out to stage a pro-Hamas rally?
Rebel News was informed that some parents at the Grove Community School in Toronto have been removing their elementary-age children on certain days to stage pro-Hamas demonstrations. We visited the school last Tuesday and did not witness such a demonstration. However, Rebel News has obtained photographs of previous pro-Hamas protests by the pint-sized set, some of whom were brandishing Palestinian flags.




Met Police admits it gave councils wrong advice on Palestinian flag displays
The Metropolitan Police has admitted it gave councils the wrong advice on the hanging of Palestinian flags on public property and now says express permission must be sought from local authorities for the displays.

The Met had previously said that the flags could be put up on street furniture such as lamp posts unless the council clearly forbade it.

Responding to a letter from campaign group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), the force said it recognised this advice had been incorrect.

“We accept that this is inaccurate and that the correct position is that unless a local authority actively consents to the affixing of flags in the street then a person is not entitled to do so and they may be committing an offence,” it wrote.

“Our position remains that the local authority has primary responsibility for enforcing any such offences. Following receipt of your letter, we have reviewed the position paper and decided to withdraw this and the ‘comms’."

Following October 7, Palestinian flags have been displayed in large numbers in some areas of the UK.

While those who put up the flags say they act out of solidarity with those suffering hunger and bombardment in Gaza, many in the Jewish community remember the celebrations that took place at several sites across London on October 7 where Palestinian flags were waved as an apparent tribute to the Hamas massacres.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, one Jewish parent said: “I am the mother of a boy who goes to primary school in the ­borough.

“We have lived here for four years but we are leaving, even to go abroad, before he goes to secondary. This week, 11 flags hung outside his school. There is graffiti calling for a boycott on ‘apartheid Israel’ on a wall nearby.”
Comedian Paul Currie now claims he's not playing Glastonbury and has been 'cancelled' after he 'hounded' Jewish audience member out of theatre in row over Palestine - but festival bosses say they had never actually booked him
Comedian Paul Currie has walked back on earlier claims he was set to perform at Glastonbury Festival after bosses said he had not been booked for the 2024 event.

The comic, who faced a row in February amid claims he 'hounded' Jewish man Liahav Eitan out of a London gig because he 'refused to applaud' a Palestinian flag, now claims he has been 'cancelled' after 13 years of Glasto gigs.

In a post on Instagram on Friday evening, Currie - who has been explicit in his support of Palestinian people - said the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) had put 'pressure' on Glastonbury organisers not to book him again.

But festival bosses told MailOnline earlier today that he had not been booked to perform at all for 2024.

Currie's new post, however, was phrased to suggest that he believed he had been booked but that the offer was subsequently withdrawn. MailOnline has contacted the comedian for further clarification.


Opinion: I survived the Holocaust. What I see happening in Berkeley is frightening
In 1957, I moved to Berkeley, California: a bastion of American liberalism that squarely aligns with my progressive values, and a hub of American scholarship that nurtured my academic quest and professional growth. I came here for advanced studies in microbiology and genetics. Since then, I have lived, worked as a scientist and retired in this community.

Over the 65 years that I have called this beautiful area home, I have occasionally encountered antisemitism, but these one-off incidents never succeeded in destroying my spirit. When I was four years old, Nazis burst into my bedroom and sent me and my family to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. We were soon released and I was smuggled out of Germany by a Christian woman. After this harrowing experience, not much in the Bay Area could scare me.

But since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the hatred towards Jews that I have seen in Berkeley terrifies me more than anything I have experienced while living here. I am still reeling from being called a liar at a Berkeley City Council meeting, where I asked for a proclamation to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and spoke about October 7. The Jews at that meeting were circled and called “Zionist pigs” by menacing protesters.

We are approaching the holiday of Passover, which commemorates the freedom of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and our formation as a free Jewish people in our own land. But this Passover is like no other in recent history, with scores of hostages still held in Gaza and Jews worldwide fearful for our future — including Jews in the US. We are facing the worst global antisemitism since the Holocaust and while it is not state-sanctioned as Nazism was, it is a threat going unchecked in California’s East Bay.

It is incredibly painful to see my neighbors vilify Jews, tear down posters of Jewish hostages in Gaza and not believe Jewish rape victims. In this hotbed, hatred and hostility have become normalized. Families have moved their children out of public schools. Jewish businesses have been vandalized and boycotted. And lies about Jews and Israel have gone unchecked and unchallenged in our public forums. Our local Jewish community is both horrified and petrified.

This onslaught of Jewish hatred cannot become the new normal. This epidemic must be treated as seriously as all other hatreds that our society is confronting, such as racism and homophobia. We need more education about Judaism and how the long, sordid history of antisemitism ties into other forms of hatred in our public schools.

We need colleges and universities to unequivocally denounce hate speech and actions directed at Jews. We need public officials to urge mutual respect, understanding and civil discourse during city council and town hall meetings.
Progressives failed a lesson in free speech
Last spring, my Arabic language instructor instituted a policy that non-Muslim students refrain from eating or drinking in class during Ramadan. When I objected to this rule, she told me that the problem with Americans is that we “care too much about our rights.” As such, I was very surprised to see her name appear on an open letter demanding that the administration “defend academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the right to peaceful assembly” in the context of advocacy for “Palestinian liberation.”

As a liberal and near free speech absolutist, I was hopeful that free speech defenses of pro-Palestine advocacy would prompt campus progressives to reckon with the value of free speech. Perhaps, in a situation where progressive voices were on the receiving end of censorship of expression, then free speech might become more widely accepted as an apolitical principle. Unfortunately, the recent controversy surrounding Charter Club has demonstrated that progressive voices on campus have failed to recognize the value of free speech beyond its usefulness as a political instrument. Thus, as a community, we must work to foster an ideologically-free understanding of free speech.

The aforementioned incident occurred following a lunch between professor Robert P. George and his student in the club. Soon afterwards, a policy was instituted that mandated approval from “undergraduate officers, club staff, and the alumni Board of Governors” before bringing non-family or friend visitors. After coverage and controversy, this policy has been revoked — but the fact that it was even imposed in the first place signals the presence of fundamental misconceptions and hypocrisy about free speech.

Indeed, the idea that students eating their lunch at Charter may have felt uncomfortable by professor George’s presence is not difficult to understand. Professor George maintains several conservative viewpoints on topics ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion. The deeply personal and controversial nature of these issues will likely breed discomfort for many students. Even I have felt uneasy when encountering his arguments against ideas that I — who was raised in a liberal suburb — believed to be accepted facts.


Police Stop Anti-Zionist Agitators From Accessing Florida University President’s Home as Students Revolt Nationwide
An extremist anti-Zionist group on Thursday was prevented by local police from marching to the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential House at Florida International University (FIU), which is the home of school president Kenneth A. Jessell.

According to the campus newspaper Panther Now, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) planned the action as part of “Palestinian Prisoner Day,” an event held by the group to honor terrorists who are detained in Israel. As the demonstrators approached Jessell’s home, a blockade of police formed to obstruct their path.

Despite the aggression displayed in marching a mob to someone’s residence, the students complained that the police’s response was disproportionate to any threat they may have posed.

“Take a look over there. Do you know how many cop cars are there? All these cops for a bunch of students who are just chanting,” SJP co-president Zuhra Alchtar was quoted by Panther Now as saying when the police arrived on the scene. “The ivory tower gets so shaken when a bunch of people speak. They can’t stand it. They have to call the big guns; they have to call the priority response team.”

The demonstration came as anti-Zionist students across the US have been recently crossing the line from peaceful expressions of free speech to riotous behavior, flagrantly violating school rules, disrupting business, and even exposing Jewish students to racist and antisemitic rhetoric unlike any uttered publicly in the US since the 1950s.

Earlier this month, Vanderbilt University suspended and expelled several protesters who occupied an administrative building and proceeded to relieve themselves and perform other private functions inside. To infiltrate the building, the students “assaulted a Community Service Officer” and “pushed” officials who suggested having a discussion about their concerns, according to school officials.
Columbia Students Call on President Shafik To Restore Order on Campus
Columbia University students are calling on the school’s president, Minouche Shafik, to restore order as chaotic protests and violent clashes near campus plague the Ivy League institution.

Columbia students wrote in a Friday letter that they do not feel safe amid ongoing protests that began Wednesday, when Shafik testified to Congress on her response to campus anti-Semitism. Protesters have refused to leave a "Gaza Solidarity'' tent encampment, prompting suspensions and arrests, and violent confrontations have taken place just outside the school.

"We, students at Columbia University, feel categorically threatened by unaffiliated protesters on and off campus," the students wrote. "Further, the large, unrelenting protests surrounding campus obfuscate and limit access to campus. We do not feel safe walking to nor around campus as a result."

The students said masked protesters unaffiliated with the school have been let into buildings on campus without showing identification cards, prompting safety concerns.

"Yet despite campus access being limited to CU ID holders, these masked protesters have been seen entering campus through various entry points. One non-affiliate was recorded saying ‘honestly a lot of people who are here aren’t even students,’" the students wrote.

"Those of us living on and off campus cannot come and go from our homes to campus as we please without fear of being threatened, harassed, or assaulted. As such, we urge the administration to allow us to attend classes virtually until the situation has entirely de-escalated."
Columbia University Tries But Fails to Stop Event with Israeli Lawmaker
Columbia University was less than welcoming when Likud Knesset Member Dan Illouz came to speak on campus this past week at an event arranged by the Hasbara Fellowship.

Illouz was in New York from April 11-16, the last stop on his US tour, which included talks in Washington and in Miami.

The Israeli lawmaker managed to speak at the scheduled Columbia University event set for April 15, but only after his staff had to leap through multiple hoops and obstacles placed by the university’s administration.

Approval for the talk was finally given on April 12, the Friday morning prior to the talk. Signup began only Sunday (April 14), when most students were unavailable due to the weekend, and registration was only permitted through the Columbia University email system, an Illouz staff member told JewishPress.com.

Adding fuel to the fire, the university then closed the registration altogether on Monday morning. Entry was barred to all who had not managed to register in time.

“The administration in Columbia did everything possible to stop us from talking on campus, making the bureaucratic process for approval of the event impossible,” Illouz told JewishPress.com.

“We only got approval one business day in advance, with very limited time for students to sign up for the event,” he noted.

Nevertheless, the university brass did not succeed in discouraging the Israeli lawmaker from connecting with interested students.
Columbia anti-Israel protest arrests include Letitia James intern, UPS exec’s daughter who killed elderly couple in crash as a teen
It takes privilege to protest at Columbia.

The 114 anti-Israel protesters who were busted at Columbia on Thursday include members of the upper crust: an intern for New York State Attorney General Letitia James — and the daughter of a prominent UPS executive who killed an elderly couple with her truck as a teenager and got off with a slap on the wrist.

A Post deep-dive into the backgrounds of the protesters shows many list multimillion-dollar mansions as their home addresses, according to sources, and come from wealthy and powerful families.

Many are students at Barnard College, Columbia University’s liberal arts sister school.

Others are career activists with multiple arrests under their belts.

Minnesota congresswoman and “Squad” member Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, a Barnard student with a long history of civil disobedience, was among those cited for trespassing and taken into custody.

She was released a few hours later and declined to speak to The Post.

Also cuffed and removed from the Columbia campus was Isabel Jennifer Seward, daughter of high-ranking UPS executive William J. Seward.

In 2020, at the age of 16, Isabel veered her Toyota Tacoma pickup truck across a double yellow line on US Route 7 in Charlotte, Vermont, killing Chet and Connie Hawkins, a married couple in their 70s, according to a report by the Barre Montpelier Times Argus.

She pleaded no contest to a civil traffic ticket for “driving on roadways laned for traffic” and was issued a $220 fine — which her mother paid, according to the Rutland Herald.


Northwestern University Dean of Students Attends Protest Targeting Campus Jewish Community Center
The dean of students at Northwestern University attended an anti-Israel protest this week targeting Hillel, the school’s Jewish student community center, to defend the demonstrators’ "right to free speech."

Dean of Students Mona Dugo said she showed up at the rally on Monday to support anti-Israel activists’ "right to protest" and to "protect the right to free speech," according to the Daily Northwestern.

Protest organizers demanded that the university end its relationship with Hillel, a 100-year-old nonprofit group that operates Jewish community centers on campuses around the world, including Northwestern. The protest took place during Northwestern’s Admitted Students Day, which seeks to introduce incoming students to campus life.

"[Hillel] is one of the many ways in which this university is complicit in infusing Jewishness with Zionism," one protest organizer said in a speech at the rally.

A leaflet handed out by protesters accused Northwestern of "funneling Jewish students into Hillel, the Zionist ‘foundation for Jewish life.’" It also claimed the school "weaponizes claims of anti-Semitism on campus to silence pro-Palestinian activism."

Protesters also accused Israel of "genocide" and called on Northwestern to end any relationships with "Zionist companies."

The protest comes as alumni have accused Northwestern president Michael Schill of allowing anti-Semitism to proliferate on campus, where anti-Israel protesters have raised the Hamas flag at student demonstrations. During Northwestern’s Martin Luther King Jr. memorial ceremony in February, a speaker accused Israel of "genocide" as Schill sat silently in the audience, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education opened an investigation into alleged anti-Jewish incidents at the school. Last month, Jewish students also urged Congress to launch an inquiry into the university.
Graduation 2024 is going to be all about Israel-Gaza war
This week’s University of Southern California valedictorian speech controversy, where university officials canceled their anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian speaker due to security concerns, is more than a mere news item — it’s a foreshadow things to come.

As parents and loved ones gear up for the annual dose of pomp and circumstance, this spring’s commencement season promises to be chaotic, loud and nasty.

There isn’t a space too sacred, an event too significant that pro-Palestinian “river to the sea” chanters won’t co-opt for their cause.

Witness the worshippers harassed as they leave synagogue, the city council and board of ed meetings ambushed, the rush-hour traffic brought to a standstill.

Make no mistake, they are licking their lips in anticipation.

Here’s a glimpse of what that will look like: in late March, the University of Michigan abruptly ended its Honors Convocation, an annual tradition that recognizes the school’s top academic performers, after a hundred or so protestors interrupted the proceedings with shrieks, chants, and banners demanding the university divest from Israel.

They shouted down university president Santa Ono midway through his remarks, forcing him to retreat from the stage.

Instead of calling security, the school scrapped the rest of the program and asked parents to leave. One shocked father captured the mayhem on Instagram.

“This is an honors ceremony,” he said incredulously. “Why are they kicking us out?”

The University of Michigan’s lack of response illustrates higher education’s usually feckless appeasement strategy, which always seems to come at the expense of everyone but the agitators.


Seattle teacher who said it’s ‘offensive’ to identify as straight now suspended for comments on Hamas terror attacks
A Seattle high school teacher previously accused of berating a student for describing himself as “straight” has been suspended for making pro-Hamas comments – including that the terror attack on Israel was justified and questioning whether women were raped.

Ian Golash, social studies chairman at Chief Sealth International High School, was placed on administrative leave on April 11 after Accuracy in Media, a conservative group that exposes antisemitism on campuses, distributed a video interview with him, the Seattle Times reported.

Adam Guillette, president of AIM, asked Golash whether what happened to the Jewish state on Oct. 7 was justified. The teacher told him it was.

When asked whether the rape of women at the Nova music festival in the Negev desert also was justified, Golash responded: “Where is the evidence that there was rape?”

Guillette then asked him whether women were murdered at the festival and whether their deaths were justified.

“Yes,” Golash replied.

“The murder of innocent women just attending a music festival, that was justified in your opinion?” Guillette asked him.

“No, I think resistance against Israel is justified, yes,” the teacher said.


Journalist who labels dead Palestinian terrorists ‘martyrs’ gets top Dutch award
A Dutch-Palestinian photographer won the most prestigious journalism award in the Netherlands for a series of photos where some titles refer to dead jihadist terrorists as “martyrs.”

Occurring amid a debate about the ethics of journalists covering the October 7 onslaught, Sakir Khader’s prize, announced in February, has prompted criticism by watchdog groups on antisemitism and Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs. They warned that honoring Khader’s work can be construed as a dangerous endorsement of his rhetoric amid rising antisemitism in the Netherlands.

Khader, 33, was awarded the Silver Camera prize, which the Silver Camera Association has bestowed upon distinguished photojournalists for the past 75 years. He was recognized for a series titled “Life in the West Bank Before October 7,” the day that some 3,000 terrorists invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing about 1,200 people and abducting another 253, among other war crimes and atrocities.

A spokesperson for the Silver Camera judges’ panel rejected the criticism, downplaying the significance of the titles the photographer gave the award-winning works.

On his official website, Khader titled one of the photos of the winning series “Portrait of a Martyr.” It shows the body of Mahmoud Khaled Ar’arawi, who died in a firefight with Israeli soldiers in Jenin in September. Ar’arawi was wearing a headband emblazoned with the logo of the Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian terrorist group that the European Union last week slapped with new sanctions along with Hamas for their operatives’ systemic rape of women during the October 7 onslaught in Israel, among other atrocities.
Activists: Elon Musk should review Jackson Hinkle for fake X engagement
Legal activists on Tuesday called on X owner Elon Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino to investigate American Communist influencer Jackson Hinkle for fake social media engagement ahead of the 2024 American elections.

Zachor Legal Institute alerted Musk and Yaccarino that Hinkle, who routinely posts false information about the Israel-Hamas War and content in favor of dictatorships, that his account "can be used to manipulate American public opinion by using fake engagements to amplify posts with misinformation, hate speech, and other forms of harassment, in violation of X’s rules and policies." 'Zionist hit piece'

The institute cited a New York Times report last Thursday on how Israeli research company Cyabra had found that from a sample of 12,510 of Hinkle's followers, roughly 40% were fake. Hinkle's popularity on X had skyrocketed by 1.2 million followers in the first 19 days of the war, which the Zichron letter suggested was fueled by fake engagement.

Another Israeli research company, Next Dim, according to the Times said that a network of pro-China accounts had boosted Hinkle's content at the beginning of the war. Hinkle called the Times article a "zionist hit piece."

"We therefore urge you to investigate the claims of inauthentic activity surrounding Hinkle’s account and to suspend any fake accounts that follow him and amplify his posts inauthentically," said Zichron.

Zichron gave examples of Hinkle posting provocative false information such as claims on Sunday that "Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Russia will support Iran if the United States attacks Iran's soil in support of Israel." Hinkle called on followers to rate the community note paced on his report as incorrect.

Zichron also referred to his claims that an image of a child killed by Hamas during the October 7 Massacre was AI generated, and posted images from Syria and presented them as being from Gaza.


South Africa Jewish leader: President used meet with us on antisemitism to attack Israel
Shortly after Hamas’s October 7 terror attack on Israel, the leadership of the South African Jewish community requested a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss rising antisemitism.

The meeting took place in December, and the course it took surprised the South African Jewish Board of Deputies: Instead of discussing the safety concerns of his Jewish constituents, the board’s leader said, Ramaphosa spent most of the meeting attacking Israel, which he accused of committing genocide. He later cited the meeting when South Africa charged Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice.

“It was a complete betrayal of the community,” Wendy Kahn, the Board of Deputies’ director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview this week.

Ramaphosa had scheduled the meeting for December 13, after the launch of the country’s summer holidays, so a number of the seven Jewish officials who attended had to cut into summer travel plans to make the meeting in the capital city of Pretoria.

The inconvenience seemed worth it, Kahn said. Antisemitism had spiked in South Africa and the parliament’s overwhelming vote to cut diplomatic ties to Israel and shutter its embassy was creating problems for the South Africans with family in Israel.

Yet instead of focusing on those issues, according to Ramaphosa’s office, the South African president used the meeting to accuse Israel of genocide. His statement following the meeting does mention his government’s “denunciation of antisemitic behavior towards Jewish people in South Africa, including the boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, and Islamophobia.”

But most of the statement concerns South Africa’s criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza against Hamas. It says Ramaphosa explained that his government “condemns the genocide that is being inflicted against the people of Palestine, including women and children, through collective punishment and ongoing bombardment of Gaza.”


MEMRI: Dearborn, Michigan Imam Hassan Qazwini, Who Has Claimed ISIS Is Arm Of Zionism, Praised Houthis, And Endorsed Bernie Sanders 'Even Though He Is A Jew': I Unequivocally Condemn The 'Death To America' Chants By A 'Bogus Individual' Who Doesn't Represent Our Community; This Was A Gift To The Zionists, Fox News

MEMRI: Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif, At Ground-Breaking Ceremony For Museum To Counter Islamophobia: 'Palestinians Are Suffering Under Israeli Barbarism'; 'Pakistan Is Ready To Help The Oppressed Palestinians Caught In Problems At All Levels'

After hosting Hamas leader, Erdogan encourages Palestinians to unite against Israel
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday urged Palestinians to unite for “victory” amid Israel’s war in Gaza, following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, his office said.

Erdogan, who has called Hamas a “liberation group” and Israel worse than the Nazis, has tried and failed to establish a foothold as a mediator in the Gaza conflict that has roiled the region.

Erdogan said Palestinian unity was “vital” following the talks at the Dolmabahce Palace on the banks of the Bosphorus strait, which Turkish media reports said lasted more than two and a half hours.

“The strongest response to Israel and the path to victory lie in unity and integrity,” Erdogan said, according to a Turkish presidency statement.

Hamas — designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel — is a rival of the Fatah faction that rules the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Amid fears of a wider regional war, Erdogan said recent events between Iran and Israel should not allow Israel to “gain ground” and that “it is important to act in a way that keeps attention on Gaza.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the meeting, writing on X: “Muslim Brotherhood alliance: rape, murder, desecration of corpses and the burning of babies. Erdogan, shame on you!”

Hamas was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987.


Sister of Israeli held in Baghdad shouts at Iraqi PM in Washington: ‘You don’t care!’
The sister of Russian-Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was abducted last year in Baghdad and has been held in captivity since, heckled Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani at an event in Washington on Friday, saying he is not doing enough to secure her release.

“She’s held hostage in your country,” Emma Tsurkov shouted at Sudani during the Atlantic Council event in the US capital.

“You are not doing anything to save her. And you can’t, because they are your government’s partners. They are Iraqi government employees, and you should be ashamed of yourself that you’re not doing anything to help her and save her,” Tsurkov added. “She’s innocent and you know it.”

“How dare you come here pretending to be a legitimate leader when what you’re doing is enabling a bunch of terrorists… My sister has been held hostage for 13 months and you don’t care!”

Tsurkov has long said Sudani has the power to secure her sister’s release, but has chosen not to act.

Two weeks ago, US lawmakers sent a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to secure Elizabeth Tsurkov’s release.


Islamic Republic of Iran couldn't trust its own people in a war with Israel
Contrary to what many experts claim, Israel’s muted strike on Thursday in retaliation for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack last weekend actually makes all-out war between the two countries much less likely. This should suit the Islamic Republic’s interests, as it is facing an existential crisis brought on by decades of repressing its own people. Proxy wars — through Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — allow the regime to project a veneer of strength without risking a crisis at home.

But a crisis has been long brewing. The government and people of Iran can no longer tolerate each other. The symbol of a young Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, murdered by the “morality police” in 2022 reignited the revolutionary attitudes of many Iranians who no longer wish to live under a totalitarian theocracy. A few years before, in November 2019, the regime suppressed another country-wide uprising by killing thousands of civilians. And two years before that, a government crackdown on protesters killed hundreds more.

There is a basic rule that any dictatorship follows: do not arm the people you are oppressing. In recent years, with those regular mass uprisings, the regime may have realized that its biggest enemies are the Iranian youth, who, thanks to internet and satellite TV, along with years of witnessing corruption, incompetence and economic decline, do not buy the government’s narrative anymore.

The regime’s existential problem is that the biggest demographic of these anti-regime protesters, young men under 25, is the same group that is conscripted in the armed forces and the police. So the question becomes: in a direct war, would it make sense for the regime to put guns in their hands, knowing that many of those guns might be turned against the regime itself?

If your answer is no, then it would be safe to assume that the regime would want to avoid a direct all-out war. So logically, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be forced to rely even more on its proxies, all of which are armed and controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) international operations arm, the Quds Force.

With such problems at home, for a successful proxy war strategy, the regime needs to create an aura of invincibility, so no one dares attack it directly. That is why the Islamic Republic of Iran has been trying to build a nuclear bomb for decades, and that is also why it markets the IRGC as its greatest weapon.


LA man, who called for murder of Jews, gets nearly five years in jail
A 35-year-old man from Reseda, Calif., who called for the genocide of Jews, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison on Friday for illegally possessing ammunition and eight devices that make semi-automatic guns work like automatic ones, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California stated.

“This violent extremist not only made numerous threats to kill Jews but also was amassing weapons capable of carrying out acts of violence,” stated Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

“Hateful behavior of this sort has no place in our society, and we will continue to use all the tools available to protect the community from violence driven by racially motivated ideology,” Estrada said.

A convicted felon, Ryan Scott Bradford associates with a “racially motivated violent extremist group,” per the U.S. Justice Department. On Jan. 11, Bradford pleaded guilty to one count each of possessing ammunition and machine guns as a felon.

On July 27, 2023, law-enforcement officials found 116 rounds of ammunition and items with swastikas and other Nazi symbols. Per the Justice Department, he also called for mass murder and genocide of Jews.
Background https://twitter.com/YearlyCoffee/status/1781073830468833679

The inspiring Dee family: One year after a terror attack killed Maia, Rina, Lucy
There was something about the story of the murder of a mother and two daughters during the Passover holiday last year that imprinted itself on the consciousness of the nation and catapulted Rabbi Leo Dee, the grieving husband and father, to international prominence.

On April 7, 2023, Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were driving to Tiberias over Hol Hamoed, the intermediate days of the week-long festival. Their vehicle was rammed off the road by terrorist gunmen, who shot all three women. Maia and Rina were killed on the scene, and Lucy passed away from her wounds two days later.

In a private ceremony exactly one year later, Rabbi Leo Dee and his daughters Keren and Tali and son Yehuda (now 19, 18 and 15 years old) dedicated a new social hall in their community of Efrat in Lucy’s memory.

Later that evening, a standing-room-only crowd of 700, plus 2,400 who watched the ceremony online, gathered in the newly dedicated Shirat Lucy (Lucy’s Song) Hall above the Mishkan Tziporah synagogue in Efrat to remember the three women and to draw inspiration from their lives.


Holocaust survivor and Nuremberg translator Ruth Lansing dies at 105
Ruth F. Lansing, who aided in the prosecution of leaders of the Third Reich and Nazi Germany at the Nuremberg trials, died on April 5. She was 105 years old.

She was born on Nov. 13, 1918, in a small town outside of Dusseldorf, Germany, to Friederike (“Ricka”) and Sigmund Oberlander.

On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, while visiting family in Dusseldorf proper, Lansing witnessed Kristallnacht (“The Night of Broken Glass”), when Jews across Germany and in parts of Austria were brutally attacked, and their stores and synagogues ransacked and burned.

Her sister Lucy and her husband were able to leave for the United States soon after that. Lansing later managed to get passage to England with the help of family–a move that would save her life. At the age of 18, she emigrated to British Mandatory Palestine.

In 1988, she recounted her experiences on Yom Hashaoh, Holocaust Remembrance Day, that “two stormtroopers came to arrest my host” and that “I believed they were going to shoot him then and there,” according to The Buffalo News.

Lansing’s parents were rounded up and taken to Auschwitz in 1942. Another sister, Gerti, was taken to the same concentration camp years later, in 1945. All were murdered there.

Following World War II, Lansing returned to occupied Germany and became a civilian employee for the U.S. Army, working as a translator during the world-famous Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. She eventually managed to join her sister in the United States, moving there in 1948, where she met Eric Lansing, They married the next year and settled in Buffalo, N.Y., working for 20 years in real estate while raising their two children.




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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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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