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Friday, April 26, 2024

04/26 Links Pt2: International Criminal Court’s vicious smear tactics against America’s allies; Hamas Propaganda Gets a Pass from ‘Disinformation’ Watchdogs

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: International Criminal Court’s vicious smear tactics against America’s allies
Of course, this whole thing is a fantastic moral inversion. It is not the Israelis who are committing war crimes.

It was Hamas who committed war crimes — live on camera — on Oct. 7.

Will Khan prosecute the leadership of Hamas?

Good luck to him if he tries.

It seems unlikely that the terrorist group will suddenly come out of their hostage-surrounded tunnels in southern Gaza or their luxury penthouses in Qatar and fly to The Hague.

One thing you can say with confidence about Hamas is that they’re not big “laws of war” guys.

And good luck to anyone who tries a citizen’s arrest.

Vladimir Putin will benefit from this, naturally. It would be a big win for him if he could point to the Israeli PM and say, “You see, the ICC tries to prosecute everyone.”

Such a move would also be a huge blow to all the internationalists who want to see an international court with some legitimacy.

Khan’s move — if he goes ahead with it — would blow up this ­infant global project at its foundation, making Republicans and Democrats alike become its biggest enemies.

And of course, such a disgraceful step would not stop the war in Gaza.

The Israeli war cabinet has made it clear they want nothing short of total victory.

That means the destruction of Hamas and the return of all remaining hostages.

If the ICC and others want to stop this war, they should focus on achieving that.

The fact they can do no such thing shows them up as the partisan eunuchs that they actually are.

But if they try to make this move against the Israeli PM and others, Khan and the ICC won’t delegitimize Israel — as they hope.

The court will simply delegitimize itself.

And vindicate the view of patriotic Americans of both political parties that this country should have no part in the farce at The Hague.
Douglas Murray on Iran attack, anti-Israel marches, and Israel’s resilience
A Labour victory, which has many Muslim voters, would likely not be better for Israel, but he expected it to be similar to Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s policy but weaker.

He credited Labor leader Keir Starmer for his work to improve the party and “lancing the worst of the antisemitism” but the foundations of the political movement were still radical.

Cameron “has been pretty bad as a friend of Israel during this conflict. His own anti-Israel sentiment seeps out fairly regularly.”

“I don’t think there’ll be that much difference to begin with,” said Murray. “The problem is always whenever a conflict emerges with Israel involving any of Israel’s neighbors, it doesn’t matter what size the conflict is, actually.

The responses to it get more and more vicious. And that’s something I’ve noted for a long time now, and I’m deeply concerned. This is a relatively large war compared to previous Gaza wars, but it’s not a large war compared to some others in Israel’s history. How the Labour Party will behave when they’re in government, we’ll see.“Back in the UK after almost six months in Israel, Murray said he was struck by how Israelis had met the challenges before them, but also how they were still dealing with the societal tremors of October 7.

“I’m deeply moved and inspired, really, by the young men and women of Israel,” said Murray. “I think they’ve been absolutely remarkable. I think the question which every society that isn’t completely asleep always asks itself is, ‘Would we be what our fathers or grandfathers or forefathers were in the time of trial?’”

He said that in the West, they had not been tested in such a fashion in a long time, and some older Israelis doubted the newer generations’ ability to stand fast. He said the older generations were no longer worried.

He met many soldiers serving in the Gaza and West Bank arenas, and in his eyes, “this generation of Israelis has stepped up to a historical moment, and they’ve been shown to be magnificent and brave and courageous.”

As he told President Isaac Herzog in a recent meeting, “They don’t do any of it out of hatred. They do it out of love. Love and the desire to defend their loved ones, their families, their people, their nation, their home. I see no hatred in the hearts of the young soldiers I meet. I see just the desire to live in peace and the knowledge that in order to live in peace, you must sometimes wage war, especially when war is waged upon you.”

While the soldiers fought, the country still grappled with a trauma that Murray said is still being processed. It was a trauma that many in the world did not understand.

He had spoken to Nova massacre survivors and their therapists, and they told them it was too soon to talk about PTSD.

“This country is still in the trauma,” said Murray. “I think that will be the case for a long time to come. The trauma being the deterrence that Israelis have believed they had for 50 years now broke down.”

Some of the wounds could be healed to a certain extent “with the return of any hostages that can be returned, but also with the reestablishment of Israel’s deterrence in both the military and intelligence fields. I think that’s the real end to it, to this conflict. The real end is when Israelis in the North and the South know that they can sleep safely in their beds. I spent many months living with the displaced people from Kiryat Shmona and elsewhere. I think of these people every day. Even when I’m not with them. They have to be allowed to return to their homes in safety.”
Seth Mandel: Hamas Propaganda Gets a Pass from ‘Disinformation’ Watchdogs
So why is Jankowicz back in the news? To combat the type of misinformation and disinformation spread by Hamas through Christiane Amanpour? Of course not. Through her dark-money group called American Sunlight, unnamed donors have funded her new crusade to investigate how Republican legislators have made it easier to be mean to women (read: Jankowicz) on the Internet.

The sad part about the disinformation scam is that disinformation does exist, you just wouldn’t know it by the attempts of progressive political activists who, like Jankowicz, have turned its pursuit into a McCarthyite partisan campaign. Indeed, the entire Israel-Hamas war since Oct. 7 has been infused with reporters’ startlingly unethical allegiance to obvious Hamas propaganda. That propaganda benefits progressive allies of the “disinformationists,” so it gets a pass.

As exposed repeatedly at major U.S. outlets, Hamas has created a network of fixers who have used their access to pose as photojournalists and shape the war narrative. Al Jazeera has now been caught credentialing several members of Gaza-based terrorist groups. And influential celebrity pundits like Amanpour have seemingly been successful in pressuring their networks to ease up on the fact-checking process that could filter out Hamas-planted stories. Obviously manipulated casualty statistics put out by Hamas have now made their way into regular media use without the disclaimer that used to accompany them. The filter is gone.

The result of all this is the spreading of physical violence against Jews around the world and the corruption of diplomacy by Westerners who have been reading from an Iranian script and occupying college campuses in deference to Iranian militias.

It’s fertile soil for aspiring watchdogs and disinformation researchers, if only we could find them.


Seth Mandel: Hamas’s Desperation
As the campus battles over the Israel-Hamas war have entered a new phase, the real war appears to be on the verge of doing the same. Although the IDF has arguably been on the cusp of a major operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah for a couple months, Hamas’s latest moves suggest it believes its time is running out.

Two weeks ago, Hamas was riding high. A mistaken Israeli strike had killed seven employees of a celebrity chef providing food to Gazans, and the Biden administration unloaded. Officials claimed it was part of a pattern of behavior, portraying it as inevitable rather than a forgivable one-off. President Biden complained about Israel’s entire war strategy and put the onus on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get a ceasefire, thus deprioritizing the hostages (some of whom are Americans). All this came after the administration allowed passage of a UN resolution, shaped by Russia and China’s demands, that took the pressure off Hamas to release hostages.

In response to these events, Hamas began treating the hostage talks as a joke. Then, in a moment of high confidence, the terror group let slip that it could not abide by the outline of the already-lopsided deal Israel was willing to strike because it didn’t have the 40 requisite “humanitarian” captives still alive. Israel tried to salvage the deal anyway by saying Hamas could make up the difference in non-humanitarian captives, but Hamas’s leverage was higher than it had been since the beginning of the war, and the group balked.

These days Hamas isn’t so confident. The terror group revived the possibility of releasing non-humanitarian hostages in the first round of a new deal after all. Hamas also floated the possibility of negotiating its own surrender, but only if it could remain in government. In other words, it began begging for its life: “A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.”

This is, by my count, Hamas’s third such attempt to float this trial balloon during the current war, and it finally got international media to bite on a laughably pathetic proposal. Essentially, Hamas is saying that if Israel and the Palestinian Authority are somehow able to establish a two-state solution over Hamas’s violent opposition, Hamas is willing to be given governing power in that state anyway.

Then came Hamas’s attempt to restart the war in the north. It chose this moment to do so precisely because Western governments and aid agencies were starting to acknowledge that Israel has established channels and procedures for aid and water restoration in the northern Strip. Hamas also knows that if it can disrupt progress in the north, everyone will blame Israel despite knowing that it isn’t Israel’s fault—this is just the shape of the conflict. The attacks in the north are meant to rewind the clock to a more advantageous time for Hamas and divert resources away from Hamas’s last true redoubt in Rafah.
Melanie Phillips: Israel has become the world’s Gideon Falter –blamed for being ‘openly Jewish’
The fact that Israel is targeted for extermination is waved aside as untrue or irrelevant. If only it wasn’t “occupying” the disputed territories, if only it wasn’t refusing to allow a Palestine state, if only it wasn’t waging war in Gaza, goes the charge, the violence would stop.

The fact that Israel is acting legally and morally in its defence is denied. If Israel wasn’t there, Palestinian terrorism wouldn’t be happening — just as if Falter wasn’t there, the marchers screaming “scum” at him would be absolutely lovely people all singing Kumbaya. And just as antisemitism wouldn’t exist if the Jews weren’t in the world at all.

Over both Israel and the anti-Israel marches, this ludicrous and lethal attitude is based on fear and ignorance.

Terrified of the huge mobs, the police target instead the putative victims who pose no threat to anyone.

The Palestinians threaten permanent and violent mayhem against Israel, while their Arab and Iranian puppeteers demonstrate that they will attack any country that backs it. So Britain and the west target Israel for punishment instead over the absence of a Palestine state — which the Palestinians have been offered multiple times but have refused.

The failure to protect Jews from the hate marches has arisen from a catastrophic failure to acknowledge the nature and extent of Islamist extremism in Britain, the significance of antisemitism as a marker of cultural collapse and the genocidal reality of the Palestinian cause.

This makes the Palestinian flags and keffiyehs that are now regular items of street furniture and fashionable clothing into a fearsome menace, thrust in the faces of frightened British Jews.

This isn’t about policing strategy. It’s about British cultural survival.
Caroline Glick: Now is the time for choosing
The administration-directed onslaught is buffeted by the anti-Jewish, pro-Hamas pogroms at campuses from coast to coast. The symbiotic relationship between the vilification of Israel by the U.S.-led international community in support of Hamas’s survival and Israel’s defeat, coupled with the assault on Jews at universities, is forcing a choice on us all. A video address on Wednesday drew the link explicitly.

Noting that many leading universities have enabled the antisemitic violence on their campuses, Netanyahu said “more has to be done,” to fight antisemitism.

“It has to be done not only because they attack Israel. That’s bad enough. Not only because they want to kill Jews wherever they are. That’s bad enough. It’s also … because they say not only ‘Death to the Jews,’ but ‘Death to America.’ And this tells us that there is an anti-Semitic surge here that has terrible consequences.

Explaining the connection between events in the war on the ground and assaults on Jewish students and faculty, Netanyahu said: “We see this exponential rise of antisemitism throughout America and throughout Western societies as Israel tries to defend itself against genocidal terrorists. Genocidal terrorists who hide behind civilians. Yet it is Israel that is falsely accused of genocide. Israel that is falsely accused of starvation and sundry war crimes. It’s all one big libel. But that’s not new.

“We’ve seen in history that antisemitic attacks were always preceded by vilification and slander; lies that were cast against the Jewish people that were unbelievable. Yet people believed them.

“And what is important now is for all of us, all of us who … cherish our values and our civilization to stand up together and to say: Enough is enough.

“We have to stop antisemitism because antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. It always precedes larger conflagrations that engulf the entire world. So I ask all of you, Jews and non-Jews alike who are concerned with our common values and our common future to do one thing: Stand up. Speak up. Be counted.”

Israel’s choice is between defeating its enemies on the battlefield even at the cost of terrible condemnation and isolation or collapsing under pressure and losing. Israel is called to make this choice in the immediate term, and its fate stands or falls with its decision about Rafah.

But while the focus is on Israel, the choice belongs to all who seek to preserve their freedom and safety. Will you stand with Israel, and by doing so, protect your own freedom and rights, or will you sacrifice both by staying silent?


Lee Smith: The Global Empire of Palestine
With his 1984 masterwork, Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and the Origins of Totalitarianism, the late Polish psychiatrist Andrzej Łobaczewski sought to explain “the general laws of the origin of evil.” The bulk of post-Holocaust historical, clinical, and journalistic research argues there is nothing remarkably evil about those who commit atrocities. Most are just ordinary people caught up in a bureaucratic hierarchy doing what they believe to be their duty, even if they question its rectitude. This interpretation is famously captured by Hannah Arendt’s phrase describing Adolf Eichmann as an embodiment of the “banality of evil.”

Łobaczewski’s conclusion cut against the grain. He argued that what he called macrosocial evil is the function of pathologically evil individuals. They disguise their true ambitions for power, wealth, and notoriety behind ideology, using terms like “social justice” which are vague enough to convey the righting of wrongs, to animate social movements united by grievance. Inside these movements, genuine psychopaths and those who adapt most easily to a pathological order rise to positions of power and influence. Evangelizing on behalf of deviant and destructive causes and desecrating, or criminalizing, what is true, beautiful, and natural, in turn lays waste to social structures, institutions, industries, entire nations. The rise of the Empire of Palestine represents this pathological process on a global scale.

It was only a matter of time before the mutation forged by serial revivals of a pathological society jumped cultures and began to infect those billed for reanimating the Palestinians—Americans. In a recent poll, 51% of Americans between the ages of 18-24 expressed their belief that the Israelis should be forced to abandon their country and give it to Hamas. Fifty-one percent shows that what’s driving the numbers at the pro-Hamas rallies isn’t just the failure of Western officials to close their borders to Middle Eastern populations unwilling to shed the pathological racism and political scapegoating of their homelands. No, their ideas preceded them, and prepared the way for their arrival.

“We regard the U.S. government as the controlling force of neocolonialism, imperialism, and racism, and we have no doubt that the U.S. employs Israel to spearhead its strategy of domination in the Middle East,” said Arafat in the middle of the Cold War, slogans echoed today across the great cities of Europe and North America. Decades later, Barack Obama replayed the same message back through the U.N. to announce that America was switching sides and enlisting its resources to advance the cause of death.

With less than a month left in office, Obama strong-armed U.S. allies to push through U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, holding that Israel illegally occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including historical Jewish religious sites—a position that no American government had ever taken. Critics at the time noted that the resolution signaled the United States had adopted the position of the Arab rejectionist camp. But the real issue was even more serious—after all, the Arabs rejected not only Israel but also reality. The fact that so many European nations seconded Obama’s effort to reverse the outcome of a war decided in 1967 is evidence not of its moral probity but rather that the president had committed America to global leadership of a malignant fantasy. The “great euthanizer” had inverted the historical and moral order.

To the literal-minded, and others who do not yet recognize the character of the pathologies ushered in with the age of the Empire of Palestine, it may seem bewildering, for instance, to see LGBTQ+ organizations demonstrating on behalf of a Hamas triumph. But Queers for Palestine don’t need to be told how Hamas actually deals with queers in Gaza and the West Bank. That’s irrelevant. In the Empire of Palestine all difference is transcended. It’s not a place, it’s a spiritual principle guided by the inversion of reality and governed by the equation 2+2=5.

Few in the climate change movement could have been surprised to hear Greta Thunberg express her desire to “crush Zionism.” In her strident warnings of catastrophic global climate change and the end of humanity, the Empire of Palestine has always been the subtext, a land of chaos and confusion, an inverted Eden in the desert presided over by an unforgiving earth goddess.

The Empire of Palestine is an aesthetic convention. It’s an “open-air prison” and “the Riviera of the Levant.” It’s a forgery. A postcard from the continent of unreason.

Climate millenarianism, the mass replacement of native populations, the government-sanctioned sterilization of children—everywhere you look the mark of civilizational suicide is on the horizon as Western elites assemble under the imperial banner. Flown in European capitals and university campuses, it represents the longings of a powerful faction within the West of those exhausted by life and wanting one last time to feel something like life coursing through their veins as they await the cleansing fire, redemption culminating in the coup de grace.

It was inevitable they, too, would stand against the Jews, who have chosen life over death.
David Schwimmer Shreds Campus Antisemitism: ‘Silence Is Complicity’
Very few voices are willing to speak out against it, with Michael Rapaport and Patricia Heaton being rare, and welcome, exceptions.

Add a certain “Friend” to that embarrassingly short list.

David Schwimmer used Instagram to call out the insanity running wild in academia over the past week. The “Friends” alum posted a damning video showcasing the violence, hatred and rage flowing from the pro-Palestinian protests over the past few days.

Raw footage. Undeniable evidence. The video brings the receipts.

“Hamas we love you,” chant protesters at Columbia University, one of the more chilling messages in the clip. We also see pro-Palestinian protesters violently attacking people on campus.

Schwimmer shared it with his 8.2 million followers along with this powerful statement.
Jewish students across America are experiencing the worst attacks on their rights, dignity and safety in my lifetime.

While some of the protests are peaceful, the atmosphere is one of pervasive harassment, intimidation, segregation, hate speech, threats & acts of real violence.

If this were any other minority group the response would have been immediate outrage and action. And yet this antisemitism grows, spreading from middle school to high school to college campuses nationwide…

Please show your support for your Jewish neighbors, friends and colleagues.

Silence is complicity.
Israel’s Defender: The Unstoppable Spokesperson Eylon Levy
Eylon Levy was sitting in the prime minister’s office with the Israeli flag behind him, answering questions about the hostage situation from reporter Kay Burley of Sky News. It was November of 2023, one month after the Israel-Gaza War began, and Levy talked about how he hoped the hostages would be returned soon.

The interview was pretty standard; Levy was a well-versed on-air personality at this point, having conducted hundreds of interviews as a spokesperson for Israel since Oct. 7. But then, Burley asked a question that stunned Levy.

“I was speaking to a hostage negotiator this morning, and he made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas has promised to release as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians that Israel has said it will release,” she said. “He made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?”

Levy raised his eyebrows in disbelief and paused for three seconds before answering: “That is an astonishing accusation. If we could release one prisoner for every one hostage, we would obviously do that. We are operating in horrific circumstances. We’re not choosing to release these prisoners who have blood on their hands. We are talking about people who have been convicted of stabbing and shooting attacks. Notice the question of proportionality doesn’t interest Palestinian supporters when they’re able to get more of their prisoners out, but really it is outrageous to suggest that the fact that we are willing to release prisoners who are convicted of terrorism offenses – more of them than we are getting our own innocent children back – somehow suggests that we don’t care about Palestinian lives? Really? That’s a disgusting accusation.”

And with that, Levy went viral. The video got hundreds of thousands of views, Sky News apologized for the blunder and the Jewish community proudly supported the PM’s most prominent spokesperson. There were also plenty of memes about Levy’s eyebrows going around – a silly moment during an otherwise tense time.

Before Oct. 7, Levy was more or less a private citizen; he had served as an adviser to President Isaac Herzog, and had media training through this work as a correspondent at i24NEWS and IBA English News in Israel.

“I had control of my time, and I was anonymous,” Levy told the Journal.

But when Oct. 7 happened, his life changed overnight. He set up his camera in his living room and started giving interviews to the press about that tragic day, articulating the facts and stating the truth while being a fierce supporter of the Jewish State.

Soon enough, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office noticed Levy and reached out, making him an official government spokesperson. His job? To give interviews to international media outlets day and night, rarely taking breaks, to present Israel’s case to the world and defend it from a tsunami of misinformation. After the Sky News interview, he was catapulted into stardom.

“Everything has been inverted in the months since Oct. 7,” Levy said. “I suddenly became very recognizable in Israel, especially after the eyebrows incident. It’s definitely a very stark change that is taking some getting used to.”

Since the start of the war, Levy has conducted an estimated 280 interviews, participated in press conferences and created informative, pro-Israel posts on social media.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Weep for Gaza
Any humane person should feel sympathy for the people of Gaza, and I completely reject any suggestion that I don’t speak out on their behalf.

In the long run, we should hope and pray and campaign for a peaceful Gaza. When Islamists claim that they love death as much as the Israelis or Westerners love life, they are being awfully honest. But the Gazan people do not deserve death. They deserve life.

They deserve good lives, under a peaceful civilian government. They deserve a Gaza which lives amicably alongside the State of Israel. They deserve education, the protections of a humane legal system, and they deserve self-government. Gaza’s tiny Christian community deserves security, and a viable future. Gazans deserve productive jobs in Gaza (or, as was the case before October 7th, in Israel itself). They deserve to be treated with dignity, by both the Israelis and by their own rulers. One day, once Hamas is removed from power, Gaza could be a happy and free Palestinian city state on the Mediterranean shore.

This will happen when jihadism is crushed and discredited. It will happen when anti-Semitism is abandoned. It will happen when the West works to broker a genuine peace between a secure Israel and a free Palestine, rather than the violent fantasy of Israel’s destruction “From the River to the Sea.” It will happen when ordinary Arabs of good will have political leaders who can accept that Jewish Israelis will not be leaving their homeland, and when Israel clamps down on rogue Settlers in the West Bank and protects currently vulnerable Palestinian landowners.

My detractors accuse me of not caring about Palestinians, of not feeling their pain. This is completely untrue. I mourn the dead of Gaza, just as I mourn those killed on October 7th. I genuinely hope that one day this dreadful, bitter conflict will exist only in the history books.

There would be peace in Gaza tomorrow if Hamas laid down its weapons. There could be peace across the Holy Land next year, if Arab leaders could accept the State of Israel’s right to exist, and Israel acted to protect the Palestinian communities of the West Bank.

Dehumanization and despair are the tools of the jihadist and the totalitarian. I oppose jihadism precisely because I value human life. I want the people of Palestine to live, and to live well.

I hope and pray that Hamas are soon defeated, and that the people of Gaza are given the opportunity to choose life and peace.
From the River to the Sea
Susie Linfield: Not really, though Masha does call them “tyrannical.” It’s now known, reported in the New York Times and elsewhere, that there are 450 miles of underground tunnels in Gaza, a narrow strip of land that is only 25 miles long. This is where Hamas stores its enormous amounts of weaponry: missiles, drones, bombs, bomb-making factories, assault rifles, etc. It’s true that not everyone in Gaza is a Hamas supporter—in fact, we really have no way of knowing what Gazans’ views are. (Though a December poll by the respected Palestinian Center for Policy and Policy Research made my heart sink: It found that 72 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza support the Oct. 7 attacks.) It’s equally true that virtually everyone in the Strip must have known about this huge underground infrastructure project, and that many young men must have been involved, whether willingly or not, in building it. And I think that, frankly, groups like Doctors without Borders, which I have always revered, have been lying when they insist that the tunnels—which mean weapons and fighters—don’t exist under hospitals, schools, and other civilian sites. How could an entire society, whose people are crammed into a tiny space, be kept in the dark for two decades, along with all the humanitarians who work there?

For Israel, the tunnels are a strategic and military nightmare. For Palestinians, they raise an important moral question. Since October 7, Hamas spokesmen have openly, indeed brazenly, asserted in the New York Times and other venues that they bear no responsibility toward Gazan civilians, that they are proud to create “martyrs,” and that the tunnels are meant to protect only the group’s fighters. Pause for a moment to consider this. Think of the countless thousands of Gazan lives, especially those of children, that could have been saved had Hamas shielded its population from the bombs, which it could certainly have done. What kind of “liberation movement” purposely wants its people to die? Can you imagine the African National Congress having done this in South Africa? The National Liberation Front of Vietnam? The Sandinistas? Anyone? Most liberation movements want their people, and especially their children, to survive. Children are the future. In contrast, Hamas wants its people, including and perhaps especially its children, to die. And it wants those deaths to be photographed, and to circulate throughout the world. The depravity of this is difficult, perhaps impossible, to comprehend. Hamas is a death cult, for Palestinians and Israelis alike. All those signs demanding “Free Palestine” should also demand freedom from Hamas—though frankly, I’ve never seen one of those.

Gessen’s piece is important because it illuminates, or at least displays, the muddled, inflammatory thinking that dominates too much of the Left. I found the essay particularly depressing because Masha is an astute, well-informed, morally centered journalist who does so much important work, especially on Russia. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, alas, the place where critical thinking, which must always be based on sharp distinctions, goes to die. Still, I believe Gessen’s assertion that “I want Israel to continue to exist. I want it to exist in a way that would make me want to love and respect it.”

And there is one short phrase in her essay—a casual one—that caught my eye and has sort of haunted me. In a discussion of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, she writes. “Indeed, some B.D.S. supporters envision a total undoing of the Zionist project.” Whoa! What does it mean to “totally undo” a national project—in this case, one that saved millions of Jewish lives? Who the hell is B.D.S. to undo a national project? Are there other national projects on its hit list—France? Bangladesh? China? Why is eliminationism considered a valid “project”—a progressive project!—when it comes to the state of the Jewish people? What will the “total undoing” of Israel look like? We know the answer: It will look like October 7.

There is also something almost laughable—though also deeply irritating—about the increasingly Talmudic debate over whether anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, on which Gessen spends a lot of space. So do others: n+1 published an open letter signed by many leftist Jewish writers, insisting that the two “anti’s” aren’t the same. But they couldn’t bring themselves to even mention the Hamas attacks by name, instead putting forth a sort of wimpy “all lives matter” line. So let’s stipulate: No, anti-Zionism isn’t always anti-Semitism. You’re not an anti-Semite? Mazel tov! Unfortunately, the political positions of many self-professed anti-Zionists are atrocious nonetheless. And what’s so weird about all this is that in the aftermath of October 7, it’s become crystal clear that anti-Zionism is often anti-Semitism, and deeply so. The loathing, the resentment, the vilification of Jews is viscerally palpable in so many of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, articles, statements. The n+1 statement was titled “A Dangerous Conflation.” It seems to me that what’s dangerous is the vicious, unhinged anti-Semitism that is circulating all over the world and all over this country, including in its elite spaces. Do organizations like B.D.S. or Jewish Voice for Peace vigorously disassociate themselves from this, as they would, rightly, if their movement was infected by white supremacy? No, they spend their time tediously explaining what good folk they are. Anti-Zionists need to get their houses in order, though I have zero confidence that they will.
Blinken: No actions taken against IDF units accused of breaching US law
The U.S. State Department is engaged with Israel to find a path to “remediation” for an Israel Defense Forces unit that it has determined is credibly accused of “gross human-rights violations,” according to a letter JNS viewed.

Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, stated in the letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Saturday that it is his assessment that some IDF units might be in violation of U.S. law, but that would not affect U.S. military support to Israel.

“The determinations I made only pertain to three units of the Israel Defense Forces, as well as two civilian authority units, alleged to be responsible for incidents of gross human rights violations against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank,” Blinken wrote.

“None of the cases involve Israel’s operations against Hamas in Gaza or against Iran or its proxies, and all cases long pre-date Oct. 7, 2023,” Blinken added.

Under the so-called Leahy Law, named for former U.S. senator Patrick Leahy, the U.S. State and Defense Departments cannot provide assistance to a security force unit of a foreign country if the secretary of state receives credible evidence that it has committed gross human rights violations.

The law provides an exception if the secretary determines that the unit is taking steps to bring the members of the unit responsible to justice—a process known as “remediation.”

Blinken said that of three IDF units that he determined were credibly accused of violations, two have undertaken remediation. A third battalion has not.

“The Israeli government has presented new information regarding the status of the unit and we will engage on identifying a path to effective remediation for this unit,” Blinken wrote in the letter that JNS viewed. “But this will have no impact on our support for Israel’s ability to defend itself against Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah or other threats.”
No mention of Israel in UN General Assembly head’s Passover message
One of the central passages in the Passover liturgy is “Next year in Jerusalem.”

That Zionist hope went unsaid during a Passover greeting that Dennis Francis, president of the U.N. General Assembly, issued earlier this week.

Francis, who is also the U.N. ambassador for Trinidad and Tobago, universalized the holiday rather than addressing its deep ties to the Jewish homeland.

“Passover is a season of rebirth and renewal, the triumph of hope and faith. It is also a time of reflection and remembrance,” he said. “The call of Passover is one of unyielding resolve to look beyond the current moment and work decisively, together, for a more peaceful tomorrow.”

He also called for a “successful observance of Passover.”

Francis’s country has consistently voted against Israel over the last decade and a half at the United Nations. Under his leadership, the General Assembly has assailed Israel, passing resolutions labeling the Jewish state an occupier—in the very land that the Passover story described them entering and being given by God.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly, which represents all 193 U.N. member states, asked the International Court of Justice—the principal U.N. judicial arm based in The Hague—to consider what legal consequences Israel should face for its “occupation” of what the assembly calls Palestinian territory, including the Temple Mount and the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem. (The Temple Mount contains the holiest site in Judaism.)

Francis was one of a handful of U.N. figures who supported Israel initially after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack. He called for the terror organization to free the hostages, a key to ending the war.
Defending Israel with David Harris: Hillel Neuer
David Harris is joined by Hillel Neuer, long-time Executive Director of Geneva-based UN Watch, to discuss how the United Nations system, including the Human Rights Council and UNRWA, has regularly violated its own Charter in egregiously unfair treatment of Israel.


UN gives update on UNRWA staff accused by Israel of Oct. 7 involvement
UN investigators examining Israeli accusations that 12 staff from the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks have closed one case due to a lack of evidence from Israel and suspended three more, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.

He said the inquiry by the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) continues into the remaining eight cases.

In the closed case, Dujarric said "no evidence was provided by Israel to support the allegations against the staff member" and that the UN is "exploring corrective administrative action to be taken in that person's case."

He said three cases were suspended "as the information provided by Israel is not sufficient for OIOS to proceed with an investigation." He said UNRWA is considering what administrative action to take.

After an initial 12 cases were raised by the Israeli government in late January, a further seven cases were brought to the attention of the United Nations in March and April, Dujarric said. One of those cases was suspended pending receipt of additional supporting evidence, he said, and the remaining six investigations continue.

UNRWA provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the agency as "the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza" and pledged to act immediately on any new information from Israel related to "infiltration of Hamas" among its workers.


Former top Hague judge: Media wrong to report court ruled ‘plausible’ claim of Israeli genocide
Media reports that the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel was “plausibly” accused of genocide are inaccurate, Joan Donoghue, a judge and former president of the main U.N. judicial arm in The Hague, said in an interview with the BBC on Thursday.

The court never decided that South Africa’s claim that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza was “plausible,” despite an avalanche of media reports to that effect and a slew of diplomats, who interpreted the court’s ruling that way.

“I’m glad I have a chance to address that because the court’s test for deciding whether to impose measures uses the idea of plausibility. But the test is the plausibility of the rights that are asserted by the applicant, in this case South Africa” she told the BBC show HARDtalk.

“The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court,” Donoghue said. “It then looked at the facts as well. But it did not decide—and this is something where I’m correcting what’s often said in the media—it didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.”

“It did emphasize in the order that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide,” she added. “But the shorthand that often appears, which is that there’s a plausible case of genocide, isn’t what the court decided.”

Donoghue’s term on the bench expired a few days after the court delivered its initial ruling on Jan. 26.

Following the ruling—and what the judge called the misreported “shorthand” in the media—Israel was widely accused of genocide and lawsuits charged other countries with abetting Israeli genocide or failing to stop the Jewish state from committing genocide.
Top judge corrects media
It was left to Natasha Hausdorff, a barrister and international law specialist who is also legal director of the UK Lawyers for Israel charitable trust, to explain what the court’s ruling actually meant:
Plausibility, at the provisional measures stage of the International Court of Justice, is a procedural matter; it is not about the alleged wrong being committed. The establishment of a prima facie case for the indication of provisional measures rests therefore on a finding that the rights claimed plausibly exist, not that there has been a violation of them. The case law clearly indicates — as does, I suggest, the wording adopted by the court itself — that this is about whether those rights are subject to a legal determination: do they fall under the genocide convention?

It is very important to understand why the allegations of genocide are being advanced. It is not because there is any currency to the allegations, any real evidence to base them on. They have been advanced by South Africa as a legal hook because Israel is a party to the genocide convention, as is the UK…

I respectfully insist that reading a finding of plausible risk that Israel is committing genocide disregards the court’s unambiguous statements, in particular at paragraph 30, where it says that it “is not required to ascertain whether any violations of Israel’s obligations under the genocide convention have occurred”.

The court’s task is “to establish whether the acts and omissions complained of by the applicant appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the genocide convention”. In the court’s view, some of the rights claimed by South Africa were. That is as far as the court went. None of the acts alleged was found to be plausible, likely, arguable or at risk of happening.

A day later, Hausdorff’s explanation of the court’s ruling was effectively endorsed by the judge who delivered it.


Israel requests release of only 33 hostages in new attempted ceasefire agreement - report
An Egyptian delegation met Israeli officials on Friday, looking for a way to restart talks to end the war in Gaza and return the remaining Israeli hostages, an official briefed on the meetings said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israel had no new proposals to make, although it was willing to consider a limited truce in which 33 hostages would be released, instead of the 40 previously under discussion.

"There are no current hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, nor is there a new Israeli offer in that regard," the official said. "What there is, is an attempt by Egypt to restart the talks with an Egyptian proposal that would entail the release of 33 hostages - women, elderly and infirm." How many hostages are left alive?

Israeli intelligence officials believe there are 33 female, elderly and sick hostages left alive in Gaza, out of a total of 133 still being held by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups.

There was no decision on how long any truce would last but if such an exchange were agreed, the pause in fighting would be "definitely less than six weeks," the official said.

Hamas said it was "open to any ideas or proposals that take into account the needs and rights of our people." However it stuck to central demands Israel has rejected, and said it criticized the statement for not calling for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The visit by the Egyptian delegation followed Israeli media reports of a visit to Cairo on Thursday by the Israeli army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, and Ronen Bar, the head of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service.


Biden Admin Silent on Turkey's Sponsorship of Hamas in Counterterrorism Talks
The State Department's top counterterrorism official was in Turkey this week for meetings, but missing from her schedule were discussions about Hamas—an omission that isn't going unnoticed on Capitol Hill.

Ambassador Elizabeth Richard, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, landed in Ankara on Monday to discuss regional operations with Turkish leadership. Richard was in the country to shore up support for the "defeat of terrorist organizations such as PKK, DHKP-C, and ISIS in Syria and Iraq," according to a notification issued by the State Department.

Hamas—the region's central Iran-backed terrorist group, which receives financial and logistical support from Turkey—does not appear to be one of the agenda items, indicating that the Biden administration is hesitant to raise the issue even at a time when the terror group is waging war on Israel and sowing discord throughout the Middle East.

Asked whether Hamas would come up in discussions, a State Department official said he was looking into the matter and then did not respond to subsequent Washington Free Beacon inquiries.

Questions surrounding Richard's hesitance to raise the issue come amid a failure by other top Biden administration officials to press major Arab players about their support for Hamas. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, who is in Brussels this week, did not mention Hamas during a 30-minute briefing with reporters on "Israel and the broader region." In March, the Biden administration hosted a Qatari delegation that included an official who has praised Hamas terrorists and called for missile strikes on Israel. The issue has taken on renewed significance in recent days after Hamas released a video showing it tortured an Israeli-American hostage who is now missing parts of his arm.

Many regional experts see Turkey's ties to Hamas, which operates an office in the country, as a roadblock in U.S. relations with Ankara. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh earlier this week, when Richard was in the country for talks. Erdoğan also committed during those meetings to "defend the Palestinian struggle."

On Capitol Hill, Republicans are becoming increasingly frustrated with the State Department's posture on the conflict, as well as its failure to secure the release of hostages.
'Mavi Marmara 2' flotilla delayed as flagged state requests inspection
A Gaza-bound activist flotilla will be delayed in its planned Friday departure after the flag state that the lead vessel was registered under requested additional inspections, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a Thursday statement.

The coalition said that the Republic of Guinea Bissau requested an additional inspection for the Akdeniz, a passenger ship currently docked at a Turkish port in the Marmara Sea according to automatic identification system tracking services.

The activists asserted that the administrative roadblock was "initiated by Israel in an attempt to prevent our departure. Israel is pressuring the Republic of Guinea Bissau to withdraw its flag."

"This is another example of Israel obstructing the delivery of life-saving aid to the people in Gaza who face a deliberately created famine," said the coalition. "This is not the first time that Israel has used these kinds of tactics to stop our ships from sailing. We have overcome them before and are diligently working to overcome this latest attempt. Our vessels have already passed all required inspections, and we are confident that the Akdeniz will pass this inspection, provided there is no political interference. We expect this to be no more than a few days delay."


Urban Warfare Project Podcast_ Defeating the Urban Enemy, with general David Petraeus - Modern War Institute
What is required to defeat an enemy force in a city? That question has plagued militaries for generations and is the focus of this episode of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast. Host John Spencer is joined by retired General David Petraeus, who served thirty-seven years in the US Army, culminating his career with six consecutive commands as a general officer, including five in combat. He served as commander of Multi-National Forces–Iraq during the troop surge, commander of US Central Command, and commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan. Following his retirement from the Army, he was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

General Petraeus earned a PhD from Princeton University and is the coauthor of the recently published book Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine. He brings both his background as a scholar of war and his deep, firsthand experience fighting enemy forces in urban areas to this conversation, sharing insights on both recent and ongoing urban battles and campaigns—including the Israel Defense Forces’ war against Hamas.
Israeli man killed in Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack
An Israeli man was killed overnight on Thursday in a Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on the Mount Dov region near the border with Lebanon.

He was named as Sharif Suad from the Arab village of Ras al-Ein in the Galilee in northern Israel.

Suad was a military contractor conducting “infrastructure activity” when he was struck.

In response, the Israel Defense Forces shelled Hezbollah terror sites in Chebaa, Kfarchouba and Ein el-Tineh.

Among the targets hit were a weapons depot and a missile launch site. IDF forces also opened fire “to remove a threat” from Southern Lebanon.


Woman wounded in terror stabbing in central Israel
An 18-year-old woman was seriously wounded on Friday afternoon in a terror stabbing in Ramla in central Israel.

Magen David Adom emergency medics treated the victim at the scene before evacuating her to Shamir Medical Center (formerly Assaf Harofeh Hospital) in Be’er Ya’akov.

An armed civilian reportedly shot dead the terrorist.

Earlier this week, Israel Defense Forces soldiers foiled a Palestinian terror attack near Hebron in Judea.

Troops killed two terrorists near the Beit Einun interchange after one opened fire and the other attempted to stab soldiers.

No Israelis were injured.


Terrorists Attack US Humanitarian Pier Construction Site Off Gaza: Report
Gazan terrorists on Wednesday launched mortar shells at a site off the coast of Gaza where the United States is planning to construct a floating pier to deliver humanitarian aid, according to a report from Israeli outlet i24NEWS.

The mortar attack damaged American engineering equipment and left one person injured, i24NEWS reported on Thursday. The United States could start building the humanitarian pier as early as this weekend, with the Israel Defense Forces reportedly in charge of providing security during the construction.

President Joe Biden first announced the pier’s construction during his State of the Union address on March 7. U.S. military personnel will assemble the floating pier, an 1,800-foot-long causeway attached to the coast of northern Gaza, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the day after Biden’s speech.

"As the president has said, not enough aid is getting in [to Gaza]," Ryder said, noting the pier is expected to help deliver "up to 2,000,000 meals in a day."

"At no time will we require U.S. forces to actually go on the ground," Ryder added. "Our role will be essentially to provide the service of getting [the aid] to the causeway, at which point it will then be distributed."

Republican lawmakers have expressed concern that the humanitarian pier would endanger U.S. troops deployed to manage it, with over a dozen members of the Senate Armed Services Committee last month warning Biden that the plan "appears to ignore force protection issues entirely, against an enemy that tries to kill Americans every day."


Sheryl Sandberg film details horrific sexual crimes committed by Hamas on October 7
A documentary about the rape and sexual crimes committed by Hamas terrorists on and after the October 7 massacre has been published online to watch for free.

The film, entitled Screams Before Silence and featuring eye-witness testimonies from survivors, accounts from first responders, and interrogation footage of members of Hamas, provides considerable evidence for a campaign of systematic rape by the terror group during its devastating assault on southern Israel six months ago.

The documentary is fronted by former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg who in the film returns to kibbutzim that were targeted on October 7 with former residents to hear in heart-wrenching detail what happened to them that morning.

Sandberg also travels to the site of the Nova music festival massacre, which is now scattered with hundreds of newly planted trees, Israeli flags, and the pictures of all those murdered.

Between footage filmed by both Nova festival survivors and Hamas, first responders to the massacre tell Sandberg harrowing accounts of what they witnessed when arriving.

“Everywhere we go there are bodies on the road, there are bodies everywhere, everywhere. It’s an indescribable catastrophe,” one responder said.

A volunteer at ZAKA (Disaster victim identification) said that despite being trained to collect body parts and bodies in hard situations, he “doesn’t have words to explain what we saw.” They found mutilated bodies “cut to pieces, you couldn’t identify if it was a man or a woman, everything was ripped,” he said, and many bodies were naked.

One woman was found by ZAKA inside a home, under a mattress, with “nails around her female organs… She’s a woman so you could do whatever you want.”

Another reasoned: “When you see one woman, then another, and another, all with signs of abuse in the groin area, you understand that this wasn’t a random thing.”

Responders show Sandberg graphic pictures they took on their phones, including of the woman with nails around her groin, one with a piece of metal inside her, and another stabbed in the groin with a knife. “There’s no question about what they did there,” they said.
Screams Before Silence
A must-watch documentary. #ScreamsBeforeSilence sheds light on the unspeakable sexual violence committed on October 7. As heartbreaking as these stories in the documentary are, we cannot afford to look away.


Former hostage reveals Hamas terrorist demanded marriage, she stay in Gaza
Noga Weiss, an 18-year-old former hostage, told N12 on Thursday that her terrorist captor had demanded her hand in marriage and insisted that she stay in Gaza to raise his children.

Weiss, who was released on her 50th day in captivity as part of a temporary ceasefire agreement, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Beeri on October 7.

After 14 days in captivity, her captor gave her a ring and demanded that she stay in Gaza to marry him and have his children.

“He told me, ‘Everyone will be released, but you will stay here with me and have my children,’” she recalled. “I pretended to laugh so he wouldn’t shoot me in the head.”

While Weiss and her mother Shiri were held captive separately, she told the source that the pair were reunited so the captor could ask Weiss’s mother for approval for the marriage.

“I thought she’d been murdered, I thought I was alone. Suddenly, she’s alive, and I’m not alone,” Weiss said on being reunited with her mother.

“People don’t understand the feeling of fear,” Weiss said. “I was 50 days, 24/7, with the thought that they would get tired of me and just shoot me or that they wouldn’t need me in the end, or that they would shoot us while we slept in the middle of the night.

“Their moods changed so quickly. One minute they played with us and laughed, the next they’d come in with a gun. You always had to please them.”

Speaking of the conditions, Weiss said at one point they were left with only half a bottle of water to last them two days.


Sadiq Khan apologises to Chief Rabbi for hinting at Islamophobia over his ceasefire call
Sadiq Khan has apologised to the Chief Rabbi after implying that Ephraim Mirvis’s criticism of his call for a Gaza ceasefire was influenced by his Muslim sounding name.

In an interview with the broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, the mayor of London suggested he was “disappointed” when Jewish leaders and “friends” including Mirvis condemned his decision to speak out on Gaza, while a similar ceasefire call by Manchester Metro mayor Andy Burnham was ignored.

In comments that immediately sparked anger in the community, Khan told Hasan:””What motivated them to come out in the way they did against the Mayor of London, and the Mayor of Greater Manchester – I’ll give you a clue, he’s not called Ahmed Bourani, he’s called Andy Burnham, whereas I’m called Sadiq Khan.”

Sadiq Khan with the Chief Rabbi at a Yom-Hashoah commemoration. Photo: John Rifkin

Sadiq Khan has apologised to the Chief Rabbi after implying that Ephraim Mirvis’s criticism of his call for a Gaza ceasefire was influenced by his Muslim sounding name.

In an interview with the broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, the mayor of London suggested he was “disappointed” when Jewish leaders and “friends” including Mirvis condemned his decision to speak out on Gaza, while a similar ceasefire call by Manchester Metro mayor Andy Burnham was ignored.

In comments that immediately sparked anger in the community, Khan told Hasan:””What motivated them to come out in the way they did against the Mayor of London, and the Mayor of Greater Manchester – I’ll give you a clue, he’s not called Ahmed Bourani, he’s called Andy Burnham, whereas I’m called Sadiq Khan.”

The interview was promoted online with the title “Islamophobia is now being normalised’: Sadiq Khan talks to Mehdi about Gaza and Trump”.

He had earlier claimed: “Very shortly after I called for a ceasefire, the Mayor of Greater Manchester called for a ceasefire.

“I’ve not seen the Chief Rabbi, the Jewish Chronicle, say comments said against me in relation to my calls for a ceasefire.

“And I’d ask those Jewish people to just pause and reflect on their response to me calling for a ceasefire. ”

Jewish News has learned that Khan has now expressed regret over the remarks made about Mirvis, which were expressed after ex-MSNBC US channel host Hasan questioned him about comments made about the mayor’s decision to call for a Gaza ceasefire on 27 October.

In a statement released later on Friday, Khan said: “I have been in contact with the Chief Rabbi to apologise for my comments, which I deeply regret.

“He has, along with other Jewish leaders, been a friend to me, and we have worked hard together to unite our city and celebrate our diversity. At times it is clear to me, and others, that as a mayor of London of Islamic faith, I am held to a different standard and that can be frustrating – particularly during a divisive election campaign.

“But, it wasn’t fair of me to have levelled that frustration at the Chief Rabbi. I am sorry for any hurt this has caused and will continue working with Jewish leaders to build a safer London for everyone.”


Man who wore Hamas headband to London Palestine protests, convicted
Khaled Hajsaad was found guilty of "arousing suspicion he was supporting a proscribed terrorist group" after he was caught wearing a Hamas headband to a pro-Palestine protest in central London, according to a Crown Prosecution Service statement on Thursday.

He was described as an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK a year ago by the UK media.

Hajsaad, a resident of Birmingham, was at a protest in London on November 25, 2023, when he was reported to the police for wearing a green headband with the Islamic profession of faith (Shahada) printed on it.

Hamas's primary color is green, and it uses the Shahada as a symbol; on this basis, London police seized the headband and arrested Hajsaad on the spot.
CNN’s Tapper: Unlike Charlottesville, ‘Most’ Campus Demonstrations ‘Peaceful’ and for ‘Palestinian Rights’
On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” host Jake Tapper reacted to 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump comparing the situation on college campuses to Charlottesville by stating that “There has been some anti-Israel sentiment and there has been some antisemitic sentiment,” but “most of them” were “peaceful, most of them in support of Palestinian rights” and “that’s not what the neo-Nazis in the Unite the Right rally were doing. That was not a peaceful march that turned into something ugly. It was ugly from the word go.”

After former Trump White House Lawyer Jim Schultz stated that Charlottesville was a bad issue for Trump politically, Tapper said, “Jim raised this really interesting point, David and Jamie, which is, why bring up Charlottesville? Like, that is one of the ugliest moments of his presidency, and yes, we are seeing protests all over the country, most of them peaceful, most of them in support of Palestinian rights. There has been some anti-Israel sentiment and there has been some antisemitic sentiment, without question. But that’s not what the neo-Nazis in the Unite the Right rally were doing. That was not a peaceful march that turned into something ugly. It was ugly from the word go.”
Jewish student falsely named as Sydney stabbing attacker settles defamation claim
The Sydney man who was wrongly named as the Bondi Junction stabbings murderer during a live broadcast by Seven News has reached a confidential settlement for his defamation claim against the network.

University student Benjamin Cohen, 20, hired defamation lawyers and sent a concerns notice to Seven after being erroneously identified as the perpetrator of the mass stabbing incident at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney, an attack that left six people dead.

In a letter from Jeff Howard, the managing director and CEO of Seven News, the network head admitted that naming Cohen “was a grave mistake and that these assertions were entirely false and without basis.”

“Seven withdraws the false allegations unreservedly and apologises to you for the harm you and your family have suffered as a result of Seven’s statements about you,” Howard said in the letter, which was released by Cohen’s lawyers.

Prior to Seven’s breakfast show Weekend Sunrise, which broadcasted the morning after the incident, a producer “mistakenly believed that information relating to a 40-year-old named ‘Benjamin Cohen’ had been confirmed as correct information,” which was then shared during the live news broadcast by its on-air presenters, according to Howard’s letter.

“Seven’s staff, including especially its on-air presenters Mr [Matt] Shirvington and Ms [Lucy] McLeod, are devastated that the error was made and that it has affected you.

“Seven wishes to assure you that the error originated at the producer level and that Seven’s presenters were in no way involved in suggesting or scripting the words which were published.

“Both Mr Shirvington and Ms McLeod nevertheless wish to offer their own personal apology to you for the hurt and distress caused. Whilst Seven does not suggest that it is relevant to your reaction, we nevertheless note that the staff members involved are deeply remorseful and traumatised by the mistake,” the letter said.

Online trolls falsely named Cohen as the perpetrator as early as Saturday night, sharing photos of the student on X where his name began trending.
Antisemitic online trolls next in line after Seven settles defamation case
Benjamin Cohen is shifting his legal focus towards online trolls who wrongly targeted him as the Bondi Junction stabbing killer following a settlement reached in his defamation case against the Seven Network.

Rebel News understands Cohen's legal team, spearheaded by lawyer Patrick George, is eyeing individuals like Maram Susli, known as Syrian Girl, and Simeon Boikov, known as Aussie Cossack, for their involvement in spreading false accusations against Cohen.

Despite Queensland man Joel Cauchi being identified by police as the actual assailant, Cohen, 20, faced a barrage of antisemitic abuse after being erroneously linked to the crime.


Moroccan asylum seeker guilty of murdering 70 year old ‘did it for Gaza’
A Moroccan asylum seeker has been found guilty of murdering a stranger after telling police he had killed because “Israel was killing children” in Gaza.

Ahmed Alid stabbed Terence Carney, 70, who was out for a morning walk, in the street in Hartlepool, County Durham, last October. Alid, 45, had prowled the streets looking for a victim after repeatedly stabbing his housemate, Javed Nouri, 32, Teesside crown court in Middlesbrough heard.

Nouri, who survived the attack, had converted from Islam to Christianity and Alid viewed him as an apostate, prosecutors said.

As Alid was apprehended by police following the stabbings, bodyworn footage showed him talking in Arabic. What he said was translated for the jury: "For the people of Gaza inshallah [god willing].

"Inshallah Gaza will return to our country. I am Arab, I am Arab, I am Arab, it will return to Arab country. I am the son of Arabs, in the name of Allah."

During his police interview, Alid said: "The whole issue is for the independence of Palestine. To have two dead victims is better than more.

"It is between the Zionist entity and Hamas movement. They set a specific time for shooting and if this Zionist occupation does not leave, here in Britain there will be [a] flood, unrest."

Asked if he intended to kill more people, Alid said: "I swear by Allah if I had a machine gun and I had more weapons that they would be in thousands.”

At the end of his police interview, he attacked two officers, yelling "Palestine" and "Allahu Akbar" as he grabbed one of them and wrestled her to the ground.

During his trial, Alid admitted stabbing the men but claimed he had not intended to kill either of them and had “lost his mind”.

A jury found Alid guilty of murder, attempted murder and two charges of assaulting police officers.
The horror in Hartlepool shames our midwit elites
Welcome to Britain, a safe haven for knife-wielding racist terrorists. That’s the disturbing impression left by the trial that has just concluded in Teesside, in which a Moroccan asylum seeker has been found guilty of murder and attempted murder. He tried to stab his housemate to death, before running into the streets of Hartlepool and murdering an elderly passerby. The killing spree was seemingly fuelled by his Islamist beliefs and his hatred of Israel and inspired by Hamas’s pogrom on 7 October. And there is no reason why this murdering, fascist scumbag should have ever been allowed to stay in this country for as long as he did.

On 15 October, at about 5am, 45-year-old Ahmed Alid burst into the bedroom of Javed Nouri, another asylum seeker with whom he shared a Home Office-provided house in Hartlepool. He slashed at Nouri, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’. ‘In the darkness’, explains the Crown Prosecution Service, Nouri ‘could not find the door handle to escape but managed to fight off Alid and disarm him during the attack’. Another of their housemates came to Nouri’s aid, and Alid ran out on to the street. There, he found 70-year-old Terence Carney. He stabbed Carney six times in the chest, abdomen and back. One fatal blow pierced his heart. CCTV footage shows Alid slashing as Carney cries, ‘No, no’.

A judge will decide whether Alid’s actions had a ‘terrorist connection’ at his sentencing in May. I dare say there’s a strong case. After he was apprehended, Alid chanted ‘For the people of Gaza’. ‘The whole issue is for the independence of Palestine’, he said, during his police interview. ‘It is between the Zionist entity and Hamas movement. They set a specific time for shooting and if this Zionist occupation does not leave, here in Britain there will be [a] flood, unrest.’ So this seems very likely to be the first Hamas-inspired, 7 October-inspired attack on British soil. In the days before the Hartlepool attack, former Hamas chief Khaled Mashal, from the safety and luxury of Qatar, called for Muslims the world over to ‘take to the streets’ that Friday for a ‘day of rage’. (Alid burst into Nouri’s room on Sunday morning.) He told police he killed Carney because Britain had ‘created’ Israel – the ‘Zionist entity’ – and ‘should make it leave’.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the authorities had ample opportunities to stop Alid before he picked up two kitchen knives that morning. And they missed them all. Nouri, an Iranian asylum seeker, went to the police on 13 October, saying he believed Alid was an ‘extreme Muslim’ and a ‘terrorist’. Alid would sit in the kitchen with a knife and give him ‘bad looks’, Nouri said, after realising he had converted to Christianity. After 7 October, Alid was found watching the massacres on his phone and laughing. The response? The manager of the state-funded housing they lived in agreed to have a word with him. A word with him. It’s almost darkly funny imagining how that conversation went: ‘Listen, Ahmed, you’ve got to give it a rest with the Hamas snuff videos and the knives. You’re upsetting the other residents.’ Cleveland Police say their hands were tied, because no ‘specific threats’ were reported at the time. The force has already been investigated and cleared by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.


Jonah Hauer-King in Tattooist of Auschwitz: ‘If I wasn’t getting upset, I wouldn’t be doing my job’
Usually as an actor, when you’re offered a role it’s pure joy,” says Jonah Hauer-King. When he accepted the lead in the new series The Tattooist of Auschwitz, playing the Slovakian Jewish prisoner Lale Sokolov, however, he was “terrified”.

“While I was incredibly honoured, I was aware of the responsibility and how important it was to do the story justice. I felt pretty daunted.”

The rising star, 28, is best known as charming Prince Eric in last year’s The Little Mermaid but this might change after this six-part series — about the true story of the Jewish prisoner who tattooed ID numbers on to fellow prisoners and fell in love with one, Gita, who became his wife — airs next month.

In the hotel where the series is today being promoted, Hauer-King wears a preppy woollen jumper, his thick mop of dark hair regrown after being shaved off for the role. To his surprise, the head shaving proved to be the hardest part of his role.

“I thought it was going to be this innocuous part of the whole process because you cut your hair on every job,” he says. “And I was naive; it inevitably holds this poignancy because of why people’s heads were being shaved and the dehumanisation aspect to it.”

In the show, his eyes are pink-rimmed, his complexion washed-out and he looks drawn, having lost weight for the part (although his winsome dimples are omnipresent). But he’s hesitant to discuss the weight loss. “Because sometimes it can be seen as an acting exercise, though this was just a case of Tali [Shalom-Ezer, the Israeli director] and I having honest conversations about wanting the story to feel believable and compelling on screen. It was a necessary part of it.”

This is a role for which he prepared more than any before “by quite some way”. And his first move was to board a plane to Krakow.

“Not only to pay my respects, but also to see the camp through Lale’s lens,” he says. “So much of it is about his experience there and it felt important. You bear witness to the scale and the scope of it.”




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