Thursday, May 02, 2024

05/02 Links Pt2: Why Biden Is Saving Hamas; And the Prize for Photography Goes to ... Hamas?; Israel's Citizen-Soldiers; This year, Eurovision actually matters

From Ian:

Lee Smith: Why Biden Is Saving Hamas
Crucially, the Abraham Accords also ignored the Palestinians. After all, the Palestinians could never normalize relations without forfeiting their ability to project power and demand tribute. Like Sadat, Trump and his diplomats understood that peace could only be made by sidelining the Palestinians and whoever was sponsoring them, in this case Iran.

Naturally, the Abraham Accords were repugnant to the Obama faction. The normalization deals undid Obama’s balance of power project—i.e., strengthen U.S. adversaries at the expense of allies—and pushed the left’s longtime darlings, the Palestinians and the Islamic Republic to the margins. Accordingly, the Biden administration unfroze money to fill Iran’s war chest and undermined regional normalization under cover of expanding it to Saudi Arabia. Any direct talks between Israel and Saudi, the steward of Islam’s holy shrines, would, if only for the sake of protocol, have to involve the Palestinian cause. Thus, the Biden administration put the Palestinians at the center of the region again.

That’s how we got to Oct. 7. Contrary to the Biden administration’s talking points, the Iranians didn’t see Saudi-Israeli normalization talks as an existential threat; rather, they correctly saw it, and other Biden moves, as an invitation to disrupt and destabilize the regional order that Trump had rebuilt. Subsequently, in traditional regional fashion, the Iranians mobilized their Palestinian proxy.

And yet for many good-faith observers, it remains a mystery why Obama and then Biden sought to undo the U.S. order of the Middle East, an arrangement that has kept a volatile and strategically vital region relatively stable. Is it ego alone that requires Obama and his party must be proven right, and that Trump’s successes must be transformed into failures at America’s expense—and at the additional price of destroying the prospects of a relatively hopeful future for Middle Easterners?

The key fact is this: The regional order that Trump restored has long been part of the formula that ensures continued U.S. domestic peace and prosperity. To put it another way, the moves made by Obama and now Biden are not primarily about destabilizing the Middle East. Rather, they are designed to destabilize the United States.

The Biden team’s moves to shelter Hamas are best understood in the context of a revolutionary program of domestic initiatives that aim to reconstitute American society on a new basis, and which in turn require the outright rejection of the country’s history and culture, its existing social arrangements, and constitutional order. The current regime has weaponized the security state, labeled its opponents “domestic terrorists,” and waged a third-world-style campaign against the opposition candidate because it’s a revisionist faction. Its political and cultural manifesto is a program for remaking America, whether through social pressure, or censorship, or bureaucratic fiat, or threats of violence, or actual violence. Among other devices to transform America, the Biden administration has opened the border to at least 7 million illegal aliens (and counting), many from places in the Middle East where Hamas is revered, and for whom political violence means steady, well-paid work.

It’s not the traditional U.S.-led order in the Middle East that the revisionist faction, Obama’s faction, is most determined to dismantle but rather the existing order in the U.S. And it’s not Israel that it’s most keen to grind into dust, but America. For the party that Obama remade in his image to triumph at home, the Palestinians must win.
Eugene Kontorovich: Already a Travesty, the ICC Eyes Charges Against Israel
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is reportedly considering arrest warrants against Israeli leaders for alleged war crimes. This would be the first time the ICC has taken this step against a liberal Western democracy. Such charges would allow unaccountable bureaucrats in The Hague to put Israel's elected officials on trial for decisions they made to defend the Jewish state against Hamas.

The charges alone would harm Israel by serving as a diplomatic catalyst for sanctions and boycotts of the Jewish state. But the diplomatic damage depends on a mistaken view of the ICC's legitimacy. It isn't some grand "world court." The countries most likely to use military force have chosen not to join. Despite a $200 million annual budget, the ICC has convicted only six people of the mass-atrocity crimes it was created to adjudicate in 2002. Incumbent dictators such as Russia's Vladimir Putin have simply ignored ICC indictments.

The ICC can't deter dictators and warlords. The likeliest outcome of an ICC charge against Israel would be to make it harder for small democracies to defend themselves from aggressive neighbors. In 2020, the ICC prosecutor shelved an investigation into allegations of torture by U.S. troops in Afghanistan when President Trump imposed sanctions on her and a colleague. After the Biden administration lifted those sanctions in 2022, the ICC promptly reopened the investigation.
J’Accuse: The antisemitic lies of 2024
The Jewish people are used to lies being spread about them. Nearly a millennium ago, the first of many blood libels accusing the Jews of murdering gentile children to consume their blood emerged. This was joined by accusations that Jews committed ‘host desecration,’ the supposed mistreatment of Communion Bread, and the accusation that Jews poisoned wells causing the Black Death.

Each of these false accusations led to massacres of innocent Jews. Unfortunately, lies about Jewish evil did not end with the enlightenment, nor did their deadly consequences.

The false charges against Alfred Dreyfus in France in the 1890s, the publishing of the antisemitic forgery ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ by the government of Tzarist Russia in 1903, Henry Ford’s diatribes against the ‘international Jew’ in the Dearborn Independent, and of course, the originators of the ‘big lie,’ Adolph Hitler and his Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, whose lies dehumanized the Jewish people enough for the Holocaust to be committed.

As the world’s only Jewish nation, it is not surprising that Israel has frequently been the victim of many ‘big lies’ designed to foment hate and justify the murder of its citizens.

American readers will remember how in 2000, the Associated Press wrongly captioned a photograph of an American Jewish student, Tuvia Grossman, who had been beaten by Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem as a Palestinian, leading readers of the New York Times and other newspapers to conclude that Israeli police had beaten an Arab man when the police had saved the American citizen.

This was nothing compared to the ‘big lie’ that was told two years later, when, after 30 people were murdered in a suicide bombing at a Passover Seder in Netanya, the IDF went into Jenin to put an end to the terrorism plaguing Israel’s streets. The Palestinian Authority and so-called human rights NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the IDF of “war crimes” and a “massacre” of as many as 500 people. These claims were reported without question by British media such as The Guardian and the BBC, which worked to spread the ‘big lie’ of the non-existent massacre. In reality, about 55 Arabs were killed in the battle, most of whom were combatants, and 23 IDF soldiers were killed, in part because of the IDF’s efforts to prevent civilian casualties. But a ‘big lie’ turned an otherwise unremarkable military engagement into a crime that justified any actions taken against Israel, Israelis, and Jews.

The sheer abundance of lies about Jews throughout history makes it easy to draw comparisons to past instances where such lies led to Jews being murdered. It is common nowadays to look at the horrific scenes on American college campuses, the intimidation, threats, and assaults against Jewish students, the open calls for genocide against Jews, and the failure of college administrations to combat this hate, and say that we are now living in a repeat of 1938 Germany.

The current situation could also be considered reminiscent of France during the Dreyfus Affair. Indeed, one of the chief propagators of the ‘big lies’ against Israel deliberately invited such comparisons soon after the Hamas massacre of October 7.

In late November, less than two months after the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese published a book she titled 'J'Accuse: The 7 October Attacks, Hamas, Terrorism, Israel, Apartheid in Palestine and the War.’

‘J'Accuse,’ meaning “I accuse,” was the title of an open letter published by the journalist Émile Zola in the L’Aurore newspaper on January 13, 1898 in which he laid bare the facts of the conspiracy to frame Alfred Dreyfus for treason and to protect Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, the man who had actually committed the crime for which Dreyfus was falsely accused.


And the Prize for Photography Goes to ... Hamas?
In March, the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism, the oldest journalism school in the country, bestowed its “Team Picture Story of the Year” on the Associated Press for a collection of photos that gave a starring role to one of the wire service’s Gazan-based freelancers, Ali Mahmud. Kicking off the portfolio was the picture he took of the nearly naked body of Shani Louk, a young Israeli woman, face down in the bed of a truck. Her captors’ weapons are pointed skyward and off to the side—not in the direction of the photographer, who was close enough to catch the excited looks on their faces.

Sharing the award was Hatem Ali, another Gazan-based freelancer, whose touching image of a Palestinian boy with a bandaged head helped round out the 20 images in the AP’s entry. But other shots that Ali took earlier of the Oct. 7 atrocities, which were not part of the submission, raise serious ethical and legal issues starting with the abductions he witnessed of Yaffa Adar, an 85-year-old grandmother who rolled by in a golf cart, and Yarden Bibas, bleeding as he was led away to Gaza on a motorbike.

The feeds that the Associated Press and other leading media companies accepted from Mahmud, Ali, and other freelancers on Oct. 7 should have raised red flags from inception about how the photographers came to be there, whether their entry into Israel was lawful, and how they made their way through the carnage in close proximity to Hamas terrorists.

Apparently, holding out for impartial freelancers in a place like Gaza, where admiration of contentious figures like Hitler is widely expressed, may be too high a bar for the Western press to satisfy.

Yet, not once during the competition’s 86 minutes of deliberations, conducted over Zoom on Feb. 20, did any of the judges—Pinar Istek of the Chicago Tribune; Anita Baca of the Associated Press; David Guzman of The Dallas Morning News and Joe Cavaretta of the South Florida Sun Sentinel—express any ethical peep about the photos they were shown or curiosity about how Louk’s photo was obtained. No one asked whether the photographer wore a press vest that identifies wearers as members of the Fourth Estate, or how he came to have access to such brutal scenes without falling prey himself.

Baca recused herself from any discussion of the AP’s entry because she works there, (though she did not feel constrained by her recusal to refrain from criticizing other portfolios when they were reviewed). All three of the remaining panelists then voted unanimously to award first prize to the AP. Their appreciative assessment makes clear just how much the Louk photo clinched the deal.

That decision has generated much outrage, visible in the petition circulating on change.org demanding that the award be rescinded. It now has 162,000 signatures and hundreds of caustic comments leveled at the media.

Since then, administrators of the award have quietly removed the announcement they had on Instagram congratulating the AP for its win. “While we understand the reactions to the pictures,” they wrote in a statement they are releasing only to those who request it, “we also believe that photojournalism plays an important role in bringing attention to the harsh realities of war.”

“By that logic,’’ Petchenik countered, “the Hamas fighters who strapped GoPros on their heads to document what they did should win the Peabody, because they were gathering information to disseminate to the world, too. It’s no different.”
PEN America Lists Palestinian Terrorists as ‘Writers’ in Annual Freedom Index
Shortly after PEN America published its annual Freedom to Write Index on Wednesday, The New York Times rushed out a story quoting the organization’s “director of writers at risk,” Karin Karlekar, who described the worsening threats against writers worldwide.

“Russia and Israel entered the list of the Top 10 biggest jailers, as Ms. Karlekar noted that countries with conflict or war crackdown on dissent,” The New York Times reported in the piece that also detailed how the Israel-Hamas war had “roiled PEN America itself” when it was forced to cancel its 2024 literary awards ceremony amid a boycott by prize nominees who insisted PEN America is overly sympathetic to the Jewish state.

While the NYT is happy to lump Israel alongside authoritarian regimes like Russia, it failed to name any of the writers whose allegedly unjust jailing has led to Israel’s ignominious inclusion on PEN America’s list. If these writers had been named, it would’ve immediately become clear to readers why Israel has no business being listed alongside countries like Russia, China, and Iran.


Palestinian Terrorist Involved in Killing Three Israelis Wins Top Arab Literary Prize
Basim Khandaqji, a Palestinian security prisoner in Israel serving three life sentences for participating in the planning of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv's Carmel Market that killed three Israelis in 2005, was awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction on Sunday.

The prize, which includes a $50,000 grant sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, is regarded as the most prestigious literary prize in the Arab world.

Awarding the prize to Khandaqji was widely lauded in the Arab world.
JPost Editorial: This year, Eurovision actually matters
The Israel haters are also antisemitic, and Malmo is considered one of the world’s most antisemitic cities. Not only are residents siding with the genocidal aims of Hamas against Israel, they are blaming Jews as well.

“The antisemitic messages are everywhere now in Malmo, whether on posters or in the press,” Yair Elsner, a resident of the city, told Reuters this week. “The anti-Israel propaganda is highly visible on the streets; anti-Israeli stickers and decals are everywhere,” he said.

Aharon, another Jewish Malmo resident, said that the atmosphere in Malmo even before October 7 was anti-Israel due to its large Muslim Arab population.

“But after October 7, it only increased, and now there are protests and demonstrations everywhere, including demonstrations around places that sell Israeli products or are connected to Israelis,” he said.

What takes place in Malmo over the next few days will be a litmus test for the rest of Europe. If Israelis, and Jews, cannot walk safely down the streets of European cities, then what does the future hold?

“I want to make it clear that we are proud to be Jews in Malmo,” Jewish resident Yael Segas Wallstrom told Reuters.

“We will never hide who we are, and we will not be ashamed of our Judaism, even during challenging times like this. Of course, sometimes we think about leaving and making aliyah to Israel, but I think all Jews think about this. I was born here and have lived here for as long as I can remember. Right now, I don’t feel like there’s a threat to my life – or at least that’s what I want to believe.”

What's at stake
A lot is at stake in Malmo next week and more is riding than getting the high-score of douze points (12 points) from fans, or where the countries are ranked in the tally.

In a message on her Instagram account, Eden Golan wrote what most Israelis will be thinking of when they tune in to her performance: “This song represents us, all of us, including those who are home and aren’t – we are waiting for you.”

But in addition to representing Israel – and the hostages – Eden will be singing for all Jews who are bearing the brunt of the aggressive onslaught of fury directed at them by Hamas sympathizers around Europe, at Columbia University, and anywhere in the world where Jews are experiencing antisemitism.

This is no ordinary Eurovision contest. Lives are at stake.
Israel’s Eurovision contestant advised not to leave Malmö hotel
Israel’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest has been advised by Israel’s Shin Bet security service not to leave her hotel room other than for performances because of an expected wave of pro-Palestinian protests.

Eden Golan, 20, arrived in Malmo on Tuesday afternoon to begin rehearsing for her performance of the song Hurricane, the Times reported.

“I feel like the main message is that we are here, we are strong, we will show our voices, the warmth, the strength and the emotion that we have inside us,” Golan told JNS.

“There are truly so many people who support us, people who like the song, are there for us and love us. We are a huge family and we want to spread good, love and unity,” she added.

The Eurovision Song Contest comprises three live shows: two semi-finals and a grand final.

All songs must be original and no more than three minutes in length. Lead vocals must be performed live, and no more than six performers can take to the stage during any one performance.

In each show, after all songs have been performed, each country participating awards two sets of points (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12) to their favourite songs; one set is awarded by a jury of five music industry professionals and one is awarded by viewers.

The five countries in each semi-final with the most points advance to the grand final.

Last year, Israeli pop star Noa Kirel finished in third place in the Eurovision final in Liverpool, behind Sweden and Finland. She was aiming to become the fifth Israeli to win the song contest since the Jewish state first entered the annual event in 1973 and the first since Netta Barzilai and her song Toy won in 2018.

Past winners include Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta in 1978, with the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi, Milk and Honey in 1979 with Hallelujah and Dana International in 1998 with Diva.
Israel raises travel warning for Malmö ahead of Eurovision Song Contest
The Israeli National Security Council raised its travel alert level on Thursday for Malmö, Sweden, ahead of next week’s Eurovision Song Contest that will be held there.

The NSC upgraded the travel warning for the city from level 2 (potential threat) to level 3 (moderate threat), recommending that Israelis planning to attend Eurovision reconsider the necessity of the trip.

“Malmo (which has a high concentration of Syrian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Iranian migrants) is known as a focus for anti-Israel protests,” the warning read. “It should be noted that on Oct. 7, anti-Israel elements were openly joyful over the massacre that Hamas perpetrated in Israel.”

Paired with the global jihadist threat, these developments raise “the tangible concern that terrorists will exploit the protest and the anti-Israel atmosphere to carry out an attack on Israelis,” the NSC said.

“While the Swedish authorities have increased security in Malmo, it should be noted that, unlike the Israeli delegation to the contest, Israeli visitors will not receive special security,” the council stressed.

For the first time, the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command will issue guidelines to Israelis traveling to Sweden next week in the event of an emergency, the military announced on Thursday.

The Home Front Command will update its application for Israelis staying in Malmö with “instructions for behavior in an emergency situation outside the country’s borders,” the announcement said.

The Home Front Command app is normally only used in Israel, for rocket attacks and national emergencies, including earthquakes.

Earlier on Thursday, Eurovision organizers said that flags representing the Palestinian Liberation Organization and other anti-Israel political symbols would not be allowed at the live shows next week.
Israel's Citizen-Soldiers
Ari Kalker fought in the Commando Brigade in northern Gaza until the end of January. Kalker made aliya from Queens after 11th grade, 20 years ago, and now runs a construction company in Jerusalem that specializes in high-end renovations. I asked him how much of a role revenge for Oct. 7 played in the devastation we saw in pictures from Gaza. He was very clear. "If it doesn't serve some greater purpose, revenge isn't a reason for us to do something. That's not who we are."

"Every building we searched had threats in them," including weapons and ammunition. If terrorists tried to reclaim an area by crawling out of a tunnel, "there should be no way that they can go back into a building and find the gun that they hid somewhere and then use it against us."

I wondered, how do Kalker and the 300,000-odd soldiers in the reserves, including women, leave the battlefield, go home to the kids, all while counting down the days until they are called back to war? They were sent home, but not immediately. They were first sent to an Army vacation village for two days. "We got a full night of sleep in a bed with a real shower with a real meal beforehand and breakfast waiting in the morning."

On the second day they were in "group therapy." "It was hilarious," he said. Their therapist was an army psychologist and former soldier who told them practical things like "you're not going to sleep properly for the first couple of weeks." He pointed out which symptoms would likely go away on their own. They learned that no one remembers everything, and no two people remember an event the same way.

"Over the course of the 90-plus days we were in Gaza, I can remember in detail like, two events," he says. "The rest is all a blur." Others talked about the day a missile hit the room next door to them and blew down a wall. "I don't remember that at all," Kalker said. Another soldier said, "Wow, Ari, how do you not remember? The missile hit the room next to you and the wall fell on top of you."

There was another event. They were in a building and someone started screaming, "get out, get out, get out!" They evacuated and "10 seconds later, the whole building just collapsed." Kalker said he asked, "Where was I when this happened?" A soldier said, "I was screaming into your ear, you were standing right next to me, and I pulled you out with me." "I don't remember that at all either," he said.

He makes sense of civilian life like this: "During our days, we're switching from father, to husband, to whatever your job is. But underneath all of the costumes, we're wearing our IDF uniforms." That's always there. "I walk around with a gun on all day, every day," he explained. "I have one on me right now. I have a responsibility in the world around me....I'm not going to really be back until this is all over....The fate and future of the entire nation of Israel is on your shoulders."
Joe Biden’s reckless plan to take in Gazans won’t even satisfy Israel-haters
Is Joe Biden trying to lose the election?

That’s the best explanation for why his administration is actively considering letting refugees from Gaza into the United States.

The proposal is still preliminary and may be limited to Gazans with family already here.

But doing this at all is an astonishingly bad idea.

It’s bad policy, bad politics, and it’s Biden yet again trying to make law without asking Congress.

That’s quite a trifecta.

The cherry on top is that it’s unlikely to satisfy left-wingers and Muslim voters who think Biden isn’t doing enough to oppose Israel’s response to Hamas’ terror attack.

Start with the policy: Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan want no part of more people from Gaza.

It’s no secret why, and it’s not just the economic cost of taking in penniless people from a place that’s had a sky-high unemployment rate for many years.

Gaza’s population is full of radicalized Islamists and antisemites.

Gazans have consistently caused trouble whenever they have been imported into other countries.

Gaza hasn’t had elections since voting for Hamas in 2006, and Hamas has ruled it by force since ejecting the Palestinian Authority in a bloody coup in 2007.

But nobody doubts that Hamas remains popular with many, if not most, Gazans.

Why bring Hamas supporters here?

Who thinks they won’t start acting on their beliefs when they get to America?

Has Biden looked at what’s going on right now?

Don’t we have enough radicals and antisemites already, causing havoc on college campuses and terrorizing American Jews?

The next thing you know, Biden will send these people to Ivy League schools, then forgive their college debt with our money.


Hamas appears to reject cease-fire as Blinken ends Middle East trip to push for hostage deal
Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s seventh trip to the region since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, meant to bring about a temporary cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages from Gaza, was punctuated by a signal of rejection by the Palestinian terrorist group.

As Blinken wrapped up his visit to Israel on Wednesday night, Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Hezbollah TV channel Al Manar that the terror group’s “position on the current negotiating paper is negative.” However, Hamas said they will continue negotiating.

But Blinken’s time in Israel began with a declaration that he is “determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now,” as he said in his meeting with President Isaac Herzog, the first of a series of meetings he held with Israeli officials throughout the day.

In that meeting and others, Blinken emphasized that “the only reason that [deal] wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”

“There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said – no delays, no excuses. The time is now, and the time is long past due to bring the hostages home to their families,” he said.

A day earlier, President Joe Biden posted on X that “Hamas…is now the only obstacle to an immediate ceasefire and relief for civilians in Gaza.”

Still, the hostage deal is the subject of heated debate within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, such that whether an agreement is reached or not, it could destabilize his government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he might resign from the coalition if Israel enters “a bad deal that will endanger the security of Israel’s citizens,” saying that “this is the legitimate opinion of millions of Israelis who care about the future of the state no less than you do.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the hostage deal “reckless.” War cabinet observer Minister Gadi Eisenkot, however, accused the ministers of “blackmailing” the government and said he “will only be a partner in a government that makes decisions based on the national interests of the State of Israel and not political considerations.”
Report: Sinwar views latest hostage deal as trap, exiled Hamas leaders don’t represent terror group
Israel’s Channel 12 quotes a source close to Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar as saying that he views the latest hostage exchange and ceasefire proposal as a trap.

“The proposal on the table to free the hostages is not an Egyptian proposal, but an Israeli one in an American disguise that contains several booby-trapped clauses,” the report quotes the unnamed source as saying.

The source tells Channel 12 that the Lebanese Hezbollah is pressuring Hamas to accept the deal, but Sinwar is reluctant as it does not guarantee an end to the war.

The Sinwar confidant also says that recent comments in favor of the deal from Hamas leaders in exile are meaningless as they do not speak for the terror group.


PIJ terrorists nabbed over Lebanon-directed plot against IDF
Three Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives were arrested in the northern Samarian town of Ya’bad in January after they planned to carry out bombing attacks against Israeli soldiers, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced on Thursday.

The trio “acted under the directives of the PIJ headquarters in Lebanon, to carry out significant attacks, using remote-detonated explosives against IDF troops in the area,” the Shin Bet said.

Two of the terrorists—Ahmed Abu Bakr, 29, and Ibrahim Abu Bakr, 29— are senior Islamic Jihad operatives who were in contact with the group’s headquarters in Lebanon. They received funding, largely in cryptocurrency, for the attacks.

Ibrahim recruited Ya’bad resident Ibadah Abu Bakr, 18, to build the bombs. In preparation for an attack, Ahmed and Ibraham carried out tests with remote-controlled bombs, according to the Shin Bet.

They were arrested as part of a joint operation of the agency and the Israel Defense Forces.

During the arrest, troops confiscated several primed explosive devices.


Putting all the drama of Oct. 7th terror attack on stage
The world’s media has not reported in intimate detail the story of the victims of that terrible day as they did after 9/11.

The American hostages still held captive by Hamas, if they haven’t been murdered, are rarely mentioned.

Few know their names.

Normal news judgment has not been applied.

A veil of silence has been deliberately pulled over October 7.

“It’s the newest form of Holocaust denial,” filmmaker and theatrical producer Ann McElhinney calls it.

She and her husband Phelim McAleer went to Israel less than a month after the massacre last year to interview survivors and produce a spellbinding play, called simply “October 7” which opens off-Broadway next week.

“This was a huge news story [ but] we noticed it wasn’t being told,” he says “Everyone had moved on to Gaza, the turning off of the electricity. No one wanted to focus on October 7 in Israel.”

“We are journalists first and foremost and we don’t like seeing stories suppressed . . . October 7 is a story of humanity, surviving, and fighting back against the forces of darkness. They are stories of resilience and stories that had to be told.”

The survivors of October 7 deserve to be heard.

“It’s telling their stories and giving them a voice which in today’s crazy world is a political act . . . The day changed them, we think it also changed Israel and we think you can’t talk about Gaza without first understanding what happened in Israel on October 7. That’s why we wrote this play.”

Whether it was a quiet blacklisting, cowardice or just a shortage of stages, the only theater they could find in New York is the most perfect theater they could hope for.

The Actors’ Temple Theater, in a synagogue on West 47th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, was founded in 1917, at a time when Jews were not readily accepted in society.

It became a sanctuary for Jewish entertainers, for Al Johnson, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Shelley Winters and non-Jewish friends like Ed Sullivan and Frank Sinatra.

Now it serves as a sanctuary for the truth.

The script is written verbatim using the survivors’ own words, a powerful technique which has become Phelim’s trademark.
Israeli Terror Victims Sue Anti-Semitic Campus Groups for Aiding Hamas
Israeli victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7th terror spree are suing two anti-Israel campus groups, alleging they are partially liable for the attack due to their role "as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas."

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court Wednesday, seeks damages for nine American and Israeli victims of Hamas’s unprecedented terror assault. It targets two campus umbrella groups—American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)—that are responsible for fomenting a tidal wave of anti-Semitic protests on college campuses across the country.

The suit marks the first time terror victims are taking aim at campus anti-Israel groups for their alleged role in bolstering Hamas propaganda on campus and driving a series of increasingly violent protests that have endangered Jewish college students across the country.

"Survivors of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, family members of those murdered by Hamas, civilians still under fire from Hamas’s ongoing terrorism, and persons displaced by Hamas’s ongoing terrorism have been, and continue to be, injured because AMP and NSJP knowingly provide continuous, systematic, and substantial assistance to Hamas and its affiliates’ acts of international terrorism," the lawsuit states.

In a joint statement, the terror victims and their families said the AMP and NSJP should be held legally liable for Hamas’s terror campaign and face expulsion from the United States.

"It is time that Hamas and all of its agents, like AMP and NSJP, be held responsible for their horrific actions," they said. "We want to go on record to expose these groups for the terrorists they are and make certain that they are stopped from operating in the United States and other countries they infiltrate."

Branches of SJP, which is overseen by AMP, have been responsible for a series of anti-Semitic protests on college campuses across the country, many of which have been punctuated by violence against Jewish students. Campus administrators at Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of California system, and many others have struggled in recent weeks to contain these protests, prompting Congress to launch anti-Semitism investigations.


'America deserves Trump,' Israeli scholar at Stanford says in wake of protests
An Israeli scholar at Stanford University said Wednesday evening that "America deserves Donald Trump," in response to the spread of extreme anti-Israel protests across universities in the United States.

Reflecting on his experiences over the past academic year at Stanford, Yotam Berger wrote on Facebook that "the 'progressive' movement does not believe in the existence of truth or facts anymore."

"They think it is wrong to use the term 'jihadist' against jihadists, because feelings are more important than facts (although primarily their own feelings)."

Berger wrote that he was initially dumbfounded by Trump's election victory in 2016, which he viewed as "inexplicable" at the time. However, after witnessing the "madness" of the extreme progressive ideology first-hand, especially its anti-Israel rhetoric, made him realize why some Americans voted for Trump.

"Trump is the reaction of certain Americans to the madness of the other side, a madness I was unaware of until it turned toward us.," Berger states. "If I had the right to vote, I would not choose Trump. But America deserves him."
Bassam Tawil: The 'Palestinian State': Hamas Plays Westerners for Fools - Again
[T]he Iran-backed Hamas terror group is again trying to dupe gullible Westerners, including the Biden administration and the European Union, into believing that it has accepted the "two-state solution."

The Hamas official would not have dared to utter similar nonsense to an Arab media outlet. He knows that here his lies are directed at English-speaking audiences, who tend to swallow whole the baloney spouted by Israel's enemies.

The Hamas official wants everyone to believe that his group is ready to stop killing Jews for a period of five years "or more" if it gets the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. He just forgot to mention that there was an official truce between Israel and Hamas until October 7, when the terror group Hamas initiated the current war.

The Hamas official also forgot to mention that Hamas has repeatedly violated several truces and ceasefire agreements reached with Israel over the past 17 years. The truces and ceasefires were always used by Hamas to regroup and rearm in preparation for the next round of attacking Israel.

Hamas will never abandon its weapons or dismantle its armed group, especially after the establishment of a Palestinian state

The mere talk about a Palestinian state these days is regarded as a reward for Hamas's genocidal assault on Israel. It sends the message to Hamas that after you murdered so many Jews, the international community will reward you by giving you a state. It reaffirms that terrorism works. Where do we sign up?

The secret that the AP and the US administration do not want you to know is that Hamas does not actually want the Gaza Strip or the West Bank or east Jerusalem. Hamas wants to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Iran-backed Islamist terror state.

If Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are given a state next to Israel, they will absolutely continue to pursue their goal of killing Jews and obliterating Israel. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad has clearly said that the terror group will repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has repeatedly clarified that his group's acceptance of a Palestinian state does not mean that it will abandon its goal of destroying Israel.
Saudis Push for "Plan B" Deal with U.S. that Excludes Israel
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have drafted a set of agreements on security and technology-sharing which were intended to be linked to a broader Middle East settlement involving Israel and the Palestinians. However, in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza and adamant resistance from the Israeli government to the creation of a Palestinian state - and its determination to launch an offensive on Rafah - the Saudis are pushing for a more modest plan B, which excludes the Israelis.

Under that option, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia would sign agreements on a bilateral defense pact, U.S. help in building a Saudi civil nuclear energy industry, and high-level sharing in the field of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. Under Riyadh's plan B proposal, the U.S.-Saudi deals would not be made dependent on agreement from Israel. However, it is far from clear whether the administration - let alone Congress - would accept such a plan.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Riyadh on Monday, "The work that Saudi Arabia and the United States have been doing together in terms of our own agreements, I think, is potentially very close to completion." A formal offer would be extended to Israel, exchanging Saudi normalization of relations for "irrevocable" moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.

However, Kirsten Fontenrose, a former senior director for the Gulf in the U.S. National Security Council, said, "The Israeli government is currently placing higher value on blocking the formation of a Palestinian state than on normalizing with the Saudis. So the deal now being discussed is bilateral."


How the UN became ground zero for attempts to delegitimize Israel
Hillel Neuer and David Harris 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.




BBC report from south Lebanon ignores UNSC resolution 1701
Early on May 1st (Israel time) the BBC News website published a report by BBC Arabic’s Beirut correspondent Carine Torbey under the headline “Southern Lebanon: BBC sees air strike destruction in deserted towns”.

The product of an undated UNIFIL escorted trip to two villages close to the western section of the border between Lebanon and Israel, that report opens as follows:
“Spiralling tensions and cross-border strikes which have killed more than 70 civilians in Lebanon have turned parts of the south into ghost towns. Residents have fled, leaving their homes at risk of destruction. The BBC went on patrol with the UN’s peacekeeping force there to see what has happened.”

Only twenty-seven paragraphs later are readers told that “Israel says nine civilians have been killed by rocket-fire from Lebanon” and no mention is made of the members of the Israeli security forces killed in attacks launched from Lebanon.

Throughout her report, Torbey avoids the topic of the number of members of Hizballah and other terrorist organisations killed since October 8th 2023. She also refrains from addressing the issue of terrorists’ exploitation of buildings in the two locations which are the topic of her extensive descriptions of destruction, including in a filmed version of her report published the following day on the BBC News website . She does however provide uncritical amplification for baseless claims from “Lebanese officials” while misleading BBC audiences on the topic of the targets of some of the attacks from Lebanon:
“The Israeli army says it targets Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure and retaliates to attacks on Israeli army bases in northern Israel.

But some Lebanese officials, including the caretaker prime minster and Speaker of Parliament, have accused it of implementing scorched earth tactics to make the whole area uninhabitable.”
CBC’s Day 6 Radio Program Features Author Who Refers To Pro-Terrorism Student Activists On US Campuses As “Victims”
An April 26 segment of Day 6, a CBC radio program hosted by Brent Bambury, featured extended coverage to the growing anti-Israel movement, primarily on campuses in the United States.

But rather than provide listeners with a comprehensive introduction to the hate-mongering, intimidation and violence present, Bambury presented a whitewashed picture completely out of touch with reality.

The segment began with recorded comments from one anti-Israel activist at Yale University, who, in discussing the tent encampments, said it was created to “raise awareness” about Israel’s policies in Gaza, then lamenting that, in spite of the “peaceful” protest, “police moved in” to disperse it.

In contrast to the student’s depictions of protests as being peaceful, Jewish students have been physically barred from campus in Los Angeles and New York City by anti-Israel mobs on campus. At Columbia University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, students chanted “Hamas we love you” and “kill another soldier now.”

Following the remarks from the Yale University student, Bambury interviewed author James Bamford for his comments on Canary Mission, an organization which identifies anti-Israel agitators on campus and hatemongers worldwide. In January, Bamford penned an online article on Canary Mission, and unsurprisingly, his social media is replete with anti-Israel posts.

Bamford referred to Canary Mission as “a blacklisting and doxxing operation…(which) targets students and professors who are critical of Israeli policy.”

While Bambury did share Canary Mission’s official statement that it documents those who “promote hatred,” that was the end of his attempt to provide any context whatsoever into the promotion of hatred and violence on university campuses.

Bamford told his host that the organization “launches slanderous charges against them, puts their picture…basically tries to harass them so they no longer are critical of Israel.”

Aside from the factual error that slanderous refers to the spoken word, and not a written dossier, as Canary Mission does, Bamford’s ludicrous claim that students are being targeted simply for critiquing Israeli policy is a shameful inversion of reality.


Le Devoir Columnist Blames Gaza War Exclusively On “The Israeli Side”
In an April 17 column in Le Devoir entitled: “From escalation to de-escalation, and vice versa,”commentator Guy Taillefer offered some thoughts on the ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran and the war between Hamas and Israeli forces.

While Taillefer’s desire to see war avoided is laudable, his piece was unfortunately riddled with flawed assumptions, inaccurate misconceptions, and misguided policy prescriptions.

He argued that “we would probably not be [in this situation] if the international community, Canada included, had had the courage to demand loud and clear the application of a political settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Unfortunately, while frustration at the lack of progress is understandable, this statement reads more like the ventings of a newcomer observing the situation for the first time than like a serious analysis of the issue.

The idea that the international community has not strongly pushed for a political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is laughable. American presidents across time and party, from Carter to Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, each dedicated entire chapters of their administrations to pursuing precisely this. The United Nations General Assembly formally approved dividing the land into two states for two peoples as far back as 1947, and the British already pushed for the same policy a full decade earlier.

It’s completely baseless, hubristic, and inaccurate to blame a lack of effort or initiative as the reason the conflict remains unresolved. So what is the reason?

Once again preferring simplistic generalizations to serious analysis, Taillefer blamed “the Israeli right … kill[ing] the project of creating an independent Palestinian state.” While it’s true that a segment of the right side of the Israeli political spectrum opposes the two-state vision, this is not the reason the policy remains unimplemented. For the vast majority of Israel’s modern history, until fairly recent times, its governments were led by left-wing parties and individuals who share(d) Taillefer’s vision rather than that of the Israeli right. Yet, here we still are — without a two-state solution.


Embattled Biden Nominee Adeel Mangi Facilitated Meeting Between Leaders of Anti-Israel and Anti-Police Groups
Embattled Biden judicial nominee Adeel Mangi introduced the heads of two left-wing organizations whose anti-Israel and anti-police stances have imperiled his nomination for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.

On Dec. 31, 2020, Mangi introduced Rutgers Center on Race, Security, and Rights director Sahar Aziz to Soffiyah Elijah, the founder of the Alliance of Families for Justice.

"Soffiyah is working on a project that I thought you may be able to collaborate on and so I offered to make this introduction," Mangi wrote. "If you could find some time to speak with her and explore the possibilities I would greatly appreciate it." Emails show the activists scheduled to meet on Jan. 11, 2021.

Two months after Mangi facilitated the meeting, the Rutgers Center promoted an event, "A Community Under Siege," that touted black liberationist icon H. Rap Brown and other convicted cop killers as "political prisoners." Nkechi Taifa, who currently serves with Mangi on the Alliance of Families for Justice advisory board, spoke at the forum, where she called for the release of various "political prisoners" as part of a reparations program to redress slavery.

It is unclear if the Rutgers Center and Alliance of Families for Justice collaborated on the event. The groups did not respond to requests for comment.

Mangi has attempted to downplay his duties on the advisory boards of the left-wing groups amid criticism of their anti-Israel and anti-police advocacy. He told senators that his duties on the Rutgers Center advisory board amounted to just "four annual meetings" on academic research, and that he left the board in June 2023 because he disagreed with its academic research output.

But in an email obtained by the Free Beacon, Mangi told Aziz he was leaving the think tank because he had too many other commitments. He praised the center’s "excellent work" and pledged his "ongoing financial support." Mangi helped recruit other advisory board members at Aziz’s request.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the Free Beacon the email shows Mangi "misled" the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation process.
Boston city councilor exposed for including ‘antisemitic message’ in ceasefire resolution draft
Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was exposed for accusing Israel of committing "genocide" and "apartheid" in Gaza in a draft of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Jewish state's war against Hamas, according to a recent report.

"The ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip comes in the context of the 75-year displacement of Palestinians," the draft resolution stated, according to the Boston Herald, which obtained a copy of the earlier version.

The final version, which Anderson filed Monday amid large student-led pro-Palestinian protests at several colleges in the Boston area, didn't include those accusations and is her second attempt to pass a ceasefire resolution.

"The original resolution clearly contained an antisemitic message," a City Hall source told the Herald. "The tone and language were inaccurate, outrageous and divisive."

The draft resolution also criticized the Boston police’s attempts to quell student protesters.

"All life is precious," Anderson wrote in the final version of the resolution, according to the Herald. "Now, therefore be it that the City of Boston calls for immediate and permanent ceasefire in Israel and Palestine, an end to the bombing of Gaza, the freeing of all hostages from Hamas and the freeing of all administrative detainees held by Israel."

Anderson was criticized when she first tried to pass a ceasefire resolution, shortly after Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, for describing the assault as a "massive military operation."
UCLA's Race And Equity Director: Jews 'Enjoy the Benefits of Whiteness'
Anti-Israel protests have turned violent at the University of California, Los Angeles, where Johnathan Perkins, the school's director of race and equity, has lamented that Jews "enjoy the benefits of whiteness" and questioned whether nations would support Israel "if the Jewish people persecuted in the Holocaust are not also considered 'white.'"

Perkins has long railed against white people, including Jews. In May 2020, he said that Jewish people "enjoy the benefits of whiteness," a position he reiterated following Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack on the Jewish state.

"Jews are latterly white yes," he wrote in January.

"Among the primary benefits all white people automatically receive from white supremacy is, not a life free of suffering, but the assurance that your race will never be the root cause of any such pain," Perkins wrote in 2020. "That is your so-called privilege #GeorgeFloyd #GeorgeFloydProtests."

Perkins's rhetoric could bring scrutiny from lawmakers as an anti-Israel tent encampment sows chaos on UCLA's campus, prompting House Republicans to invite the school's interim chancellor to testify before Congress.

UCLA canceled classes on Wednesday after a violent clash between pro-Israel and anti-Israel demonstrators. Police were forced to disperse the crowd, though they made no arrests. The university has taken a consistently hands-off approach to the anti-Israel tent encampment on campus.

Beyond the encampment, Jewish students at UCLA have been subjected to anti-Semitic protests amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. A viral video in November showed protesters smashing a piñata showing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a student yelled, "Beat that fucking Jew," through a megaphone.

Neither Perkins nor UCLA responded to the Washington Free Beacon's requests for comment.

In the days and weeks following Oct. 7, Perkins argued that "nearly everything" pertaining to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is rooted in and maintained through a "white supremacy lens." Questioning all the support Israel received following the October attack, he asked, "Does any of this happen if the Jewish people persecuted in the Holocaust are not also considered 'white?'"

Perkins is a prolific social media poster on the subject of "whiteness."


Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Militias Are Resurgent in the Northern West Bank
Armed groups control the streets of many Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank, particularly in the areas of Nablus, Jenin, Kalkilya, and Tulkarem. Most armed groups in the West Bank currently operate within the framework of "battalions" whose members belong to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and disgruntled activists from Abbas' ruling Fatah party. These armed men are hailed by the Palestinian public as "heroes" and "resistance fighters."

The PA and its media also glorify the gunmen, although many of them harshly criticize PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and his policies. In some cases, the funerals of gunmen killed by Israeli security forces are broadcast live on Palestine TV in Ramallah.

The only person authorized to crack down on the armed groups and individuals roaming the streets of Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank is 88-year-old Abbas. In recent years, however, Abbas has shown that he has no intention of ending the widespread phenomenon of armed groups operating in the areas under his control.

Although Israeli security forces have killed dozens of West Bank gunmen since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinian security sources estimate that there are still between 3,000 and 3,500 militiamen in the northern West Bank. The Tulkarem Battalion alone has more than 200 gunmen.

The U.S. plan to "revitalize" the PA should focus first and foremost on enforcing law and order in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank.
Hamas slams Palestinian Authority for killing PIJ terrorist in Tulkarm
Palestinian security officers killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunman in the West Bank on Thursday, a rare intra-Palestinian clash whose circumstances were disputed and which the terrorist faction described as an Israeli-style "assassination."

Palestinian Authority security services spokesperson Talak Dweikat said a force sent to patrol Tulkarm overnight came under fire and shot back, hitting the gunman. He died from his wounds in hospital.

Videos circulated online, and which Reuters was not immediately able to confirm, showed a car being hit by gunfire.

A local armed group, the Tulkarm and Nour Shams Camp Brigades, claimed the dead man, Ahmed Abu al-Foul, as its member with affiliation to the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Foul was "treacherously ... targeted in his car" without provocation, the brigades said in a statement. "This crime is just like any assassination by Israeli special forces."
PMW: Senior PA leader: A “terrorists-for-hostages” deal would be a precedent for future “efforts” to release terrorists
Senior Palestinian leader Jibril Rajoub warned Israel that the Palestinians see the exchange of hostages for terrorist prisoners as a precedent. Even if one Palestinian prisoner is left in Israeli custody, it would serve as justification for further attacks on Israel, indicated Rajoub. Accordingly, he suggested that Israel accept the formula of “everyone for everyone” in a terrorists-for-hostage exchange:


“I say to all relevant parties: a Palestinian remaining a prisoner will keep this wound open and will serve as justification for future efforts to release this prisoner.”

As is his common practice, Rajoub also once again compared Israel to the Nazis, saying that conditions in Israel’s prisons were unlike anywhere except for the Nazi camps of the 1940s.

Instead of condemning Hamas’ heinous actions that began the 2023 Gaza war, Rajoub wants to leverage the October 7 massacre against Israel to bring about the release of all 9,000 terrorists, including hundreds of murderers, from Israeli prisons and even to impose the creation of a Palestinian state. As far as Rajoub is concerned, the atrocities of October 7 should be rewarded:
“We hope that the efforts will bring about a UN resolution on stopping this aggression, an Israeli withdrawal, and carrying out a prisoner exchange of everyone for everyone (i.e., hostages for terrorists). I say to all relevant parties: a Palestinian remaining a prisoner will keep this wound open and will serve as justification for future efforts to release this prisoner. This will be an opportunity, and the international community must adopt this position – closing the issue of imprisonment; closing the issue of abductions (i.e., arrest of terrorists), closing the issue of the massacre being committed in Israeli prisons through living conditions that are unprecedented anywhere but the Nazi camps of the 1940s and its barbaric and fascist treatment, etc. This must end through the return of their captives and the release of our captives, as a prelude to forcing the establishment of the Palestinian state.”

[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, April 26, 2024]


Senior Hamas official in Lebanon signals: 'We made it clear that our position is negative'
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan signaled on Wednesday in an interview with the Hezbollah-backed Lebanese channel "Al-Manar", that "if the enemy launches an aggressive ground operation in Rafah - the negotiations will be stopped because the resistance does not negotiate under fire," as reported in Israeli media.

Hamdan also referred to the fighting in Gaza and said that "the resistance capabilities [of Hamas] are still high and the resistance is still fine, this while the Zionist elite brigades have collapsed in the Gaza Strip."

He later noted, "The Israeli enemy bet on a decrease in its capabilities, but the resistance was preparing."

Hamdan confirmed that contact with Hamas's two leaders, Muhammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar, is permanent and that constant close monitoring is conducted in the field.

He also added, "There is coordinated action in the field and regular consultation between the resistance axis. How long can this fight last?"

Hamdan said, "One of the most important results of this battle is that the resistance axis is increasing in strength and power." He continued, "What happened through the Iranian response to the Zionist entity established a new equation."

He pointed out that "those who manage the sea dock in Gaza are the American government," noting that "every armed soldier on Gaza soil is an enemy of the Palestinian people. The resistance thwarted the project of a new political authority in the Gaza Strip."


UK Pro-Palestine bus driver removed Israeli passenger for commenting on pro-Palestine symbol
A pro-Palestine bus driver in Manchester removed an Israeli passenger from the bus after she commented on a pro-Palestine symbol, Maariv reported on Wednesday.

In response to the incident, the Manchester Jewish Council responded: "As the Jewish community exits its Passover, we are once again frightened by company employees contracted by Manchester City Council who are openly displaying political symbols relating to the current conflict in the Middle East."

Protecting Jewish public safety
The Jewish council further said that Jewish people are being targeted for attacks in various public places, "it is unacceptable that they face fear and unrest just trying to access public transportation."

"We appreciate the swift response from the company following this incident, which was raised with their team." the Jewish council thanked the company, further adding: "The council will formally write to the company's representatives and CEO to ensure they rigorously enforce a policy of no political statements by staff."

When asked, the bus services company responded that they would conduct an internal investigation into the matter.
Hate-Crime Probe: Vancouver Woman Arrested Over Speech That Praised Hamas Attack
Police say a 44-year-old woman has been arrested in a hate-crime investigation over a speech in Vancouver that praised the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

A statement from the Vancouver Police Department says the woman “referred to a number of terrorist organizations as heroes.”

It says a criminal investigation is underway to determine if her comments violated hate-crime laws.

The speech outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 26 drew condemnation from Premier David Eby, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and others.

The police statement says the investigation was launched on the day of the speech, and the suspect has been released from custody while the inquiry continues. Video of the rally at the art gallery shows a woman leading the crowd in a chant of “long live Oct. 7” and calling the attackers “heroic and brave.”

Mr. Eby said on April 29 that the comments about the attack, that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were “the most hateful” he could imagine.
Talent agencies drop comedian Dane Baptiste over death threat to Jewish comic
Multiple top UK talent agencies have dropped a stand-up after he told a Jewish comedian that he would be happy to go to prison for killing her.

Dane Baptiste, who starred in a BBC show and was nominated for an award at the Edinburgh Fringe, attacked an unnamed “Zionist comedian” on Instagram earlier this week.

Writing publically, he said he was threatening her because she had allegedly “stalked” a family member’s social media.

The Metropolitan Police are understood to be investigating Baptiste’s post.

“I want you to sit down with your husband and kids and imagine what their lives will be without you, [because] north London is a quick trip to make and a Think Tank will have to be an actual tank to keep you safe from me,” the 42-year-old wrote.

"Ask about and comedians will tell you I will be at your literal doorstep. Your agent won't keep you safe. And I'll sit in prison while your family sit at the cemetery First and last warning. Your act is dumb but don't be a dumb woman. For your own safety.”

Manchester based Gag Reflex Management and Insanity Group, who represent Baptiste’s work outside stand-up comedy, confirmed to the JC on Thursday that they had dropped the comic.

In a statement, the former said: “Gag Reflex Management do not advocate or tolerate hate speech of any kind towards any groups or individuals.

“Since the company's inception we have always promoted equality, kindness and empathy within our industry and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

An Insanity Group spokesperson said: "Insanity became aware of a social media post published by Dane on Instagram yesterday. The contents of his post are completely at odds with our values and what we stand for.

"We promptly made this clear to him, and are no longer working with him. As an organisation we do not tolerate hate speech of any kind and are committed to the values of respect and tolerance for all."

Baptiste apologised “profusely” to the Jewish community, his colleagues and fans for his initial Instagram message.


UCLA Student Eli Tsives on Standing Up to Campus Antisemitism
A Jewish student wearing a Star of David necklace was on his way to class when he encountered a group of students wearing face masks and keffiyehs. Without a word, they formed a blockade, obstructing his path. Retrieving his UCLA student ID, he politely requested that they let him through, a request which was refused. He then asked his friend to start recording the encounter. “I’m a UCLA student, I deserve to be here, I pay tuition,” he said.

He took to Instagram, sharing the incident, which quickly went viral. Overnight, Eli Tsives, a 19-year-old majoring in film and theater, found himself thrust into the spotlight, inundated with interview requests. As Tsives follower count soared from 1000 to over 20k, he found himself not only grappling with newfound fame but also the accompanying challenges.

“I used to feel safe but just yesterday I came back to my dorm room and somebody wrote: “Shame on you,” so people know where I live now and now my mother and other people are helping me get private security,” he told the Journal.

This statement isn’t an exaggeration of the situation — as pro-Palestinian demonstrations escalated in the past week, turning violent. Professor Nir Hoftman, who has taught at UCLA for 22 years, was assaulted earlier this week while walking on campus looking down on his phone. In an interview with Fox News, he described what had happened: “They literally assaulted me on the way over here. I was walking to give the interview to a news station and two or three thugs tried to block my approach to the open area. I ignored them and one of them stood in front of me and said, ‘you can’t walk this way.”

Hoftman said that another person tackled him from the side and ripped his earbud from his ear before running off. “The security people who were there, were watching, not doing anything.”

The professor called what’s going on today in UCLA as “anarchy, it’s like the wild, wild west.”

Tsives is deeply concerned about the escalating situation. While he doesn’t regret enrolling in UCLA, he voices apprehension about potential threats to his safety. “Someone will try something,” he said, emphasizing the dangerous ideologies promoted by pro-Palestinian groups. “These people advocate for the destruction of our beautiful country. They are not only against Israel but also against the United States, they are promoting hate. Shame on UCLA for allowing them to do what they are doing.”

Despite lodging a complaint with administration, Tsives has yet to receive a response. Although the office of student affairs assured him that they are monitoring the situation, Tsives remains dissatisfied. “They said that they do not have any plans to remove the peaceful protesters,” he said. “I have a very simple response to that: Shame on them. These are not peaceful protesters. They are breaking the law, calling for intifadas, which entail the genocide of Jews. The administration is well within their legal right to call upon UCPD [University of California Police Department] or LAPD to come and remove and arrest all the protestors. The fact that they are not doing it shows how scared they are of the mob.”


New scientific study has managed to accurately date findings from the First Temple period
A new scientific study of unprecedented scope has managed to accurately date findings from the First Temple period that were discovered in the city of David, shedding light on events mentioned in the Bible.

Among the conclusions of the research conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science is that already in the 10th century BCE – the days of King David – extensive activity was carried out in Jerusalem; by the 9th century BCE – the days of King Jehoash ad possibly even earlier, the city expanded to the west towards Mount Zion; the city wall unearthed in the City of David was not built during the days of Hezekiah as part of the preparations for the Assyrian siege, but rather earlier, during the days of King Uzziah, subsequent to the earthquake that occurred in Jerusalem.




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