Monday, May 27, 2024

05/27 Links Pt1: The principle of no victory for Israel during the war; Israeli airstrike on Rafah kills 2 top Hamas commanders; Knesset bill to designate UNRWA a terror group

From Ian:

Yisrael Medad: The principle of no victory for Israel during the war
To grasp the machinations of President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, one first needs to understand that a fundamental aspect of the US policy toward Israel, since its founding, has been to prevent Israel from gaining as complete a victory as possible over its enemies.

A review of the past 76 years and research from the FRUS archives of the State Department make that obvious.

The second aspect is that since the Carter administration and with an extra Oslo Accords boost from the Clinton administration, and now being pushed by the Obama clique, the Biden Administration’s goal is to have Hamas survive this war victorious and to achieve the lost-but-now-found two-state solution in the post-war period.

As the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal noted on May 22, the Biden Administration for months opposed an Israeli invasion of Rafah. The United States doubts Israel

Their spokesmen asserted there was “no credible plan” for civilian evacuation. The brief arms embargo was based on that assumption. President Biden said, “We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.” Secretary of State Blinken also doubted Israel had a good enough plan.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, “We still believe it would be a mistake to launch a major military operation into the heart of Rafah.”

Now that over 900,000 Gazans have been safely evacuated and the operation is proceeding well, like the story of the insect on the elephant’s ear, the US Administration is claiming credit.

“[Israel] incorporated many of the concerns that we have expressed,” a senior US official told reporters and added, that the operation might create “opportunities for getting the hostage deal back on track.”

However, the underlying current of maliciousness remains.Already on March 19, Blinken falsely accused Israel of “causing a famine” in Gaza, leaving out Hamas’ role in all this. He joined the “starvation chorus,” adding that “100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity.”

On April 11, David Satterfield, US humanitarian envoy, remarked “There is an imminent risk of starvation for the majority, if not all, the 2.2 million population of Gaza.” Gaza, in fact, receives food supplies. However, much of the aid is stolen by Hamas or by crime families who have killed Gazans in the process.

Additionally, Biden’s $320 million floating pier is not that much of a success. Although completed and working, the Pentagon admits now that very little aid, if any, has been delivered to the general Gaza population via the pier. The US and the UN are still trying to fix safe routes.

Was Hamas lambasted after crowds looted aid trucks coming from the port and one Palestinian man was killed?
JPost Editorial: Israel's government has failed and must do more
After more than seven months of war in Gaza, mediators in the ceasefire talks have struggled to secure a breakthrough while the military is working to locate and return the hostages.

The protests followed on from last week’s news that several hostage bodies had been recovered from Gaza. The IDF located the bodies of three additional hostages on Thursday night that Hamas had taken to Gaza on October 7, the military announced on Friday morning.

November’s hostage deal feels like a distant memory in terms of this war. We are now almost in June, and Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of at least 39 more, while 17 bodies of hostages have been recovered.

The numbers reflect the stark reality that efforts to bring all hostages home have not been successful enough, and the situation remains dire.

For 232 days, the hostages have been in captivity. That’s 232 days that Israel’s military has failed to bring them all home. The longer the war drags on, the less chance there is of getting them back alive.

One of the significant factors Israel claimed in the need for a military operation in Rafah was the return of the hostages.

The operation that Israel launched earlier this month has been limited for the time being. If Israel wants to succeed in its stated goal of bringing home the hostages, perhaps it is time to consider doing more.

There are many things for the IDF to take into account, not least the welfare of its soldiers and minimizing Gazan civilian deaths. However, the political and military leadership of Israel needs to consider what would make the Rafah operation a success.

While we should commend the IDF for successfully bringing back seven bodies in the past week to Israel for a proper burial, time is of the essence now more than it has ever been.

Israel’s government has failed the hostages and their families. Israel’s military has failed the hostages and their families. At some point, they need to be held responsible.

For now, all we are doing is viewing kidnapping videos from October 7, watching more dead bodies being returned to Israel, and absorbing the pain and anger of the hostage families.
A special forces hasbara unit: Eylon Levy's strategy for turning the narrative war for Israel
Before he became a government spokesman, Eylon Levy participated in anti-government demonstrations. As a government spokesman, he became a media star because the combination of his quick mind, glib tongue, and expressive eyebrows appealed to English-speaking people around the world.

But then his past political activity came to haunt him, and as good a job as he was doing for Israel, it wasn't sufficiently impressive in some circles for his past to be ignored.

Of course, it would have been more to Israel's advantage if the people who dismissed him had demonstrated greater faith in the national slogan, 'Together we will win.'

But Levy is not the least bit bitter because he can now be completely honest. Not that he wasn't honest before – at least in matters that he believes to be true, but Israeli journalists frequently have to report on issues and incidents about which they have doubts – and it's beginning to irk them. Only a few days ago, KAN 11's political and diplomatic reporter Gili Cohen, in an angry monologue, declared that it was time to tell the truth.

Finding balance
A major problem that has confronted Israeli journalists for 75 years is finding a happy medium between patriotism and professionalism.

If Israel did not face an existential threat on many fronts, Israeli journalists could afford to be less circumspect.

But when national security is at stake, they have to censor themselves and repeat material contained in government press releases in which there are sins of either omission or commission.

Levy did not stay idle following his dismissal. He's busy interviewing and broadcasting on his podcast State of a Nation, which is a mix of politics, news, and rebuttals of lies told about Israel by antisemites and ignoramuses.

But Levy isn't content with just what he's doing on the podcast; in his view, that is simply not enough.

He's gone a step further and launched the Israel Citizen's Spokespersons' Office, a voluntary team of well-informed ordinary citizens (mostly immigrants) who speak in their native languages and advocate for Israel and the Jewish People.

"You don't have to be an official spokesperson to speak up for Israel," he says. "The Jewish People and Israel are under attack all around the world." To counter this situation, Levy is building a team of citizen spokespeople to share the facts, truth, and messages needed to fight against the lies that are being disseminated.

Daily updates are provided Sunday through Thursday on all social media platforms at 3 p.m. Israel Time, 8 a.m. Eastern Time.

But now, he envisages an even broader horizon. He shared his views this week at the annual B'nai B'rith World Center Awards ceremony for Excellence in Diaspora Reportage.


Knesset to vote on bill designating UNRWA a terror group, another stripping its immunities
Israel’s Knesset is set to hold a preliminary vote on Wednesday on two bills targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over its ties to terrorism.

One of the bills, proposed by Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu), seeks to define the agency as terrorist organization and cut all official ties with it, while the other, tabled by MK Dan Illouz (Likud) seeks to strip UNRWA of various immunities it currently enjoys.

Back in February, legislation that would prohibit UNRWA from operating on Israeli state-owned land passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset, 33-10.

Malinovsky’s bill “will allow for a complete dissociation from the agency—no cooperation, no trade, nothing,” she told JNS.

“For years this organization has been cooperating with Hamas, and on October 7 even actively participated in the murder, kidnapping and rape of Israeli citizens,” she said.

“I expect every Knesset member who has integrity to vote in favor of this bill and do justice to the murdered, the injured, the kidnapped and all the citizens of Israel,” she added.

In February, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told journalists that 30 UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, and that 1,468 of the agency’s 13,000 staff members in Gaza were members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He also shared the names and photos of 12 UNRWA employees Israel had accused in January of taking part in the massacre.

Also in January, a comprehensive report published by U.N. Watch documented a Telegram group for UNRWA teachers in Gaza in which many glorified the massacre and advocated the execution of Israeli hostages.

“This is the motherlode of UNRWA teachers’ incitement to jihadi terrorism,” said U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer at the time.

Illouz, whose bill seeks to strip UNRWA of immunities it enjoys with regard to taxation, lawsuits and more, told JNS that the agency “is not and cannot be part of the solution” in the Gaza Strip.


IDF kills Hamas's West Bank division head in targeted Rafah airstrike
An IDF aircraft struck a Hamas compound in Rafah, targeting head of Hamas West Bank division Yassin Rabia, along with Khalid Nagaar, a senior member of the West Bank division, the IDF reported on Sunday.

The IDF announced "A short while ago, aircraft attacked a Hamas terrorist organization's compound in Rafah where senior terrorists were present.

"The attack targeted terrorists who are legitimate targets under international law, using precise munitions, and was based on prior intelligence indicating the use of the area by Hamas terrorists.

"[The IDF] acknowledged that as a result of the attack and a subsequent fire in the area, several uninvolved individuals were harmed. The incident is under investigation."

Air Force aircraft, with intelligence coordination from the IDF Intelligence Unit and Shin Bet, targeted and eliminated Yassin Rabia, head of Hamas West Bank division and the terrorist Khalid Nagaar, a senior member of the West Bank division of the Hamas terrorist organization on Sunday. The attack took place in the Tel al-Sultan area in northwestern Rafah and was based on precise intelligence.

The West Bank division of the Hamas terrorist organization is responsible for planning, financing, and supporting the perpetration of terrorist attacks in the West Bank and within Israel.

The terrorist Yassin Rabia oversaw all military operations of the West Bank division of the Hamas terrorist organization, was involved in transferring funds for terrorist purposes, and directed Hamas operatives to carry out attacks in the West Bank. In the past, Yassin has executed a number of murderous attacks, including attacks in 2001 and 2002 that resulted in the deaths of IDF soldiers.

The terrorist Khalid Nagaar, a senior member of the West Bank division of the Hamas terrorist organization, orchestrated shooting attacks and other acts of terror in Judea and Samaria and facilitated the transfer of funds earmarked for terrorism for the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. In the past, Khalid has carried out several murderous attacks, including attacks between 2001 and 2003 in which Israeli civilians were killed, and additional IDF soldiers were killed and injured.


Daily Briefing: IDF Strikes in Rafah & Hamas wants to destroy Israel
Hamas speaks openly about its desire to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people. In this Daily Briefing, Daniel Rubenstein explains how Hamas has been trying to fulfill its genocidal vision for nearly four decades.

00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Hamas fired a barrage of rockets
01:56 - Intense international campaign to force Israel to end military operations
03:09 - We need to let the whole world know
05:40 - This is why Israel is at war
07:07 - Questions from citizens all over the world




Iraq 2003 and Gaza 2023
Journalists looking to make one point or another about the 2023 Hamas war have often contrasted the fighting in Gaza with U.S. combat in Iraq.

More often than not, the point being made — at least in our largest and most influential news outlets — has been that the Gaza war is without parallel. Not just because every enemy, arena, and era are unique, but because, in the broadest sense, “Israel’s assault is different,” as a front-page feature in the New York Times put it.

More often than not, too, the point has been made dishonestly. To argue that Israel is trigger-happy, for example, the Wall Street Journal compared the number of weapons dropped at the start of Israel’s invasion of Gaza to the number of American munitions dropped in Iraq between 2004 and 2010. But the U.S. invasion of Iraq, its air campaign, and its heavy use of munitions began and ended in 2003.

The Associated Press and Washington Post likewise omitted the 2003 invasion to compare Israeli munitions use unfavorably to Iraq.

The New York Times, at least, acknowledged 2003 in its late-November feature. But the reporter chose to play word games with the U.S. war. “More women and children have been reported killed in Gaza in less than two months,” the story claimed, “than the roughly 7,700 civilians documented as killed by U.S. forces and their international allies in the entire first year of the invasion of Iraq in 2003”.

In reality, the “entire first year” of the American invasion lasted about a month. The war started on March 19. The regime fell on April 9. Major combat operations were declared over on May 1. It was in that first month of fighting, too, that the overwhelming majority of Iraqi civilians mentioned by the Times were killed. The paper, in other words, downplayed the intensity of the U.S. invasion. And it did so in order to misleadingly portray Israel as cramming a year’s worth of casualties into a month.

The paper led readers astray not just with the timeline, but also with the casualty numbers, on which its Iraq comparison hinged. Earlier this month, casualty figures from Gaza made headlines — and not in the usual way. On May 8, the United Nations abruptly halved the figures it had used for women and children’s deaths. The methodology behind Hamas’s claims was, as researchers had pointed out, opaque, inconsistent, and unreliable.1

With all the slipperiness in media accounts of Gaza and Iraq, it’s worth taking a closer look at the overlap between the two wars. Is it true that “Gazan civilians are dying at a faster rate than civilians did during the most intense U.S. attacks in … Iraq,” as the New York Times charged in December? Or that “people are being killed in Gaza more quickly … than in even the deadliest moments of U.S.-led attacks in Iraq,” as the paper elsewhere insisted?

The claims are untenable.

In truth, the New York Times has no idea how many Palestinian civilians have been killed in the fighting. Hamas’s policy of concealing the number of militant casualties is hardly a show of transparency. In this war and past fighting, the terror group has lied about casualties. And as mentioned above, its claims about women and children’s deaths have proven unreliable — an especially relevant concern, considering the newspaper had used Hamas figures for those demographics as a stand-in for civilian deaths.
Is Israel's Gaza Invasion Justified? - ft. Maj Andrew Fox
Join us for an in-depth discussion with Andrew Fox, a retired Major in the British Army's Parachute Regiment. With experience serving three frontline tours in Afghanistan alongside special forces and a tour in Bosnia, Andrew brings a wealth of military knowledge and expertise. He currently lectures on War Studies and is an academic specializing in Middle Eastern politics.

In this conversation, we delve into the complexities surrounding Israel's invasion of Gaza. We explore the legality and morality of the conflict, examining the roles of the IDF, Hamas, and the impact on regions like Rafah. Discover the intricate dynamics of war, international law, and ethics as Andrew Fox shares his insights on these pressing issues.




IDF opens probe into Rafah strike, says steps were taken to prevent civilian deaths
The Israel Defense Forces airstrike in southern Gaza’s Rafah late Sunday, which targeted two senior Hamas officials but also reportedly killed dozens of Palestinian civilians, will be probed by the top-tier General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, the military announced on Monday afternoon.

The mechanism is an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war. The probe was ordered by the military advocate general, the IDF said.

The airstrike in the Tel Sultan area of western Rafah targeted and killed the commander of Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters — charged with advancing attacks against Israel in and from the West Bank — as well as another top member of the unit.

Hamas health authorities said some 45 people were killed in the strike, which had also engulfed several tents and shelters where thousands of people were taking shelter in the area.

The IDF in its statement said that the strike was carried out based on “intelligence information on the presence of the terrorists in the area,” and that beforehand, it had carried out “many steps to reduce the chance of harming uninvolved [civilians], including aerial surveillance, the use of precision munitions, and additional intelligence information.”

“Based on [these steps] it was estimated that no harm was expected to uninvolved civilians,” the IDF said.

A military source said that two missiles with a “reduced in size” warhead, which were adapted for such targets, were used in the strike.

The IDF added that the strike did not take place in the designated “humanitarian zone” in the al-Mawasi region on the coast, where the military has called Palestinians to evacuate to in recent weeks.
Israel: Civilians killed by fire that broke out after Rafah strike
Noncombatants were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah on Sunday night due to a fire that broke out after the attack, an Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday.

The Israel Defense Forces earlier said that it was investigating Palestinian media reports that dozens of Gazan civilians were killed and wounded in the strike on a Hamas compound in the city’s northwestern Tel Sultan section.

The targets of the strike were named as Yassin Rabia, the head of Hamas’s Judea and Samaria headquarters, and Khaled Nagar, a senior official in the terrorist group’s Judea and Samaria wing.

The IDF spokesperson said earlier that the strike was carried out in accordance with international law, was based on intelligence and executed using precision weaponry. However, the spokesperson continued, “The claim is known that as a result of the attack and a fire that broke out in the area, a number of non-involved people were injured. The incident is under investigation.”

The IDF announced on Monday afternoon that the military advocate general ordered a probe into the incident led by the General Staff’s investigation mechanism—an independent body that is not subordinate to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

“The mechanism is investigating the circumstances of the deaths of civilians in the area of ​​the attack. The IDF regrets any injuries to those not involved in hostilities,” the army statement said.


Egyptian soldier killed after IDF troops targeted at Gaza border
The Egyptian military opened fire at Israel Defense Forces troops stationed on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing on Monday.

An exchange of fire followed, with one Egyptian soldier killed.

The IDF confirmed that “A few hours ago, there was a shooting incident on the Egyptian border, which is the subject of an investigation,” adding that “a dialogue is taking place with the Egyptian side.”

Israel’s Channel 12 News cited an Egyptian army statement as saying that Cairo was probing a “shooting incident in which one Egyptian security personnel was killed in the area of the Rafah Crossing.”

Tensions between Israel and Egypt have been high since the IDF took control of the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing on the morning of May 7.

A day earlier, Israel’s War Cabinet decided unanimously to “continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war.”

Egypt has threatened to suspend its 45-year-old peace treaty with Israel if the IDF further expands its offensive against Hamas, and has lodged formal protests with the U.S. and European governments.


IDF destroys 800-meter long terror tunnel in the Gaza Strip
During operations in the Gaza Strip, IDF troops destroyed an 800-meter-long and 18-meter-deep underground tunnel in the Gaza Strip, the military said on Monday.

Hamas used the tunnel, which passed near the area in which are stationed IDF troops, the military stated.

In addition, the IDF said troops operated in the center of the Strip to destroy terror infrastructure, find and demolish underground infrastructure, and eliminate terrorists. IDF conducts operations in Jabalya

Earlier on Monday, the military said IDF troops operated in eastern Jablya, killing terrorists and locating many weapons, among which were Kalashnikovs, mortar shells, and additional military equipment, the military said on Monday.

Forces also found and destroyed a laboratory for the production of charges, tunnel shafts, terror infrastructure, and weapons.

In addition, jets struck a launch area from which rockets were fired at Ashkelon during the war, the IDF noted.

In the center of the Gaza Strip, troops killed terrorists, some of whom had carried out observation operations on IDF soldiers.

In the past day, IDF aircraft and jets destroyed some 75 terror targets in the Strip, the military added.


Israeli jets hit Hezbollah launchers as group claims attack on Kiryat Shmona
Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon that were used in a barrage earlier today on the Mount Meron area in northern Israel, the military says.

The IDF releases footage of the strike.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah claims attacks on Kiryat Shmona and other nearby communities launched about 90 minutes ago, saying it fired “dozens of Katyushas” and other types of projectiles.

It says the attack on Kiryat Shmona is in retaliation for what it describes as an Israeli attack on a hospital in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon.


Columbia in Gaza: The purpose of the pier
The Biden administration has made it abundantly clear that it’s pursuing such a consortium. It has floated more than once the concept of a peacekeeping or security force (similar in function if not in name) in Gaza, shadow-sponsored by the U.S. but led and manned by regional Arab nations.

Such a force would fulfill the function the Obama-Kerry proposal had in mind for the West Bank in 2013, but in Gaza would be Arab in nominal leadership and profile. The Obama-Kerry proposal, by contrast, had the U.S. in a lead execution role.

Team Biden evidently connects this arrangement to its end-state desire for a two-state “solution” – a preference the team has been flogging relentlessly since 7 October. Biden has had no qualms about leaking frequently to that effect. His administration has gone well beyond suggesting that it’s still a viable option. The U.S posture has been that it’s the only acceptable end-state, and even that a recalcitrant Netanyahu government is the obstacle to it, and ought therefore – being deemed, irrationally, a “threat to democracy” – to be ejected from power forthwith.

The U.S. pier in Gaza could be leveraged, as a humanitarian matter, to justify forming a proto-consortium to provide security for it. But that consideration, which has everyone thinking of Samantha Power, is merely a practical preliminary to the actual vision, which is to pry control of security in Gaza out of Israel’s hands, and place it in the hands of the eventual consortium. “Samantha Power” is too limited a template to think in here.

An exceptionally important aspect of this vision is exactly the purpose the pier serves in terms of international law on recognized territorial space and security. This is why I have harped on the issue so often (see also here and here): because the pier creates an alternative, direct entry point to Gaza that had no functional existence before an outside power – the U.S. – created it.

Before the World Central Kitchen Meals-on-Keels delivery in March, and installation of the U.S pier in the months afterward, Israel enforced the same blockade regime the IDF has been enforcing since Cast Lead in 2009. Nothing was allowed to enter Gaza from the sea, or by direct air transport. Anything bound for Gaza had to be received and processed through Israel (or, if Egypt was keeping a checkpoint open, through Egypt). The record, of course, is that Israel has poured massive quantities of aid materials into Gaza throughout the years of the blockade. Gaza hasn’t been suffering; Hamas has always had plenty of resources to build tunnels and other combat infrastructure with, and manufacture a considerable storehouse of arms, while the population ate and shopped well.

The U.S. pier, while it doesn’t automatically break the blockade enforced by Israel, instantly began undermining it. And the more outside powers claim an interest in the function of the pier, or an interest like it, the more undermined the blockade is.

I suspect Israel has a plan already to alter the features of the blockade in a post-combat Gaza. But it’s one thing for Israel to do that, with its own eye to its security. It’s a very different proposition for an outside multinational force to undertake such a mission, especially one formally led – as the U.S. reportedly prefers – by Egypt, and probably bankrolled by Qatar.

If the Biden administration’s series of themed leaks about a multinational force, and its insistence on a two-state solution, aren’t convincing, consider that Biden has been trying very directly and overly to thwart what Israel needs to do to avoid that fate. Israel needs to finish the job of removing Hamas in Rafah, significantly disable and deter Hezbollah in Lebanon, and implement its own plan for a post-combat phase in Gaza. Israel needs to do this all while shouldering off and deterring any direct threat posed by Iran, whether through Syria and Iraq or from Iran itself.

Israel’s end-state must be to reestablish livable conditions for Israelis under a sustainable security regime. That means no one can be left on the field able to mount another 10/7 style attack, from any vector. There can be no question of proposing that Israel live for years with the prospect of having to serially evacuate hundreds of thousands of its people around the country, while dealing with rocket, missile, and drone barrages from Iran and its proxies. That marker of unacceptable living conditions is laid, and at a minimum, Israel’s security end-state must prevent it.

Thus, the Biden administration’s withholding of weaponry that would help interdict such attacks before they can be launched is a clear signal of counter-intent. So is the demand for a ceasefire that would serve only to keep Israel from finishing the job in Gaza. So has been the Biden heel-dragging and curious lack of urgency about getting hostages (including Americans) released, a pattern that only keeps Israel’s hands tied in Gaza.


Amazon barred employees from hanging signs to acknowledge Israeli co-worker held hostage by Hamas
Amazon has barred employees of its Israel-based tech subsidiary from hanging signs to mark the number of days one of their colleagues has been held hostage by Hamas captivity, according to a report.

Sasha Troufanov, a 28-year-old computer engineer with the Tel Aviv-based microelectronics firm Annapurna Labs, was among the roughly 250 people abducted by Hamas terrorists during the murderous attacks on Oct. 7, which left nearly 1,200 Israelis dead.

Hamas gunmen infiltrated Troufanov’s hometown of Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza frontier and grabbed him, his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen; his mother, Yelena Troufanov, and his grandmother, Irena Tati.

Troufanov’s father, Vitali, a Russian immigrant to Israel, was killed.

Troufanov’s mother, grandmother and girlfriend were freed by Hamas as part of an earlier truce between the group and the Israeli government six weeks after the attack.

On the day of the massacre, Cohen witnessed her boyfriend “beaten bloody and thrown face-first into the ground,” she told the Jerusalem Post reported last week.

Troufanov remains captive more than seven months later.

After the carnage, Jewish employees at Amazon both in Israel and in its offices worldwide wanted to hang signs on company grounds marking the number of days Troufanov was being held in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

But the idea was quashed by Amazon executives in the company’s human resources department, according to a report in the Hebrew-language business newspaper Globes.

When the workers asked Amazon management to put the directive in writing, they were refused, according to the report.


Hanan Yablonka, whose body was recovered from Gaza, laid to rest in Tel Aviv
“Until Friday, we did not know whether Hanan was alive or dead,” Shay Abadi, Hanan Yablonka’s brother-in-law, told JNS on Monday.

“In a meeting at around 8:30 a.m., the IDF told us they had found his body in Gaza. We were in shock, we are still in shock,” Abadi continued. “We did not want to believe that Hanan was murdered but now at least we know what happened to him.”

On Friday, the IDF announced that it had recovered the bodies of Yablonka, 42, Michel Nisenbaum, 59, and Orión Hernández Radoux, 30, from the Gaza Strip.

The bodies were recovered in Jabalia in northern Gaza during a joint operation conducted by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists murdered Yablonka as he tried to flee the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im. He was considered a missing person for 90 days before the IDF confirmed his abduction to Gaza. His condition had not been known until last week.

“When we got the message that he was dead, we were in shock, it was a very sad day for us, for his kids [Emily, 10, and Yariv, 12], his parents, his friends and for the country, which wants to believe that the hostages are still alive in Hamas’s tunnels,” Abadi said. Avivit Yablonka (center) at her brother Hanan Yablonka’s funeral in Tel Aviv, May 26, 2024. Photo by Paulina Patimer.

On Sunday, some 10,000 people gathered for Yablonka’s funeral at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in northern Tel Aviv.

“Everybody came, all the families of the hostages, representatives from the government and people whom we did not even know. It was very hard,” Abadi told JNS.

“We don’t have a lot of time to get the hostages out of Gaza alive. Everybody needs to have hope, we need to act very quickly, otherwise this can happen to anyone. I don’t know whether it should be through a deal or in another way but we need to bring them back now,” he added.


Haley: Israel is fighting America’s enemies
Israel is fighting against the enemies of the United States in a war orchestrated by Iran, helped by Russian intelligence and funded by money from China, said Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, in Israel on Monday.

A former Republican presidential candidate known for her stalwart support for Israel, she spoke during a solidarity visit to communities near the Gaza Strip and just days after announcing that she would be voting for former President Donald Trump in November’s election.

Haley said that the nearly-eight-month-old Israel-Hamas war cannot be fixed with a political agreement because an entire generation of Palestinians is steeped in Hamas ideology—something that needs to be changed for progress to move forward.

“Don’t listen to media bites that you hear,” she said at the site of Sderot’s former police station, which was destroyed in a battle after Hamas invaders holed up inside in October. “America is with you.”

After a tour of Kibbutz Nir Oz and the site of the Supernova music festival in the desert, which has been turned into a makeshift memorial, Haley called the cross-border attack on Oct. 7, when terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 252 others to Gaza, “one of the most brutal massacres” she has ever seen.

“What happened on Oct. 7 is pure evil and can never be forgotten,” she said.

“Imagine if this happened in America on a Sunday. What would we feel? What would be going through? We wouldn’t stop and we wouldn’t let it go.

“If we say ‘Never again’ we have to be truthful: These are all murderers and accomplices,” Haley said after listing Iran, Russia and China.


Opposition blasts Albanese government for taking its time to do something on antisemitism
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson has welcomed new hate speech laws which could see antisemitic chants banned.

The bill will reportedly carry criminal, not civil, penalties for serious offences of vilification based on a person's race, sexuality, gender, disability or religion.

The shadow home affairs minister however criticised the Albanese government over why they're only just doing something now about the rise in antisemitism.

“It shouldn’t have taken what has happened in Mount Scopus … to realise how serious the antisemitism crisis has been in our country,” Mr Paterson told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“For more than six months now since October 7, it's abundantly clear what’s happening and where has been the action to compliment the serious words we're now hearing out of the deputy prime minister and some others.”


John Howard ‘points the finger’ at Anthony Albanese over antisemitism rise in Australia
Former prime minister John Howard “pointed the finger” at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over the rise of antisemitism in Australia, Sky News host James Macpherson says.

“Former prime minister John Howard has pointed the finger at Anthony Albanese for Australia’s rising levels of antisemitism,” Mr Macpherson said.

“Saying he has failed to denounce in unequivocal terms the horror of the October 7 attacks.”


Triggernometry: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Growing Threat of Radical Islam
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born human rights activist, writer and former politician. To escape an arranged marriage, she sought political asylum in the Netherlands at the age of 23. In her early 30s, she renounced the Islamic faith of her childhood and began identifying as an atheist, becoming an outspoken critic of Islam in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In late 2023, Ayaan shocked many by announcing her conversion to Christianity. She has recently launched a new platform, Restoration, which aims to unite and equip those who want to restore the confidence and institutions of the West.




Why the Pro-Hamas Demonstrations Are Different and More Dangerous
Over the last eight months, Jewish communities around the world have been both intimidated and repulsed by the surge in pro-Hamas demonstrations.

We’ve all seen the signs and heard the slogans variously telling us to “return” to Poland, that Zionism is the root of all the evil and cruelty in the world, that Israel has no right to exist, that Jews cry “antisemitism” to divert public attention from Palestinian suffering and Israel’s alleged crimes. We’ve pretty much gotten used to our schools, synagogues, restaurants and community centers being targeted by protesters, to seeing stickers and posters damning Israel’s so-called “genocide” as we walk to the subway or the grocery store, to hearing the endless drumbeat of media pundits rounding on the Jewish state and its leaders. We hold up our hands resignedly at the indifference of these protesters to the real genocides that are taking place right now in Ukraine, Congo, Sudan, Burma/Myanmar, China’s Xinjiang province and so many other countries. We feel, in short, that the world is against us.

Much as it might feel that way, we aren’t alone. The apologists for rape and murder who clog up our city streets every weekend or vandalize our university campuses with pro-Hamas encampments—and notice, by the way, how the plight of Palestinians in Gaza has been utterly overshadowed by the insistence of this mob in portraying itself as the victim of police brutality and “Zionist” influence!—have managed to alienate and irritate large swathes of the general public. Imagine paying a six-figure sum to have your children educated at university, only to have that precious graduating ceremony wrecked by the boorish chanting of “Free Palestine,” “From the River to the Sea” and all the other anti-Jewish chants the protesters recycle endlessly. That’s been the experience of too many American parents over the last few weeks.

Since the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, each day has been akin to a wrestling match with the principle of free speech attributed (wrongly, by the way) to the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Free speech essentially means giving bad speech a pass on the grounds of individual conscience. That is not a principle that any democracy can compromise on because doing so sets us on the path to becoming Russia, China, Iran or any other authoritarian state where words are regulated and restricted.

Yet the challenge with the pro-Hamas protests is that they can’t be reduced to free speech or peaceful rallies alone. The violence that lies at the heart of Hamas’s program has been duplicated by its followers in the West. And that should worry us, not least because there is a historical precedent as well.
Donald Trump vowed to toss anti-Israel student protesters ‘out of the country’ in meeting with donors: report
Former President Donald Trump blasted the anti-Israel protests erupting across US college campuses as a “radical revolution” and vowed to deport any foreign students involved if he were re-elected, he told donors in New York this month.

“One thing I do is [with] any student that protests — I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students,” Trump told the group during a May 14 roundtable, according to the Washington Post.

“As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” the defiant 2024 hopeful added.

During the meeting, at least one of the donors reportedly bemoaned the possibility that one of the student protesters could eventually rise to political power in the future.

But Trump, 77, assured the donors he would fight to end the “radical revolution” on college campuses, declaring it “has to be stopped now,” the Washington Post reported.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt blamed President Biden for empowering the protesters in a statement to The Post Monday.

“Joe Biden has sided with radical leftist Democrats like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib and empowered antisemitic protestors destroying our college campuses and threatening to undermine our democracy,” Leavitt said.

“President Trump will side with Jewish Americans and American citizens, period, and he will not tolerate terrorist sympathizers on our college campuses.”

The 45th president has also publicly vowed to clamp down on anti-Israel protesters. Weeks after the bloody Oct. 7, 2023 surprise Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis, Trump pledged to deport the “resident aliens” who joined the “pro-jihadist protest.”

“If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihadists, then we don’t want you in our country, and you’re not going to be getting into our country,” Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas back in October.

“I will cancel the student visas of Hamas sympathizers on college campuses and all resident aliens who join in pro-Jihadists protests,” he went on. “Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you.”


Melbourne Jewish school bolsters security after 'chilling' antisemitic graffiti incident
One of Melbourne's prominent Jewish day schools, Mount Scopus College, has been defaced with shocking antisemitic graffiti, sparking renewed calls for decisive government action against rising antisemitism.

The front fence of the Burwood campus was found vandalised on Saturday with the words “Jew die” sprayed in black paint.

Mount Scopus is celebrated as 'one of the world’s leading Jewish day schools.'

A year 11 student, who chose to remain anonymous, expressed profound distress over the incident.

“I am scared and sad that this is happening in Australia in 2024,” she said. “I also wonder why the government is doing nothing to call out or stop the antisemitism.”

Jewish leaders have voiced their concerns, stating that the level of antisemitism is the worst it has been in decades. School principal Dan Sztrajt, notified early on Saturday, attributed the incident to the significant rise in antisemitism across the country.

“What’s happened here is a product of the massive rise in antisemitism we've seen across Australia over the last few months,” he stated, adding that increased security measures were necessary as students no longer felt safe.
‘Terrible antisemitic attack’ on Jewish school has ‘shocked everyone’
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson says the “terrible antisemitic attack” on a Jewish school really “shocked everyone”.

Mount Scopus College in Melbourne’s east was found with its fence graffitied with the words ‘Jew die’.

Ms Henderson told Sky News host Chris Kenny that the Coalition will “not tolerate” antisemitism in any form.




Antisemitism is ‘spiralling out of control’
Anti-Defamation Commission Chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich says antisemitism is “spiralling out of control” in Australia.

Mount Scopus College in Melbourne’s east was found with its fence graffitied with the words ‘Jew die’.

Mr Abramovich told Sky News Australia that antisemitism is becoming “mainstream”.


‘Launched into abuse’: Australian Jewish Association Zoom call ambushed by activists
Sky News host Chris Kenny slams the “ambush” received by the Australian Jewish Association on a Zoom call by antisemitic activists.

“Yet another example of the Jew-hatred that has been building in this country, the Australian Jewish Association has experienced an online antisemitic ambush,” Mr Kenny said.

“Activists logged on to the Zoom meeting … he just launched into abuse.”




Viral 'Jewish threat' against Muslim woman exposed as a hoax
A viral post claiming to expose a threat to a Melbourne Muslim woman from Jewish neighbours has been branded a hoax after social media users investigated the claims.

An X user known as @NorCleor ignited a storm of controversy with a post that garnered over 11 million views before the account was privated.

The post features a threatening note supposedly found by the user, a Muslim living in Melbourne's northern suburbs. However, a closer examination of the circumstances reveals several inconsistencies that have led many to question the authenticity of the note.

The note, which was purportedly left by a 'group of Jewish families,' read:
"Hey Muslim! We've noticed you moved in. We are a lot of Jewish family's (sic) live around here but we cant stop you. If you make trouble for us we will make your life hell."

However, Melbourne’s northern suburbs is not an area where many Jews live, making the claim of "a lot of Jewish families" in the area highly unlikely.


British police search for Man U. fan with ‘Hamas 7’ jersey
British police are searching for a Manchester United soccer fan who wore a jersey with “Hamas 7” printed on the back, The Telegraph reported on Sunday.

The unidentified man was photographed by a Jewish passerby near the Oxford Circus tube station in central London on Friday.

“Police received a call from a member of the public reporting that a man was walking in Oxford Street, W1 wearing a football shirt with an offensive message on it,” said a Metropolitan Police spokesperson. “Enquiries are underway to try and identify the man.”

The “Hamas 7” tag is a reference to the Palestinian terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction to Gaza of more than 250 people, 125 of whom remain in captivity.

Expressing support for a proscribed organization is a criminal offense in Britain under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act, according to the report.

The United Kingdom banned Hamas’s military wing in 2001 and extended the designation to its political wing in 2021.

Last month, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak noted that the Oct. 7 attacks were “the most appalling attack in Israel’s history, the worst loss of Jewish life since the Second World War. Six months later, Israeli wounds are still unhealed. Families still mourn and hostages are still held by Hamas.

“And after six months of war in Gaza, the toll on civilians continues to grow—hunger, desperation, loss of life on an awful scale. We continue to stand by Israel’s right to defeat the threat from Hamas terrorists and defend their security.”


Putting an end to Qatar’s antisemitic shadow at Northwestern
Despite Qatar’s commitment to promoting Islamist ideology and political activism around the world, Northwestern University in Qatar primarily specializes in journalism, with the Qatar Foundation having petitioned Northwestern to enter Doha Education City in order to “train future journalists who could build Qatar’s media presence abroad.”

Subsequently, in 2013 it was announced that there would be “collaboration and knowledge transfer” between Al Jazeera — which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned as being “full of anti-Israel incitement” — and Northwestern University in Qatar. The decision appeared to spell out a plan for Qatari desire to metastasize their ideological rhetoric far outside of the state itself. In short, Northwestern University in Qatar aimed to train Northwestern students, who would later (at least aspire to) become global journalists, under the leadership of Qatari state proxies. This is a powerful and dangerous use of soft power that impacts national and international interests.

Shockingly, it is possible to identify instances whereby the socio-cultural regulations of Qatar have been manifested at Northwestern University in Qatar. An event featuring the Lebanese Indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila, whose lead singer is openly gay, was barred from taking place on Northwestern University in Qatar’s campus in 2020. According to a survey conducted in 2021, in keeping with the Al Jazeera view, at least 75 percent of professors at Northwestern University in Qatar condemned Israel as an “apartheid” state that commits “crimes against humanity.”

Indeed, following the events on Northwestern’s U.S. campus in the last seven months, it is clear that the illiberal, antisemitic and anti-Democratic rhetoric is contained to its Qatar campus. Astoundingly, for example, Northwestern continues to employ Arthur Butz, an engineering professor who, in his book, “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extinction of European Jewry,” claims the Holocaust as a hoax.

The pervasive influence of Qatari money on American campuses, particularly at Northwestern University, speaks to the heart of our values and the integrity of our educational institutions. The presence of antisemitism, often disguised as anti-Israel sentiment, is a cancer that threatens the very fabric of academic freedom and democracy.

It is imperative that Northwestern University follow the alumni appeal to immediately terminate the partnership between Al Jazeera and Northwestern University. It would also be a welcome measure for Northwestern University’s leadership to follow in the footsteps of Texas A&M’s Board of Governors, in deciding to close its campus in Doha Education City.

Silence is no longer an option. It’s time to reclaim our campuses and reaffirm our commitment to justice, equality and truth. The hate that is now normalized on our campuses is spreading like a virus on our streets and in our vital political and cultural institutions. It must be stopped.
Syracuse U. didn't wait for October 7th to harrass Jews
At Syracuse University, convicted killers roam freely at Hamas encampments and the head of the International Relations department hates Israel.

President Biden’s alma mater has proven to be unsafe for Jews - inside and outside of the classroom - with Anti-Semitism and Israel bashing practiced regularly by university leadership and staff. This year has seen violent attacks on Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day with screams of Heil Hitler and a convicted killer who spent 17 years in jail sleeping on campus at the Hamas encampment while threatening Jewish students.

Countless incidents have occurred on campus since October 7th which the University has, it seems, willfully, ignored. As the ADL wrote in a report critical of SU months ago, a group of Syracuse students and parents submitted a report to the U.S. House of Representatives noting the University is turning “a blind eye to antisemitism.”

We have now learned that Osamah Khalil, the Chair of the International Relations undergraduate department had – before October 7, 2023 - endorsed all forms of armed resistance against Israel, a full suspension of military aid to Israel and proudly supports BDS.

In 2018, Khalil accused Israel of being an apartheid state and claimed falsely that Israel committed “ethnic cleansing ahead of Israel’s foundation,” and condemned Palestinian leaders for their failure to “truly challenge the occupation and Israel’s system of apartheid.” Khalil appeared in a 2011 roundtable discussion in which participants agreed that “All forms of resistance can be used intelligently and with purpose.” Specifically, participants discussed the effectiveness of BDS and of “armed resistance.”

To my mind, Khalil is not someone who should be educating American students. Khalil - one of SU’s foremost spokespersons – is one of many at SU that sprouts hate of the Jewish state and creates an unsafe environment for Jewish students. .

Amy Kallander, a History Professor (She/Her on SU website) is a BDS activist at SU who in 2016 accused Israel of practicing apartheid and committed “not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions, not to teach at or to attend conferences and other events at such institutions, and not to publish in academic journals based in Israel.”

All this before the Oct 7th massacre happened.
Hamas supporters’ anti-US agenda opened eyes at U of North Carolina
When anti-Israel protesters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hurled slurs and objects at Jewish students, it drew little attention.

Late last month, when those same protesters ripped down the American flag in the center of campus and replaced it with a PLO one, it seemingly served as a wakeup call to patriotic students that the ideological battle being waged on campus stretched far outside the confines of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“They’re basically saying, ‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us.’ That’s the message you’re sending when you’re taking down the American flag, because no matter what, we’re supposed to be united under that flag,” Brendan Rosenbaum, a political science junior from Rockland County, New York, told JNS.

“They’re sending a message to people that weren’t involved at all [in the protests], who just care about America, of who these people were, and what they want to accomplish,” said Rosenbaum. “It wasn’t just about the Palestinians. It was about their whole agenda, their whole ideology.”

Rosenbaum was one of an estimated 12-20 Jewish UNC students pictured in widely-circulated images helping to protect the American flag when Hamas supporters attempted to rip it down from its posting, even after the university’s interim chancellor, Lee Roberts, had ordered its restoration on the pole on the campus’ main quad.

Rosenbaum said many of the Jewish students there that day were from his UNC chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish fraternity. He said he is also involved with other Jewish organizations on campus, including Chabad and Hillel, and attends events put together by the student-run Heels for Israel.

When it became evident that the protestors call not just for death to Israel, but to America as well, there was a silent realization among non-Jewish students there that day that the Jewish and pro-Israel students had been fighting a worthy battle largely on their own, he said.




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