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Sunday, June 16, 2024

06/16 Links: Hamas Terrorists Are Playing the West for Fools; IDF announces the names of 12 fallen soldiers; Crowd applauds Seinfeld as he mocks anti-Israel hecklers

From Ian:

Invidious comparisons are being made between Israel, Hamas's use of violence
IN ITS 1974 plan, a proposed sequence of Palestinian violence is expressed: “First, to establish a combatant national authority over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated” (Art. 2); “second, to use that territory to continue the fight against Israel” (Art. 4); and “third, to start a pan-Arab war to complete the liberation of the all-Palestinian territory” (Art. 8). Ironically, this was and remains the annihilationist plan of a more mainstream Palestinian terror group than Hamas.

For Israel, the existential threat is no longer from a “Pan-Arab War.” At some still-ambiguous point, Hamas (with tangible Iranian support) could prepare to launch mega-terror attacks on Israel. Such potentially unprecedented aggressions could include chemical, biological, or radiological (radiation-dispersal) weapons. Foreseeable perils could also include a non-nuclear terrorist attack on the Israeli reactor at Dimona. There is a documented history of enemy assaults against this Israeli plutonium-production facility, both by a state (Iraq) in 1991 and by a Palestinian terror group (Hamas) in 2014. Though neither attack was successful, various fearful precedents were established.

International law is not a suicide pact. Even amid long-enduring world-system anarchy, it offers a binding body of rules and procedures that permits any beleaguered state to express an “inherent right of self-defense.”

But when Hamas celebrates the explosive “martyrdom” of manipulated Palestinian civilians and when Palestinian leaders seek “redemption” through the mass-murder of “Jews,” the wrongdoers have no supportable legal claims to immunity. Moreover, Hamas celebrations of “martyrdom” underscore the two-sided nature of Palestinian terror/sacrifice – that is, the primal sacrifice of “the Jew” and the reciprocal sacrifice of “the martyr.” Such murderous reasoning is codified within the Hamas charter as a “religious problem.”

Under international law, terrorists are considered hostes humani generis or “common enemies of humankind.” Among other things, this category of criminals invites punishment wherever the wrongdoers can be found. Concerning their required arrest and prosecution, jurisdiction is “universal.” Also relevant is that the Nuremberg Tribunal reaffirmed the ancient legal principle of “Nullum crimen sine poena,” or “No crime without a punishment.”

Generally, Palestinian commanders who control terror-mayhem against Israel cower unheroically in safe towns and cities outside of Gaza. Living in luxury hotels and villas, these commanders are never eager to become “martyrs” themselves. Why? Hamas and wider Palestinian populations believe that because they are fighting a “just war” they are entitled to employ “any means necessary.” Under international law, however, even if a war is determinably “just,” it must still be fought only with “just means.” Here, ends can never justify means.

The PLO, forerunner of Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) and of the Palestinian Authority (PA), was formed in 1964. This formation was three years before there were any Israeli “Occupied Territories.” What were the Palestinians then trying to “liberate?” The answer is incontestable and clarifying: “From the River to the Sea.”

The Palestinian objective has always been the “liberation” of Israel as such. For Hamas, the “solution” for Israel remains unambiguously “final.”
Hamas Terrorists Are Playing the West for Fools
Ending the suffering endured by Palestinian civilians seems to be foremost in the minds of those seeking to implement a ceasefire in Gaza. It is now becoming increasingly evident that it is the fanaticism of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas terrorist mastermind behind the Oct. 7 atrocities, that is thwarting peace efforts. Sinwar once boasted of strangling one suspected Palestinian collaborator to death with his bare hands.

Sinwar's sole ambition has been to ensure that Hamas survives in Gaza once hostilities have ended. This explains why, every time the likes of U.S. Secretary of State Blinken arrive in the region bearing new ceasefire offers, the Hamas leadership immediately resorts to its maximalist demand that Israel agree to a complete military withdrawal from Gaza.

Any ceasefire deal that enables Hamas to maintain any vestige of control in Gaza would be seen as rewarding its leaders for committing gross acts of terrorism. Western policymakers should understand that Hamas, not Israel, is the real obstacle to achieving a lasting peace in Gaza.
Jennifer Rubin: Focus on Hamas War Crimes
The Israel Defense Forces' daring operation that rescued four Israeli hostages held for more than eight months provided new context for the war. Hamas committed war crimes on Oct. 7 by killing, raping and abducting civilians. It has continued to commit war crimes by holding civilians hostage and, again, by treating them inhumanely. And in making military targets of civilian homes by turning them into hostage cells, Hamas has again committed war crimes. Any civilian death is regrettable, but in this scenario, Hamas is solely responsible for the casualties resulting from the rescue mission.

To the extent civilians become participants - including hostage-holding - they lose the protection of international law. Hamas has committed a grave legal and moral wrong in erasing the line between civilians and combatants. Hamas wants more civilians to die. It's incumbent on Israel's harshest critics to dissociate themselves from Hamas enablers and antisemites. If not, they have no claim to the moral high ground.


An OPEN LETTER from Herta Muller
She is one of the greatest contemporary German writers. Now, Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller has written a shocking wake-up call to the West – The madness that has gripped parts of Western society since Hamas attacked Israel

Since October 7, I have been thinking again and again about a book about the Nazi era, the book “Ganz normale Männer” by Christopher R. Browning. He describes the annihilation of Jewish villages in Poland by the Reserve Police Battalion 110, when the large gas chambers and crematoria in Auschwitz did not yet exist. It was like the bloodlust of the Hamas terrorists at the music festival and in the kibbutzim. In just one day in July 1942, the 1,500 Jewish inhabitants of the village of Józefów were slaughtered. Children and infants were shot in the street in front of their houses, the old and sick in their beds. All the others were driven into the forest, where they had to strip naked and crawl on the ground. They were mocked and tortured, then shot and left lying in a bloody forest. The murder became perverse.

The book is called “Ganz normale Männer” (Quite Normal Men) because this reserve police battalion did not consist of SS men or Wehrmacht soldiers, but of civilians who were no longer considered suitable for military service because they were too old. They came from completely normal professions and turned into monsters. It was not until 1962 that a trial began in this case of war crimes. The trial records show that some of the men “got a huge kick out of the whole thing”. The sadism went so far that a newly married captain brought his wife to the massacres to celebrate their honeymoon. Because the bloodlust continued in other villages. And the woman strolled around in the white wedding dress she had brought with her, among the Jews who had been herded together in the market square. She was not the only wife who was allowed to visit. In the trial documents, the wife of a lieutenant says: “One morning, I was sitting with my husband in the garden of his accommodation, having breakfast, when a simple man from his platoon approached us, took up a stiff posture and declared: ‘Mr. Lieutenant, I have not yet had breakfast! When my husband looked at him questioningly, he explained further: ’I have not yet killed a Jew.

No longer realizing their freedom
Is it right to think of the Nazi massacres on October 7? I think it is right to do so, because Hamas itself wanted to evoke the memory of the Shoah. And it wanted to demonstrate that the State of Israel is no longer a guarantee for the survival of the Jews. That their state is a mirage, that it will not save them. Logic forbids us to be close to the word Shoah. But why does it have to forbid it? Because the feeling that you have cannot avoid this pulsating proximity.

And then there’s something else that occurs to me and reminds me of the Nazis: the red triangle from the Palestinian flag. In the concentration camps, it was the symbol for communist prisoners. And today? Today, it can be seen again in Hamas videos and on the facades of buildings in Berlin. In the videos, it is used as a call to kill. On the facades, it marks targets that are to be attacked. A large red triangle looms over the entrance to the techno club “About Blank”. For years, Syrian refugees and gay Israelis danced here as a matter of course. But now nothing is a matter of course anymore. Now the red triangle screams over the entrance. A raver whose Jewish family comes from Libya and Morocco says today: “The political climate awakens all demons. For the right, we Jews are not white enough; for the left, we are too white.” The hatred of Jews has taken root in Berlin’s nightlife. After October 7, the Berlin club scene literally cowered. Although 364 young people, ravers like them, were slaughtered at a techno festival, the club association did not comment on it until days later. And even that was only a perfunctory exercise, because anti-Semitism and Hamas were not even mentioned.

I lived in a dictatorship for over thirty years. And when I came to Western Europe, I could not imagine that democracy could ever be called into question in such a way. I thought that in a dictatorship, people are systematically brainwashed. And that in democracies, people learn to think for themselves because the individual counts. Unlike in a dictatorship, where independent thought is forbidden and the forced collective trains people. And where the individual is not a part of the collective, but an enemy. I am appalled that young people, students in the West, are so confused that they are no longer aware of their freedom. That they have apparently lost the ability to distinguish between democracy and dictatorship.

I also wonder whether the students at many American universities know what they are doing when they chant at the demonstrations: “We are Hamas” or even “Beloved Hamas, bomb Tel Aviv!” or “Back to 1948”. Is that still innocent or already moronic? Although the massacre of October 7 is no longer mentioned at these demonstrations. And it is outrageous when October 7 is even interpreted as a staged event by Israel. Or when not a single word is said about demanding the release of the hostages. When, instead, Israel’s war in Gaza is portrayed as an arbitrary war of conquest and annihilation by a colonial power.

Do young people only ever watch clips on Tiktok? Meanwhile, the terms follower, influencer, activist no longer seem harmless to me. These sleek internet words are serious. They all existed before the internet. I translate them back to the time. And suddenly they become rigid as sheet metal and overly clear. Because outside the internet they mean followers, influence agents, activists. As if they had been taken over from the training ground of a fascist or communist dictatorship. Their suppleness is an illusion anyway. Because I know that the words do what they say. They promote opportunism and obedience in the collective and spare people from taking responsibility for what the group does.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the demonstrators were students who, just a few months ago, were protesting against the oppression in Iran with the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”. It appals me when the same demonstrators today show solidarity with Hamas. It seems to me that they no longer understand the abysmal contradiction of the content. And I wonder why they don’t care that Hamas would not even allow the smallest demonstration for any women’s rights. And that on October 7th, women who had been violated were paraded as spoils of war.

On the campus of the University of Washington, protesters play the group game “People’s Tribunal” for entertainment. Representatives of the university are put on trial for fun. And then the verdicts follow, and everyone roars in chorus: “Off to the gallows” or “guillotine”. There is clapping and laughter, and they baptize their campsite “Martyr’s Place”. In the form of happenings, they celebrate their own collective stupidity with a clear conscience. One wonders what is being taught at universities today.
Sydney crowd applauds Seinfeld as he mocks anti-Israel hecklers
Australian comedy fans applauded Comedian Jerry Seinfeld as he mocked an anti-Israel heckler that attempted to disrupt his show at the Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday night, according to a video taken by Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory.

"We have a genius ladies and gentlemen, he solved the Middle East," Seinfeld remarked as the activist heckled Seinfeld. "It's the Jewish comedians, that's what we have to get."

The crowd cheered as security removed the interloper from the show.

"They're going to start punching you in about three seconds, so I would try to get all your genius out so we can all learn to you," said Seinfeld. Will heckling solve the conflict? Seinfeld says probably not!

The American comedian said sarcastically that Middle Easterners would come to a sudden realization after reading about the incident in the news the next day. He suggested that the method of interrupting comedians to solve geopolitical issues could be replicated, proposing to interrupt Australian comedian Jim Jefferies during his tour to solve issues between Indigenous and European descent Australians.

"You're really influencing everyone here we're all on your side now, because you've made your point so well, and in the right venue, you've come to the right place for a political conversation," Seinfeld joked. "You have to go 20,000 miles from the problem and screw up a comedian, that is how you solve world issues."

AJA had published on Thursday communications between anti-Israel activists noting that they would mostly be protesting the Sunday show because "he's a big ziono."

The Jewish group also alerted in January that advertisements for the show in Sydney had been defaced with stickers.


As US Is Being Encircled by Enemies, the US Administration Wants Israel to Surrender to Terrorists
While Russian warships, including a nuclear submarine, this week docked in Cuba, and with China building a major deep-water port in Peru that could serve the Chinese military, the US administration is pressuring only Israel to allow the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas to win the war it launched against Israel on October 7.

Instead of supporting Israel's right to defend itself against coordinated and sustained attacks, the Biden administration's public wavering suggests a pro-terrorist shift in US policy away from Israel. This shift represents a betrayal that leaves Israel in the no-win position of either rejecting US proposals, or allowing Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups to keep trying to advance their goal of ultimately destroying Israel.

When Iran itself, and not a terrorist proxy, launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel from Iranian soil on April 13, 2024, the assault was an act of war.

The result had been that Iran's proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon is now engaged in unremittingly raining down rockets, attack drones and guided missiles throughout Israel's north. The Biden administration might not even have asked the Iranian regime to order its other terrorist proxy Hezbollah to stop.

Asking Israel to do nothing against Hamas and Hezbollah after eight months of escalating aggression is akin to asking the United States, after the 9/11 attacks, to leave Al Qaeda untouched and allow it to remain in power.

Meanwhile, there has evidently been no pressure put on Qatar or Iran to lift a finger to stop the Gaza war. And Hamas official Ghazi Hamad disclosed last week that Egypt and Qatar have exerted no pressure on Hamas whatsoever to accept Biden's proposed ceasefire, and that media reports about threats to expel Hamas leaders from Qatar are false.

On one hand, the Biden administration keeps warning Israel against defending itself, while on the other, it keeps waiving sanctions, thereby providing the Iranian regime with billions of dollars that fund, arm, and sponsor terrorist organizations including Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis -- all of which are committed to eradicating Israel.
How Hamas Is Trying to Shape the "Day After" in Gaza
Over the past few weeks, Hamas leaders have been engaged in talks with other Palestinian factions and select Arab states to find a formula for postwar governance in Gaza. Both the Hamas Executive Committee (based in Qatar) and Yahya al-Sinwar's circle of military leaders (in Gaza) have apparently come to realize that the group cannot continue ruling Gaza on its own and must therefore look for partners.

In particular, they fear that no foreign reconstruction funding will be forthcoming unless they help install a different type of administration nominally led by other Palestinian players. However, they insist that security issues not be part of this government's authority.

They are confident that they can deter Arab states and other foreign powers from sending forces to Gaza, and have threatened to fight any non-Palestinian presence deployed to police or manage the Strip. In other words, Hamas is happy to let others shoulder civil responsibilities while it focuses on rebuilding its armed networks behind the scenes.

With thousands of its fighters still alive, Hamas is feverishly searching for new ways to stay in charge once a ceasefire is in place. It has offered to relinquish civilian control - but only for the sake of refreshing its military arsenal, rebuilding its tunnel networks, and recruiting fresh manpower.

Hamas has already gleaned around $120-200 million from taxing humanitarian convoys during the current war.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, the idea of Hamas playing a role in Gaza's governance is intolerable. To prevent the implementation of this Hamas plan for the "day after," the U.S. and other Western nations could advise Arab states, the PA, and other Palestinian actors not to lend a hand to the group's political resurrection.

Egyptian President al-Sisi should be put on notice that there will be a price to pay (e.g., regarding congressional oversight of annual U.S. military assistance) if his intelligence services and army personnel keep facilitating weapons smuggling to Hamas through Rafah's cross-border tunnels.
Gantz: Israel should withdraw from Gaza for hostage deal
Israel should agree to withdraw from the Gaza Strip as part of a long-term ceasefire deal with the Hamas terrorist group, opposition leader Benny Gantz stated over the weekend, days after withdrawing his National Unity Party from the wartime government.

“I want the hostages to return home,” the former War Cabinet minister told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Thursday night. “If there is a change in the fighting and our hostages are returned, and we do what needs to be done in the Gaza Strip in a year, or in two years, that’s not an issue.”

“I want the hostages home, I want to have strong security, and then we can continue what needs to be continued,” added Gantz.

The National Unity Party leader did a round of interviews with Hebrew media on Thursday, four days after announcing his departure from the wartime unity government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Announcing his decision to exit the government set up in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, Gantz accused the premier of preventing the Israel Defense Forces from “reaching a true victory.”

Gantz also demanded that Netanyahu do “everything he can” to advance U.S. President Joe Biden’s outline for a truce agreement.

Hamas has consistently pressed Israel to end the war as part of the hostage deal, a demand that Jerusalem has described as “delusional.”
Father of rescued hostage Noa Argamani: 'I don't believe Hamas wants to make any deal'
Yaakov Argamani, the father of rescued hostage Noa Argamani revealed he “knew” his daughter would return, despite believing Hamas does not want a deal, according to footage shown on N12’s report on Friday night.

During a meal held at the Chabad House in Tel Aviv, Yaakov Argamani said, "Deep inside, I knew Noa was coming back," followed by, "People always asked me what was happening, I said it's okay, it's a matter of a little time."

He recounted the moment when he learned that his daughter had been rescued from captivity in Gaza by Hamas, "It was such a powerful moment. When I received the message, I hit myself several times. I asked whether it was real. I thought I was about to wake up from a dream. Before they informed me, I made a wish that Noa would return, that her mother would see her at least one more time."

Intelligence led to rescue
"People always asked me where I got the strength from, how I managed on two such difficult fronts. I don't believe Hamas wants to make any deal, but we'll leave that to our politicians. I always came to the synagogue and said, it will be alright with God's help,” Argamani further shared.

The British newspaper The Jewish Chronicle revealed new information in a Thursday morning report concerning the hostage rescue operation. According to the report, Israel received information about the location of the four hostages in the heart of Nuseirat as early as May, and from that day forward, Israeli intelligence focused on the area to pinpoint their exact location.

Eventually, a team of undercover operatives roamed the market; Their task was to cross-reference information from interrogations of captured terrorists. Additionally, information was gathered through aerial surveillance and other technological means. After 19 days of intensive work, the combined units managed to gather precise information on the hostages' location.


Arab Knesset member says Hamas ‘part of Palestinian people’
The Hamas terrorist organization is part of the Palestinian people, Israeli Arab lawmaker Aida Touma-Sliman emphasized at a far-left conference in Berlin on Saturday, while casting doubt on the Oct. 7 atrocities.

“When you and me will think of what Hamas did or did not, it’s part of the Palestinian people,” the Hadash-Ta’al parliamentarian said during a panel discussion hosted by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in the German capital.

While claiming she was not seeking to draw a parallel, Touma-Sliman said Hamas represents the Palestinians, just as “there are people among the Jewish society, the Israeli society, that are terrorizing people every day.”

JNS contacted the Israel Police regarding Touma-Sliman’s remarks but did not receive a response by press time.

In a statement issued following the panel discussion, the lawmaker said, “I did not doubt even for a moment the horrors of Oct. 7,” claiming she “spoke throughout my visit to Germany about the pain of both sides and the need for a deal to release the hostages and stop the war.

“The illusion of eliminating Hamas led to tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza and irreversible damage to Israeli society internally,” she added.

On Oct. 7, Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mainly Jewish civilians, in Israel in what has been described as the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. Thousands more were wounded and roughly 250 kidnapped back to Gaza. Terrorists committed rape, sexual abuse, torture, burning and desecration of corpses.

A month after the massacre, Knesset members were invited to view a compilation of video footage showing some of the atrocities. It is not clear whether Touma-Sliman showed up to view the 43-minute video.

Earlier this year, legislation criminalizing the denial or downplaying of the Oct. 7 massacre passed a preliminary reading in parliament.

Thirty-two percent of Israeli Arabs do not believe that Hamas terrorists intentionally targeted women and children during the Oct. 7 massacre, according to a survey carried out by Tel Aviv University last year.

Meanwhile, some two-thirds of Palestinians believe the Gaza terrorist organization was “correct” in launching the murderous cross-border attacks, a Ramallah-based polling institute said last week.

Touma-Sliman was previously suspended for two months and received a two-week pay freeze for falsely accusing the IDF of attacking Shifa Hospital in Gaza City with white phosphorous bombs and of shooting civilians attempting to evacuate along humanitarian corridors.

Last month, United Arab List (Ra’am) Party chairman Mansour Abbas said Hamas is “of course” a legitimate part of the Palestinian people.
Israel, Free World, in Increasing Danger Thanks to U.S. 'Help'
Hamas not only uses its civilians as human shields, but may be the first government in history that wants to see its own people killed in order to blame another country, Israel, for their deaths. Meanwhile, Israel goes out of its way – seriously risking the lives of its soldiers – not to commit any crimes against humanity or indiscriminately bomb, as Russia does in Ukraine.

"Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any nation in history," wrote John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

For decades, many of the countries of the Arab world have wanted to erase Israel from the map. Each time, they have failed. Their project consists of trying to destroy the Jewish state and kill every Jew, as Hamas' 1988 Charter requires. No one in a Western country could support it without being seen as an anti-Semite.

A radical change occurred, however, in 1964. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded and the myth of "Palestinian cause" invented. Zuheir Mohsen (زهير محسن) a leading PLO member responsible for Damur massacre, admitted:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.

"Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva, and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

A "national liberation struggle" was, in fact, fabricated by Soviet Union's KGB, according to Ion Mihai Pacepa, who served from 1972-1978 as deputy chief of Romania's foreign intelligence service and advisor to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Pacepa said:

"The PLO and the Palestinian Narrative was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for 'liberation' organizations."


IDF intensifies Rafah offensive amid creation of humanitarian corridor
The IDF is continuing its battle against Hamas in Rafah, and there is no policy change, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office clarified after the army announced the creation of a daily 11-hour humanitarian corridor from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road.

When Netanyahu “heard the reports in the morning about a daily humanitarian pause for 11, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him,” the source stated.

After checking out the situation, “the Prime Minister was informed that there was no change in IDF policy and that the fighting in Rafah continued as planned,” the source stated. Need to increase humanitarian aid flow

The source spoke out following an army announcement that “As part of ongoing efforts by the IDF and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to increase the volumes of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip and following additional related discussions with the UN and international organizations,” new procedures had been put in place to help with aid distribution.

“Starting yesterday (Saturday), a local, tactical pause of military activity for humanitarian purposes will take place from 08:00 until 19:00 every day until further notice along the road that leads from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards” the army said. A spokesman for COGAT clarified that the pause had also been in effect on Sunday.

“This is an additional step in the humanitarian aid efforts that have been conducted by the IDF and COGAT since the beginning of the war,” it stated. “The IDF will continue to support humanitarian efforts on the ground,” the army added.

Israel has been under attack by the international community, including the United States, for not taking enough steps to ensure the distribution of humanitarian assistance in Gaza safely.

The lack of an effective system to distribute aid has led to claims by the UN that people in Gaza were starving, as well as accusations that Israel was using hunger as a tool of war.

The announcement comes from Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder announced on X that already on June 11 Gallant had been invited to visit Washington at a date to be announced. It would be Gallant’s second trip to Washington since the start of the War.
JPost Editorial: Every Israeli, including both Jews and Arabs, is equal in life and death
Eight IDF soldiers were tragically murdered on Saturday in an explosion of an armored vehicle in Rafah.

We have seen these massive losses several times since this war began. The military is investigating whether the armored vehicle was damaged by an explosive device attached under it, to the side of it, or by a malfunction in the explosives being carried in the vehicle.

While driving through a luxurious area of the neighborhood, a massive explosion was heard, which caused the vehicle to explode and catch fire.

All of the occupants of the vehicle, eight combat engineering soldiers, were killed on the spot. The vehicle was severely damaged, likely also because its exterior sides contained large amounts of explosives, including demolition blocks, mines, and more.

The only name released from the group of eight soldiers killed was that of Capt. Wassem Mahmoud, a Druze Israeli who proudly served his country until his last breath.

The tragic deaths of Mahmoud and the seven other IDF soldiers underscore a pressing issue in Israeli society that must be urgently addressed: racism. Druze citizens are not treated accordingly

Shortly after the announcement of Mahmoud and the other soldiers’ deaths, Sheikh Muafak Tarif, head of the Druze community in Israel, released a statement, saying that the choice to serve Israel is equally valuable among all of the country’s citizens, but Druze citizens are not treated accordingly.

“The Druze community pays a very heavy price in this war once again. Mahmoud… joins a long list of fallen Druze who sacrificed their lives for the security of the state since the outbreak of the war,” he said.

“Once again, we discover the partnership and equality in bearing the burden and loss on the battlefield," the sheikh said. “This partnership and equality must also be in everyday life, but sadly, this is not the case. The Druze community must be equal partners not only in battle and mourning but also in life.”

Tarif is correct. As the nation mourns these brave souls, it is imperative to reflect on the broader social dynamics at play, particularly the discrimination faced by Israeli Arabs.

Mahmoud, a 23-year-old from Beit Jann, exemplified the highest values of dedication and sacrifice. Despite being injured at the start of the war, he postponed his surgery to continue serving his country.

His story is a testament to the commitment and patriotism of many Israeli Arabs who serve in the IDF and contribute significantly to the nation’s security and well-being.
IDF announces the names of 12 fallen soldiers: Here are their stories

Critical IDF intel systems were down on morning of Oct. 7
Critical computer systems used by the Israel Defense Forces’ elite 8200 intelligence unit broke down on Oct. 6 and were only repaired some 90 minutes before Hamas launched its cross-border massacre, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported on Saturday.

The report, which revealed limited information on the alleged computer failure due to military censorship rules, claimed the systems only came fully back online after the attack was already underway.

A former intelligence official told the broadcaster that “if the system had been working at those hours, it is very likely that dramatic information would have arrived that would have changed the intelligence picture.”

Unit 8200, the IDF’s signal intelligence unit, considered the “eyes of Israel,” is part of the Military Intelligence Directorate, known in Hebrew by the acronym AMAN. The unit is responsible for some 80% of the information gathered and produced for all intelligence branches.

Channel 12 cited an internal organization that claimed the information about the computer error was conveyed to the commander of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, as well as Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) director Ronen Bar.

Two months ago, Haliva announced his resignation from the military, to be effective after the completion of operational investigations into Oct. 7 and an overlap process with a replacement. He added that under his command, the Intelligence Directorate “did not live up to the task it was entrusted with.”

Halevi has signaled he will step down after the war against Hamas ends.

Meanwhile, the commander of Unit 8200, Brig. Gen. “Y.,” has refused to take any blame for the Oct. 7 failure, saying last year his team provided all the necessary intelligence. In May, the unit promoted two of its officers, drawing criticism from within the army.
Government extends age cut off for IDF reserve duty amid heavy criticism
Israel's government on Sunday extended by three months a provision to raise the age at which IDF reservists are released from their duties amidst public debate over the division of the burden of service during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

The decision, which was set to expire on June 30 but now will expire on September 30, says that regular soldiers must serve until age 41 instead of 40, and officers must serve until age 46 instead of 45. The goal, according to Israel's defense ministry, is to avoid a scenario in which thousands of soldiers are instantly released in the middle of war due to them having reached the cut off age.

The decision was met with both legal and political criticism.

Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon wrote in his legal opinion of the decision that the government was legally prohibited from extending the burden of service for some while maintaining a blanket exemption for the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) public, despite the fact that this exemption was no longer legal and that the state was required to recruit them.

The government initially requested to extend the provision by half a year until the end of 2024. Limon wrote in his opinion that despite the legal difficulties, the state could extend it for just three months in order to meet immediate security demands. According to Limon, this was contingent on the fact that the defense ministry fulfills its commitment to act immediately to "exhaust the manpower potential in the general population, in order to decrease the burden on those who are already serving, and decrease inequality."

The provision is an amendment to a law, and therefore still requires the approval of Israel's Knesset before coming into effect.

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid said in a statement following the decision, "There is no shame. The reservists and taxpayers are collapsing, and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the extremists are loading the burden onto them, continuing evading responsibility, and smiling [while doing so]," Lapid said.


Seth Frantzman: Is Israel admitting defeat with the IDF's 'tactical pause' in Rafah fighting?
UAE-based Al-Ain media initially characterized this as a “ceasefire” but later used the term “truce” in a headline, indicating some of the questions being raised by this decision in the region. It may be greeted positively in the Gulf as a gesture showing Israel is keen to make sure there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza during the holiday; it could also lead to other pauses in Gaza. However, in the past, when the IDF withdrew or paused, Hamas never changed its tactics, and it continues to hold hostages.

Hamas never pauses, which it made this clear in a statement to Al-Mayadeen, the pro-Iran media outlet. According to the report, which is based on statements from Hamas, the terrorists are continuing to target IDF troops. In one claim, Hamas said that an IDF “armored force was trapped in a minefield prepared in advance at the Nabulsi Junction, southwest of Gaza City.”

The report also claimed that Hamas detonated an explosion, killing and wounding soldiers. In another incident, Hamas said it fired 60-mm. mortars at the IDF in Zeitun. Hamas also claimed to have ambushed Rafah.

Other terrorist groups, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also published details about their attacks. Terrorists shot at a small quadcopter drone in Khan Yunis, targeting IDF forces in the Netzarim corridor, as well as a tank, the report said. Palestinian Islamic Jihad even claimed to “celebrate Eid Al-Adha in their own way and published a video entitled: ‘Eid Al-Adha Mubarak... Happy New Year.’ The scenes showed some of its fighters during the process of manufacturing missiles.”

The contrast is clear. The IDF is making a tactical pause in a certain area, while Hamas and other terror groups are increasing their attacks. While the Gulf may view the pause favorably, it is uncertain what will happen in Gaza.
Outrage after IDF announces daily ‘humanitarian pauses’ along south Gaza route
Right-wing ministers in the Israeli government lashed out on Sunday after the Israel Defense Forces announced it would observe daily 11-hour “humanitarian pauses” in its operation against Hamas terrorists along a route in southern Gaza to increase aid shipments into the area.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized the move, claiming it runs contrary to decisions made by the Security Cabinet.

“The one who decided on a ‘tactical truce’ to introduce humanitarian aid, especially at a time when the best of our soldiers are falling in battle, is evil and a fool who should not continue in his position,” he tweeted.

The announcement came a day after eight Israeli troops were slain in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah city, marking the deadliest day for the IDF in Gaza in six months.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich charged that humanitarian aid, the majority of which is seized by Hamas terrorists, “keeps it in power and may put the achievements of the war down the drain.

“The way the humanitarian effort in the Gaza Strip has been managed, with most aid reaching Hamas and helping it maintain civilian control over the Strip in direct contradiction to the war’s objectives, has been wrong for months,” Smotrich tweeted on Sunday afternoon.

“This morning’s disconnected announcement in the foreign media about a ‘humanitarian pause’ along the aid supply route from Kerem Shalom to the European Hospital in [Khan Yunis in] the center of the Strip did not reflect any change on the ground,” he stressed. “This route has existed since the start of the Rafah operation and is intended to allow the entry of aid by international organizations, in line with the flawed existing approach.


Discrepancies in Data on UN Aid to Gaza
International bodies and the media rely on UN data on humanitarian aid in Gaza as the source of truth. However, there are significant gaps between the data presented on the UN dashboard and the data collected and published by COGAT-the IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. After an in-depth review, it is clear that the UN data presents an incomplete picture of aid going into Gaza, and there is significant underreporting.

The UN figures not only inconsistently record humanitarian trucks from the private sector and other NGO trucks, but is also missing data on UN aid entering Gaza. These gaps have become extreme in April and May 2024. We have identified underreporting of over 8,000 trucks since Oct. 7, 2023, with 4,880 "missing" trucks in May 2024 alone.

Historically and according to the UN mandate, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is the professional body that should be collecting this data. However, since Oct. 7, the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has taken over data collection and reporting.

UNRWA does not have the capabilities to be collecting and presenting the aid data. Their methodology is deeply flawed and their data is missing significant humanitarian aid. This contributes to a distortion between the reality on the ground and the widely accepted reports.


VP Kamala Harris to screen documentary on Oct. 7 sexual assaults at White House
US Vice President Kamala Harris will host a partial screening at the White House on June 17 of Screams Before Silence, the documentary created by Sheryl Sandberg about the horrific sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7, with Sandberg in attendance.

The vice president will deliver remarks on conflict-related sexual violence beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET followed by a panel discussion of survivors and experts from around the world, and a screening of part of the documentary.The event can be viewed on a livestream at the White House website. The full Screams Before Silence documentary can be seen on YouTube. More than a million people have viewed Screams Before Silence since it was released in late April.

The silence of most women’s and human rights organization about the sexual assaults committed by Hamas on October 7, which included mass rape and genital mutilation, prompted former Meta COO and author Sandberg to make this documentary, which was directed by Anat Stalinsky. It features testimony from first responders and survivors of the massacre, as well as an account by Amit Soussana, a released hostage who was sexually assaulted by one of her Hamas captors. "Reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence took place"

Although the UN’s office of sexual violence in conflict released a report in March that said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that such assaults had been perpetrated by Hamas terrorists, some have denied that these crimes took place, citing the fact that Soussana is the only victim who has come forward to testify.The documentary makes it crystal clear that the tragic truth is that almost all the rape victims were murdered following, and sometimes during, the assaults. Sandberg visited Israel to make this film so that she could “let those silenced voices be heard.”

Nevertheless, many still insist that they have not seen any convincing evidence of the assaults, in sharp contrast to the way rape victims in other conflicts such as the Bosnian War in the 1990s have been treated, so showing this documentary at the White House will bring much-needed attention to this issue.

Out of respect for the victims and their families, the film does not contain any explicit images, but it does feature graphic descriptions of sexual violence. Sandberg said in the documentary that “this is the most important work of my life and maybe everything I’ve done has led to this moment. . . Rape is not resistance. Sexual violence is never acceptable.”


‘All the feelings came back to us’: Father marks 10 years since Hamas killed his son
“Back then, Hamas did not look for Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach or Gilad Shaar, they looked for a Jew, for Jews to kill. That’s exactly what they did on October 7,” Avraham Fraenkel told JNS on Thursday, a day after he marked a decade since terrorists murdered his son near Hebron.

“The scale was much larger but it came from the same source. All the feelings came back to us,” he added.

Ten years ago, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Yifrach, 19, and Shaar, 16, went missing from a bus stop outside Kibbutz Kfar Etzion in Judea. After a three-week search, their bodies were found. Their abduction and murder set off a chain reaction resulting in “Operation Protective Edge,” the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014.

“There is a new layer of sadness a decade later. I am not sure that even now I understand completely what happened,” Avraham Fraenkel said. “Life goes on. Being a bereaved father is part of me, it’s part of who I am, but it is not the thing that defines me.”

Fraenkel and his wife, Rachelle, have six more children, some of whom have married. Their youngest is about to enter Mekor Haim, the same high school that Naftali was hitchhiking home from when he was kidnapped.

“Back in 2014, for 18 days, we were hoping to find our boys and wanted to believe they were still alive, held hostage, that’s what we were told was the goal,” said Fraenkel. “So after October 7, we thought we could help others but it’s now been over 250 days.

“Like a lot of Israelis, we have gone to many funerals and shivahs [mourning gatherings]. There’s a few families with whom we are in contact,” he added.


JBA Talks: Congressman Ritchie Torres & Roz Rothstein from StandWithus

The Israel Guys: The IDF Uses Medieval Tactics and Hospitals in Israel Prepare for WAR with HEZBOLLAH
Things are really heating up on Israel’s northern border. Drones, rockets, out of control forest fires, targeted assassinations, hospitals preparing for war, and the IDF reverting to midevil tactics.




Rich Lowry: With pro-Hamas protests, each day’s another Charlottesville
The pro-Hamas slogans aren’t any better than the infamous “Jews won’t replace us” chant of the tiki-torchers; in fact, they are more openly genocidal and violent.

And there are the same angry confrontations with bystanders and threatening behavior.

In other words, most of the pro-Hamas actions are on the order of a KKK rally that isn’t intensely violent, but results in property destruction and various altercations, with COVID masks to hide the identity of the perpetrators substituting for white hoods.

Yes, there have been denunciations of the pro-Hamas protests, including from the White House and even Squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (the hideous protest outside the NYC music-festival exhibit was too much even for her).

Still, there’s not the same sense of national crisis as there’d be if white supremacists were showing up all over the country, and agitating against Jews and vandalizing property — can you imagine the headlines and nightly news reports?

Nor is there the same overwhelming media drumbeat condemning anyone associated with the protesters or their worldview.

Substitute swastikas or confederate flags for the pro-terrorist symbols, chants of “blood and soil” for “from the river to the sea,” and calls for “Anschluss” for calls for “intifada,” and it’d be a very different situation.

The backlash would be intense and irresistible — it’d be all anyone was talking about, and excuses for, or coddling of, the protesters would be considered intolerable.

Instead, because not all Jew hatred, political extremism and support for terrorism are viewed the same, the pro-Hamas protests are more or less background noise.

While the White House has distanced itself from the excesses, it has also clearly shifted its Israel policy to try to accommodate the pro-Hamas protesters.

So, to be more precise, the anti-Israel agitation is like Charlottesville — if that event spawned disruptions all over the country and succeeded in shifting national policy in its direction, rather than discrediting its own odious cause.
Anti-Israel protests surround Biden’s LA campaign fundraiser featuring Obama, George Clooney and Julia Roberts
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters descended on President Biden’s star-studded Los Angeles campaign fundraiser on Saturday night, where he’s expected to haul in a record-setting $28 million.

The demonstrators attempted to block the entrance and disrupt the ritzy event at the Peacock Theater in downtown LA.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted “From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever,” video posted on social media shows. Several of the protesters donned shirts that read “cease fire now” and “not in our name.”

“Biden Biden you’re a liar, we demand a ceasefire,” others said, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

The crowd reportedly swelled as guests filed in for the fundraiser, which featured President Barack Obama, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Jason Bateman, Jack Black, Kathryn Hahn, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and more.

Dozens of police in riot gear formed a line to keep the protesters away from the theater.

LAPD confirmed to The Post that no arrests were made.

Biden is expected to raise a whopping $28 million for the big night as he stocks his coffers for the home stretch before the November election.

Tickets for the big night were sold from $250 to $500,000.
Black Star Pastry baristas wore keffiyehs to work. The next day they were sacked
Ella and Lucy loved working at the Black Star Pastry in the Chadstone Shopping Centre. For them, it was about more than just making coffee.

“It was a high school job that turned into a livelihood,” Ella says. “It very much became part of my identity as well.”

The 22-year-olds — who asked that their surnames not be used — shared interests in barista techniques, but also human rights. They became regular attendees of the Sunday rallies for Palestine, a weekly fixture among those protesting against the war in Gaza.

“Just walking in a group, hearing and feeling the emotions of the community going through such a horrific crisis right now,” Ella says. “It hit me really hard.”

It was the second day of “Keffiyeh Week”, a national pro-Palestine campaign in late January, when they decided to wear keffiyehs to work. Ella says the initial reaction was positive.

“We had a few Muslim women come up, they were overjoyed seeing us in a keffiyeh, they had a lot of gratitude. They actually stopped and bought a couple of cakes and coffees to have a conversation with us,” Ella says.

“We thought this is a great thing for everyone.”

That changed around lunchtime when Ella received a call from HR, instructing them to remove the keffiyehs. They quickly complied, removed the scarves and continued their shifts.

“We didn’t want to risk our livelihood. I’d been working there 9am to 5pm for months. I’d given a lot of my waking hours to that place, I didn’t want to lose my stability,” Ella says.

The next day, however, two senior Black Star Pastry employees visited the store, pulled them aside, and informed them they were sacked, effective immediately.

They were given termination letters that said the keffiyeh was “divisive and inflammatory” and wearing it to work was “serious enough to bring Black Star Pastry into disrepute”.
‘Anti-Israel activists will weaken support for cultural events’
Barclays has hit back at anti-Israel activists after the bank was asked to withdraw sponsorship from summer music festivals, following protests at their involvement.

Barclays was due to sponsor the remaining Live Nation festivals, including the Download Festival taking place in Leicester this weekend.

Several acts had announced that they would be pulling out of the festival due to sponsorship from the bank, which the Bands Boycott Barclays campaign had accused of “facilitating Israeli war crimes”.

In a statement, Barclays said it had been “asked and has agreed to suspend participation in the remaining Live Nation festivals in 2024”.

But it said that “[the] only thing that this small group of activists will achieve is to weaken essential support for cultural events enjoyed by millions. It is time that leaders across politics, business, academia and the arts stand united against this.”

In a comment piece in the Guardian, the bank’s chief executive, CS Venkatakrishnan, wrote: “The UK’s creative and cultural life is world-renowned and respected. Our literary and music festivals are the warp and weft of our cultural life and an important source of sales and exposure for artists. Rejecting funding only hurts their livelihood and our broader culture. Nobody benefits from reduced funding for the arts.”

Early last week, 20 of the company’s bank in different parts of the country were vandalised, with windows at the St John’s Wood branch in north-west London smashed and defaced with red paint.

Claiming responsibility, the groups Palestine Action and Shut the System demanded Barclays divest from “Israel’s weapon trade and fossil fuels”.

The bank said that “the protestors’ agenda was to have Barclays debank defence companies which is a sector we remain committed to as an essential part of keeping this country and our allies safe. They have resorted to intimidating our staff, repeated vandalism of our branches and online harassment.”
Music Gig in East London Steam Room Bans Zionists
A record company that held a music event which barred Zionists from entry has been reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Makaan Records held a held a public music event called “Makaan 6”, at a Steam Room in East London on Saturday 8 June 2024, featuring Saroor, an artist of Sudanese heritage, who “uses music as a tool to fight patriarchal discourses”, and FAEL, who was performing virtually from Algeria.

The advert for the event stated “Key points: No racism, no sexism, no homophobia, no transphobia, No Zioni3sts…”

Several concerned members of the public contacted UKLFI, who were shocked to see the ban. UKLFI has written to Anahita Shamsaei, a SOAS graduate who runs Makaan Records, as well as to the EHRC.

UKLFI’s letters pointed out that the ban on Zionists was illegal, as it was discriminatory, contrary to the Equality Act 2010. Since most Jews and most Israelis are Zionists, it indirectly discriminated against Jews and Israelis.

UKLFI also highlighted the recent case in the Employment Tribunal of Miller v University of Bristol which held that “The claimant’s anti-Zionist beliefs qualified as a philosophical belief and as a protected characteristic pursuant to section 10 Equality Act 2010”. UKLFI argued that Zionist beliefs would also qualify as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

UKLFI has asked Ms Shamsaei to apologise for the upset caused by her racist advertisement and has also asked the EHRC to look into this matter.


'Crackhead Barney' harasses Quentin Tarantino over Israel
Quentin Tarantino, who lives in Tel Aviv with his Israeli wife, singer/model Daniela Pick, and their two children, was harassed in New York on Saturday by a notorious anti-Israel activist performance artist known as Crackhead Barney, who called the Pulp Fiction director a “Zionist piece of s***,” according to the New York Post and social media reports, including video posted to the petulant provocateur’s own account.

Tarantino, who was dining solo at Che Li restaurant on St. Marks Place, kept his cool like Jules, the quietly menacing hitman of the director’s Oscar-winning 1994 hit, but he stayed quiet and did not respond with Jules’s famous line, “And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

Barney, clad in a bikini top that came askew and a plaid miniskirt, urged him, “Tarantino, say n*****!” an epithet he often uses in his scripts. He walked past her calmly as she called out, “Free Palestine!” and got into a waiting car.

“Going to Israel?” the nattering nudnick is heard asking at one point.

Barney similarly harassed Alex Baldwin several months ago.


Hate comes to university camp but hides its face
On a sunny Friday afternoon in May, as prominent Sydney sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun led protesters through Sydney University’s quadrangle chanting free Palestine slogans, a diligent encampment regular filmed with his mobile phone.

Hours later, the vision compiled by Al-Aksha Bhuiyan was edited and distributed online via a slick campaign platform, Stand For Palestine.

The group emerged shortly after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 that left more than 1200 Israelis dead and dozens taken hostage, and as Israel’s brutal and bloody response was under way.

In a break from filming, as students in graduation garb flanked by their parents passed the university quadrangle where the protesters had also set up camp, Bhuiyan explained he was Stand For Palestine’s multimedia co-ordinator but politely declined an interview. He’s not so reserved online.

In social media posts, Bhuiyan has written that Muslims will “continue resisting until Israel is completely wiped off the map, from the river to the sea”. He supports “armed resistance against Zionist barbarism”.

Police threatening to shut down student encampments are acting “in obedience to the corrupt state”, while Muslim groups that deal with Australian politicians are sell-outs.

It is not suggested Bhuiyan’s extreme views are endorsed more broadly by a protest movement that has mobilised to raise justified concerns about Israel’s bloody response to the Hamas attack, which has cost more than 37,000 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza health authorities.

But Bhuiyan’s activities on campus and online shed rare light on a hidden and fringe pocket of the pro-Palestine movement: that involving the Australian operation of a radical international Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir. In January, the group was banned in Britain as a terrorist organisation after it expressed support for Hamas, itself a proscribed terrorist outfit.

While there is no suggestion Hizb ut-Tahrir has any official role in the regular weekend rallies that have drawn thousands to the streets in Sydney and Melbourne, the group’s Australian chapter is highly active and seeking to influence the broader protest movement.

Bhuiyan is a cog in Hizb ut-Tahrir’s sophisticated campaign to seize on legitimate grievances about the Gaza conflict to muster support for the controversial group’s goal to destroy Israel as part of the creation of a caliphate ruled by Islamic law and stretching across majority-Muslim nations.

As it seeks to recruit and radicalise, Hizb ut-Tahrir is using front groups to infiltrate the university encampment and pro-Palestine movements.

The most prominent is Stand For Palestine, a pop-up group that operates across multiple online platforms and works in coalition with several Muslim groups, including at least one that was unaware of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s role in pulling the strings.

Where Hizb ut-Tahrir is regarded warily by many in the Muslim and broader community due to its hardline views, limiting its membership, Stand For Palestine has no obvious extremist baggage.

In a few months, it has gained 33,000 followers across social media, helped organise protests in Sydney and Melbourne and encouraged demonstrations and the defacing of the prime minister’s office.

A deep dive of the online accounts of its backers also reveals that Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia has stepped up its presence in mosques and youth groups.

Despite the group’s long history of antisemitism and hate speech, and its January banning in Britain, it has attracted almost no recent public scrutiny in Australia, save for the occasional removal of content deemed offensive by the tech giants.
‘They divide’: Group banned in the UK eyes Australian division over war
British counter-extremism expert Hadiya Masieh, who was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir for a decade before leaving the group in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005, said Hizb ut-Tahrir preyed on vulnerable people and used popular causes as a hook.

“Hizb ut-Tahrir, like other extreme groups, will use any mechanism they can to push their agenda,” she said.

“They divide, they prey on people, and they brand and market themselves very well. So they are very interested in using as many avenues as possible.”

A day after Hamas had launched its co-ordinated attack in southern Israel, killing about 1200 people and taking another 250 hostage, radical Islamist preacher Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun shared his feelings of elation with the crowd at a Hizb ut-Tahrir-sponsored gathering in Lakemba, in Sydney’s south-west.

“I’m smiling and I’m happy,” Dadoun told attendees. “I’m elated. It’s a day of courage. It’s a day of pride. It’s a day of victory. This is the day we’ve been waiting for.”

He later denied that the statements meant he was condoning the killing of civilians.

Since then, the group has issued calls for armies from Muslim-majority countries to “ignore artificial borders” and “respond to their divine obligation” to join Hamas in its fight against Israel, and referred to the conflict in Gaza as a first step in the establishment of a global caliphate.

“If a handful of Muslims could rattle the occupation and the entire international community in a single morning, what then could be achieved by the collective efforts of the surrounding armies of Muslim countries?” a Hizb ut-Tahrir press release dated October 8 read.

“The liberation of Palestine by the Muslims will be the start of the liberation of humanity from the clutches of the West, and that day is sooner than we think inshallah [God willing].”

When this masthead approached Dadoun for comment, he refused to answer questions.

“Hizb ut-Tahrir have been around for a long period of time,” Roose said. “Many people view them as redundant, as irrelevant, to the conversation. However, in recent years in particular, they have become more active, and the extent of their rhetoric, and the potential violence inherent in their rhetoric, is also concerning.”

It is this rhetoric that prompted British Home Secretary James Cleverly to controversially proscribe Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist group in January, arguing it would hamstring the group’s ability to operate and allow authorities to come after its supporters.

The move has been criticised by civil libertarians, Muslim groups and some security experts who claim it curtails free speech and risks pushing the group underground where it would be harder to monitor.

The decision came after the British chapter praised the October 7 attacks and Hamas as “heroes”, and fantasised about what a unified Muslim world could achieve “if this can be done by a resistance group”.

Hizb ut-Tahrir further inflamed the situation by holding a pro-Palestine rally in London where members made inflammatory speeches calling for jihad and Muslim armies to intervene in Gaza.

Until that moment, Hizb ut-Tahrir had successfully walked the line between engaging in incendiary commentary and breaking terrorism laws, dodging separate proscription attempts under Britain and Australia’s differing legal regimes.


DOE hired ex-‘Intifada High’ principal’s group for staff workshops on Israel-Hamas war
The city Department of Education has inexplicably tapped a group headed by the notorious former “Intifada High” principal to lead school-staff workshops on handling the Israel-Hamas war in the classroom, infuriated teachers told The Post.

Debbie Almontaser now pulls in hundreds of thousands of dollars in city contracts with her consulting firm Bridging Cultures Group, which on June 6 led professional development training sessions at at least 10 city public schools, teachers said.

In a workshop titled “Facilitating Courageous Conversations,” a pair of Jewish and Muslim facilitators discussed lesson plans for how to teach and guide students on discussing the ongoing war, but Jewish teachers seethed that the training material was slanted against Israel.

Sharon Malkin, an art teacher at Horace Greeley IS 10Q in Astoria, Queens, said one slide in the presentation described the Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state and 8-month bombardment of Gaza as “emotionally traumatizing” — but made no mention of 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas nor missile strikes launched at Israel by Iran and terror groups.

In a second workshop, a Jewish lecturer who had posted photos on Facebook with a Palestinian flag sticker snickered before providing her group data on the 1,200 Jewish deaths on Oct. 7 compared to over 37,000 Palestinian deaths over the past eight months, according to Malkin and a video recording of the training.

“Where do you think people are going to fall on that, especially people that don’t have any facts,” Malkin said, adding that her school’s principal apologized and canceled additional Bridging Culture’s workshops planned for the next day.

The department’s decision to hire Bridging Cultures — which offers workshops on how to teach about 9/11 in the classroom and religious diversity — flummoxed Jewish teachers, especially given Almontaser’s infamous history with the subject matter.

In a 2007 interview with The Post, Almontaser condoned T-shirts created and sold by an Arab women’s activist group that read “Intifada NYC.”
Publicly funded arts center cancels Jewish school’s event over Gaza ‘genocide’
A Belgian arts center has riled up controversy over its director canceling a Jewish school’s event there because Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza, according to a new report.

Lana Willems, the director of Antwerp’s publicly funded Monty Hall, rejected a June 27 event from the Tachkemoni Jewish School, telling the school’s administration that she was horrified by the war in Gaza and claiming Israel was conducting war crimes against Palestinians, the Times of Israel reported.

“We look with horror at the genocide that is currently taking place in Gaza,” Willems wrote. “We also work closely with several Palestinian artists who are also suffering from the occupation.

“For these reasons, we cannot currently respond to a rental request from an organization for which we see links with present-day Israel,” she concluded.

The decision garnered immediate backlash and condemnation, with Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chair of the European Jewish Association, calling on Antwerp to terminate its public funding of the site over Willem’s alleged act of blatant “racism and antisemitism.

“It is naked discrimination based on a conflict thousands of kilometers away on the most innocent of all, Jewish schoolchildren,” the rabbi told the Jewish News Syndicate. “If it is allowed to stand, the message is simple: ‘Jews, you are second-class citizens, and you are to be punished for events elsewhere.’ ”

The backlash over Willems’ decision caused her to issue a public apology June 9 for letting an international conflict affect the daily lives of Jewish children.

“I made errors in the initial communication with the school, for which I have explicitly apologized to them,” Willems said in a statement.

“I established falsely and prematurely a connection between the school and the Israeli government, with which we do not want to cooperate, or any organization associated with it,” she added.

It remains unclear if the Tachkemoni Jewish School will work with the Monty Hall arts center on an event there.


Al Jazeera caught censoring Gazan criticism for Hamas
Social media in the Arab world was rocked over the past week, after Al Jazeera Palestine, a subsidiary of Al Jazeera, posted a video of a Gazan doctor who claimed he was injured in Nuseirat during Operation Arnon to rescue the four hostages.

In the video, the doctor is seen crying and screaming about the casualties, saying: “It is true that we are steadfast;” but then the video suddenly cuts, and the man is seen crying again.

In a longer, uncut version of the video circulating online, the reason for the cutting and editing became clear. During his original speech, the man also said: “This rotten leadership will end up blaming us that we... it is true that we are steadfast, however, our leadership is scum. Our leadership got used to this bloodshed, may Allah reckon with them!... Swear to me that this video will reach the Palestinian leadership. This massacre at Nuseirat – we could have prevented it!”

It is unclear how the man meant for the so-called “massacre” to be prevented. Some speculated that he was referring to the fact that civilians from the area knew about the holding of hostages in their neighbors’ homes.


Katz calls Belarus president’s remarks ‘clear’ antisemitism
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Sunday described remarks made by Belarus’s president a day earlier as “unacceptable and “outrageous,” adding that they “sound like clear antisemitic comments.”

Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday blamed Jews for corruption charges facing his government.

“Here are 36 people on a list involved in corruption,” he said during a government meeting, also referring specifically to his former aide and agricultural minister Igor Barillo. “Sorry, I don’t consider myself antisemitic, but more than half of them are Jewish. Do they have a special, privileged role, that they steal and do not think about their future? Do they have privileges? All peoples living in Belarus should be equal. Jews, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and Poles,” the Baltic leader added.

The head of the ministry’s Eurasia bureau, Yuval Fuchs, has lodged a complaint with Belarus’s ambassador in Israel regarding the matter, Katz told JNS.

Lukashenko has a history of making antisemitic remarks. In 2017 he accused Jews of turning Babruysk, a historic Belarusian city with deep Jewish ties, into a “pig house.”

In 2021, he said the world “kneels” to Jews because of the Holocaust.

“The Jews succeeded in causing the entire world to kneel to them and no one will dare raise a voice and deny the Holocaust,” he said at a ceremony for Belarus’s independence day, celebrated on the day Soviet forces liberated the capital city of Minsk from the Nazis in 1944.

Finally, two months after the Oct. 7 massacre, speaking of Armenia, he said they were smart people because “there is not even one Jew there.”
Court: Argentina failed to prevent or properly probe 1994 Jewish center bombing
A top human rights court on Friday held the Argentine state responsible for not preventing, nor properly investigating, an attack on a Jewish center 30 years ago that left 85 people dead.

It also blamed the state for efforts to “cover up and obstruct the investigation,” robbing victims and their loved ones of justice.

On July 18, 1994, a truck laden with explosives drove into the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), a Jewish community center, and detonated, in the deadliest attack in the South American country’s history. The attack killed 85 people and injured more than 300.

Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America, with some 300,000 members.

Authorities have never found those responsible for the 1994 attack, nor has anyone claimed responsibility for it. However, Argentina and Israel have long suspected Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, of carrying it out at Tehran’s request.

In April, an Argentine court blamed Hezbollah for the attack, calling it a “crime against humanity” and labeling Iran a “terrorist state.”

The court found that the attack on AMIA, and another on the Israeli embassy in 1992 that killed 29 people, were likely triggered when the government under then-Argentine president Carlos Menem canceled three contracts to supply Iran with nuclear equipment and technology.

Menem, who died in 2021 and was the president at the time of both attacks, was tried for covering up the AMIA bombing, but ultimately acquitted.
Fourteen Jordanians die during hajj in Saudi Arabia, some succumb to heat
Fourteen Jordanians have been reported dead during the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, some of them due to heat stroke, while 17 others were reported missing, the Jordanian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

At least of six of the fatalities were heat related, the ministry said on Saturday, with temperatures predicted to reach 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in Mecca on Monday.

It didn't specify on Sunday whether the higher death toll was also due to the heat.

The Hajj, which will end on Wednesday, is one of the largest mass gatherings in the world, with more than 1.8 million pilgrims expected to take part this year, according to the Saudi General Authority for Statistics.

The dangerous component to Hajj
Stampedes, tent fires, heat and other factors have caused hundreds of deaths at the event over the past 30 years.

The Saudi health ministry issued an advisory on Thursday warning of soaring temperatures and advising pilgrims to stay hydrated and avoid being outdoors during the hottest hours of the day between 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) and 3 p.m.

The Jordanian foreign ministry was coordinating with Saudi authorities on procedures to bury or transport the bodies of the deceased according to their family's wishes, it said on Sunday.

In 2015, a deadly crush at the Hajj near Mecca killed at least 2,070 people, according to a Reuters tally at the time.




Bassem Eid: What Might Break Through Hamas's Popularity?
For me, as a Palestinian human rights activist, one of the most disappointing phenomena of the ongoing war is the enduring support for Hamas among sectors of the Palestinian general public.

Support for Hamas is much higher in the West Bank - misgoverned by Hamas's archrivals - which rule the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Popular support for violence persists despite the devastating impact that following radical leaders and ideologies has historically had on the Palestinian people.

Misinformation campaigns, often fueled by Hamas and its allies, have painted violent terrorism as the only path to dignity and rights for Palestinians.

Palestinian schoolbooks and public media are rife with antisemitic and jihadi content.

Moreover, the leadership's tactics, such as the glorification and financial reward of acts of violence, commonly referred to as "pay-for-slay" payments, only serve to entrench a culture of violence.

What is needed now is a concerted effort from the world community to demand a transformation within Palestinian leadership towards moderation and practicality, including ceasing incitement, ending financial incentives for violence, and promoting political and economic stability.
As War Drags On, Gazans More Willing to Speak Out Against Hamas
Hamas leaders have said they wanted to ignite a permanent state of war with Israel on all fronts as a way to revive the Palestinian cause, However, in interviews with Gaza residents, a number of them said they held Hamas responsible for starting the war and helping to bring death and destruction upon them.

Gaza photojournalist Motaz Azaiza wrote after he left Gaza: "Cursed be everyone who trafficked in our blood, burned our hearts and homes, and ruined our lives." Obada Shtaya, a Palestinian and a founder of the Institute for Social and Economic Progress, said, "When you realize six months in or seven months in that Gaza is completely destroyed, your life as a Gazan is completely destroyed, that's where people are coming from when they are not supportive of [Hamas leaders] Sinwar or Haniyeh."

When Hamas attacked Israel, most Gazans supported that "form of resistance," said a lawyer from Gaza. "But what we don't support is them continuing with this war when they have not accomplished any of the goals they set out to accomplish. This isn't resistance. This is insanity."


Don't be fooled by Iran-IAEA games, time running out to block nukes
Iran’s response to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) condemnation on June 5 was surprisingly muted.Since 2012, the IAEA has had the guts to condemn the Islamic Republic for its numerous nuclear violations only four times, so the retaliation could have been fierce and significant.

Instead, Tehran “merely” disclosed to the IAEA and various diplomats that it was going to increase the number of centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium, including to the 60% level.

In 2020, such a change would have been an earthquake-like elevation of the potential nuclear threat level.But the fact is that Iran has now been enriching to the 60% level with very large numbers of advanced centrifuges for four years without crossing the nuclear weapons threshold.

So, as dangerously close to nuclear weapons as this brings Tehran, it is far short of jumping to the 90% weaponized uranium level, withdrawing from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and kicking out not just some but all of the IAEA nuclear inspectors from the country.

Even if part of Iran’s weak retaliation is due to being in a presidential transition period until June 28, when a new president will replace Ebrahim Raisi, who died recently in a helicopter crash, the fact is that the response was weak.

In that sense, the West could be ready to pat itself on the back: for the first time in 18 months, it condemned Iran’s nuclear violations, and the Islamic Republic itself seemed deterred from doing much about it.But this misses the real story.

The real story is that the West – and Israel, for that matter – are working on borrowed time against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s nuclear program.
France, Germany, UK condemn Iran’s nuclear escalation
France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Saturday condemned Iran’s latest steps to expand its nuclear program.

“Iran has taken further steps in hollowing out the JCPOA, by operating dozens of additional advanced centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment site as well as announcing it will install thousands more centrifuges at both its Fordow and Natanz sites,” they said in a statement, an English version of which was posted on the U.K.’s government website.

The steps taken by Iran will increase both its uranium stockpile and enrichment capacity, which already well exceed the JCPOA’s limits, the three western powers said.

The JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal, was signed in 2015 by Iran and several world powers. It limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Iran’s decision “carries significant proliferation risks,” they said, noting that Tehran’s move to increase production capacity at its underground Fordow facility is “especially concerning.”

Their statement follows one on Friday by the Group of Seven leaders (G7) warning Iran against advancing its nuclear enrichment program.

“We urge Tehran to cease and reverse nuclear escalations, and stop the continuing uranium enrichment activities that have no credible civilian justifications,” the statement read, according to Reuters.
Leading Jewish educator: ‘It’s dangerous to wear a kippah in certain parts of the UK’
One of British Jewry’s leading educationists has spoken out about the antisemitic abuse he has experienced post-October 7 and said it was “dangerous” to walk in certain areas wearing a kippah.

Rabbi David Meyer, the chief executive of the Jewish schools’ network PaJeS, told Israeli news website Ynet: “I think there isn't a single Jew here who hasn't wondered if we're witnessing the end of the Jewish community in England.”

Rabbi Meyer was recently honoured by being chosen to be one of the diaspora representatives to take part in the torchlighting ceremony in Jerusalem to mark Israel’s Independence Day.

He told the news platform that while travelling on the train a few days after the Hamas attack on Israel, people had approached him, “saying what happened was wrong and that they stood with us.

“Now, in the city centre, it's almost impossible to walk around [looking] visibly Jewish without someone shouting at me. It has happened several times.”

Shouts of “’Jew’” and “’genocide’ had been directed at him, he said. “All sorts of things… I don't listen, I don't care. But it's clear that it's happening. We've reached a point where I think it's dangerous to walk around with a kippah or a Star of David in certain places.”

He said there were “no issues” in the Jewish area of London where he lived. “But when I travelled to Manchester, I wore a hat that covered my kippah. In central London, I do wear a kippah, but it feels uncomfortable,” he said.

While the events of October 7 had brought some Jews closer to their faith, others didn’t want to associate themselves because of the antisemitism, he said.

England had changed “completely” since October 7. “My parents came from India to England in the 1950s. We felt like part of the English community. I could be Jewish, religious, Zionist – and also part of English society.


British Israeli Independence War veteran dies at 100
Sidney Lightman, of the last British members of Machal, the illustrious band of foreign volunteers who helped to secure Israel’s independence, has died at the age of 100.

The former assistant editor of the Jewish Chronicle was a gifted linguist who spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, German and French and continued to work as a translator well into his late 90s.

Having served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, he was a management trainee with a cigarette company when Israel declared independence in 1948.

“I was no Zionist,” he recalled later in a JC article. “But my brother and I had been imbued by our parents with a strong Jewish consciousness— and even if we had not been, some of our non-Jewish schoolmates and, later, fellow servicemen, did not let us forget that we were Jews. I decided to volunteer for Israel.”

By the end of the year he had sailed for Haifa and served on a frigate with the embryonic Israeli Navy until he was demobbed a year later. He remained in Israel until 1954.

After working for the Jewish Observer in London, he joined the foreign desk of the JC in 1963 and continued as a freelance after his official retirement in 1986.
Elisha Wiesel [2017]: My Father, Elie Wiesel
There was a time when I could not see clearly what I had in my father. I loved him, but I saw his quiet voice as weakness, not strength. I did not want to be like him—so I felt, so I said, and so I acted. And it was at this time, when I had never been more distant from him, when I had wanted nothing more than to be free of my family’s history—that the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave my father a blessing. “One day,” the Rebbe told my father, “you will be proud of your son—he will be proud of you—and then you will both be proud of me.” I grow prouder of my father with the passage of each and every day, and I hope that he and the Rebbe are carrying on their grand philosophical discussions and enjoying each other’s company up above.

This is what I want to tell you about my father: My father was a builder of bridges across generations. Through his love, reaching both forward and backward through time, I feel connected not only to him but to my grandparents as well. He was a builder of bridges across cultures and faiths. He taught and learned from Hindu and Muslim students, he broke bread with cardinals and atheists. He valued friendship as an ideal above all others. He had a way of seeing the best in people that brought their better natures to the surface. And he pursued his friendships from a position of inner strength and confidence derived from knowing where he came from. Throughout his entire life, he worked with a picture of his childhood home in Sighet over his desk.

I want to tell you about the things that connect and separate fathers and sons, of the bridges to friendship and the spaces they must cross, and of seeing through to the best in people. I want to tell you about my father’s voice, which could thunder for justice in front of world leaders, but could also, in its quietness, cause even his most skeptical adversary to lean in and listen carefully. And I want to tell you about the wonderful and warm person he was—not when he was on the world’s stage but when he was engaged in everyday interactions with people: his students, his friends, the taxi driver, the attending physician, the person he just met next to him on the plane. Whether you came up to tell him you admired him or disagreed with him, he always asked for your name, and he would always take the time to hear your story.

I am indebted to the Washington Post’s Eli Saslow for his strong and authentic journalism in sharing the story of Derek Black and Matthew Stevenson. Derek Black is the son of Don Black, prominent white supremacist and operator of the Stormfront website. Derek had been groomed since childhood to inherit this legacy and was already attracting a following due to his strong innate qualities as a leader. But although he led a talk show devoted to white supremacy off-campus, Derek sought a lower profile on the New College of Florida campus and did not broadcast his activities. Away from home for the first time, he was determined to pursue rational thought wherever it led him.

Attending the same college was Matthew Stevenson, a Jewish student on campus who had the bravery to host Shabbat dinners in a place where there were none. Matthew is very much the product of his parents: His father believed in and taught Jewish teachings of self-transformation. His mother, who sadly passed away last year, believed fervently in service to others. And so Matthew came to college with a strong base of confidence and values. He reached out to other groups and faiths—and those without either—and made his table a focal point for fellowship and dialogue. And then a chance encounter involving country music—yes, I finally have a reason to be grateful for country music—brought him and Derek Black together.

Matthew saw in Derek a soul who seemed isolated, who had grown up through no fault of his own in an environment where hatred was woven into the fabric of daily life. So when Derek faced an angry campus in the wake of his identity having been revealed by a sharp-eyed third party, Matthew invited him to Shabbat dinner with some of his friends. And another one. And another one after that. And after becoming close to Matthew and his friends, people he had been taught to hate, Derek wrestled with what he thought and felt and furiously considered what it would mean to break with his past.
Evidence found in Israeli street of the last Jewish revolt against Rome
In a historic first, evidence of the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in Israel 1,650 years ago has been uncovered in the central Israeli city of Lod, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Sunday.

The discovery of a large public Jewish building from the Late Roman-Early Byzantine period that had been violently destroyed over a millennium and a half ago unveiled a hoard of 94 coins hidden underneath the flooring dating back to the time of the final revolt, the state-run archaeological body said.

The silver and bronze coins, dated between 221 and 354 C.E., were placed there by a person or persons unknown in the hopes of returning to collect them when the situation calmed down.

The dates coincide with the little-known Gallus Revolt against the Romans in 351-354 C.E., in which major Jewish communities such as Lod, Tzipori and Tiberias were destroyed by the forces of Roman Ceasar Flavius Claudius Constantius Gallus more than two centuries after the failed Bar Kochba Revolt.

(Under Emperor Constantius II, Gallus served as deputy emperor, based in Antioch.)

Among the various finds in the building, which was uncovered during an excavation on Nordau Street, were impressive stone and marble artifacts; Greek, Hebrew and Latin inscriptions; and one inscription bearing the name of a Jewish man from a priestly family, which is still being studied.

The inscriptions and the complete absence of pig bones in the bone assemblage uncovered at this site attest to this building’s association with the Jewish community, IAA said.
travelingisrael.com: Not all Cultures are Equal (and You Know it)



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