Wednesday, June 19, 2024

06/19 Links Pt1: ‘Obama’s Law’ is bringing destruction and death to most of the Middle East; Hamas is like Boko Haram, says Kemi Badenoch; Rafah: 'No home without a tunnel,'

From Ian:

‘Obama’s Law’ is bringing destruction and death to most of the Middle East
Edward Luttwak — soldier, strategist, historian, rancher — calls it Obama’s Law: “Iran may attack all, but none may attack Iran.”

The Biden administration has followed Obama’s Law in the same fumbling, shambolic way as an apparently catatonic Joe Biden followed Obama’s cue to leave the stage at a June 15 fundraiser in Los Angeles. The result is Iran on the verge of the bomb, Israel attacked from all sides and chaos and war across the Middle East.

The Biden administration is now trying to prevent full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah – or, rather, continuing to stop Israel from responding fully to the war that Hezbollah launched last October.

Since 2006, according to the State Department, the US has given $2.5 billion to Lebanon’s official army, the Lebanese Armed Forces. The object is to create an “institutional counterweight to Hezbollah”, the real power in the land. The money is supposed to be spent on four areas: sovereignty, border security, internal security and counterterrorism.

A 2022 report by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies found that only in counterterrorism had the LAF developed its capacity. In every other area, Hezbollah had continued to advance its conquest of Lebanon.

As with its subventions to the Palestinians, no one really knows where the money ends up. As with American support of the Palestinians, a policy that is intended to support “moderates” has in effect given diplomatic and financial cover to terrorists.

Hezbollah has ignored UN Resolution 1701, which ordered the demilitarisation of southern Lebanon. The US has looked the other way. Some 80,000 Israelis are refugees in their own country, yet the Biden administration pressures Israel not to respond.

Obama’s Law is also in operation in Gaza. The Biden administration does not want Israel to destroy Hamas. It wants Israel to domesticate Hamas. The administration claims to believe that a genocidal Islamist group will not only accept the existence of a Jewish state; Hamas will also accept a piddling non-state as a pay-off.

This lunacy is nothing more than the logic of the “two-state solution”, played out in reality. The West expects that the Palestinians can be bribed into becoming a shoddy version of Israel, a pluralist, Western-style democracy with the rule of law. Both states can then be integrated into an American-run regional architecture.

This is delusional and dangerous.
The Return of Peace Through Strength
Si vis pacem, para bellum is a Latin phrase that emerged in the fourth century that means “If you want peace, prepare for war.” The concept’s origin dates back even further, to the second-century Roman emperor Hadrian, to whom is attributed the axiom, “Peace through strength—or, failing that, peace through threat.”

U.S. President George Washington understood this well. “If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for war,” he told Congress in 1793. The idea was echoed in President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous dictum: “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.” And as a candidate for president, Ronald Reagan borrowed directly from Hadrian when he promised to achieve “peace through strength”—and later delivered on that promise.

In 2017, President Donald Trump brought this ethos back to the White House after the Obama era, during which the United States had a president who felt it necessary to apologize for the alleged sins of American foreign policy and sapped the strength of the U.S. military. That ended when Trump took office. As he proclaimed to the UN General Assembly in September 2020, the United States was “fulfilling its destiny as peacemaker, but it is peace through strength.”

And Trump was a peacemaker—a fact obscured by false portrayals of him but perfectly clear when one looks at the record. Just in the final 16 months of his administration, the United States facilitated the Abraham Accords, bringing peace to Israel and three of its neighbors in the Middle East plus Sudan; Serbia and Kosovo agreed to U.S.-brokered economic normalization; Washington successfully pushed Egypt and key Gulf states to settle their rift with Qatar and end their blockade of the emirate; and the United States entered into an agreement with the Taliban that prevented any American combat deaths in Afghanistan for nearly the entire final year of the Trump administration.

Trump was determined to avoid new wars and endless counterinsurgency operations, and his presidency was the first since that of Jimmy Carter in which the United States did not enter a new war or expand an existing conflict. Trump also ended one war with a rare U.S. victory, wiping out the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) as an organized military force and eliminating its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

But unlike during Carter’s term, under Trump, U.S. adversaries did not exploit Americans’ preference for peace. In the Trump years, Russia did not press further forward after its 2014 invasion of Ukraine, Iran did not dare to directly attack Israel, and North Korea stopped testing nuclear weapons after a combination of diplomatic outreach and a U.S. military show of force. And although China maintained an aggressive posture during Trump’s time in office, its leadership surely noted Trump’s determination to enforce redlines when, for example, he ordered a limited but effective air attack on Syria in 2017, after Bashar al-Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against its own people.
Endangering Israel’s Security – and Our Own
Prior to the Oct. 7 attacks, the Biden administration lacked any sort of realistic perception of the situation in the Middle East. Mere days before the attacks, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters, “The [Middle East] region is quieter than it has been for decades.”

This misperception led the Biden administration to divert critical assets away from terrorist groups like Hamas – ultimately leading to the failure to anticipate or disrupt the events of Oct. 7. In November, senior administration officials admitted that, following 9/11, U.S. intelligence agencies almost completely stopped spying on Hamas and other violent Palestinian groups, believing that Hamas constituted no direct threat to the U.S.

Indeed, Washington deprioritized the Middle East as a whole. After the Biden administration’s takeover, the Central Intelligence Agency decided to reduce the number of civilian intelligence analysts tasked with monitoring the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials, lawmakers, and congressional aides testified that this deprioritization of the Middle East had left the U.S. vulnerable and unable to anticipate the attacks.

The Biden administration also spent significant resources in a misguided attempt to appease Iran – a policy that directly led to the Hamas attacks and regional escalation. Less than a month before the Oct. 7 attacks, the Biden administration announced it would issue a waiver giving Iran access to $6 billion that had been previously blocked by U.S. sanctions.

By unfreezing Iranian assets, the administration presented the world’s largest state sponsor of terror with unprecedented resources, allowing it to direct, fund, arm, and train Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the myriads of other terror groups currently attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. This both enabled Oct. 7 and allowed for increased attacks from groups like the Houthis, an Iranian-armed terrorist group that has been disrupting shipping in the Red Sea, causing shipping delays and increased costs to ordinary consumers.

The Biden administration also provided U.S. adversaries with valuable resources in the form of international aid. For example, the administration reversed Trump’s funding cuts and restored more than $200M in aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), an organization with direct ties to Hamas – as demonstrated by the alleged involvement of 12 UNRWA employees in the Oct. 7 attacks and kidnappings.

President Biden’s approach to national security poses a stark contrast to that of President Trump. Biden reversed nearly all of Trump’s foreign policies, opting to alienate Israel and appease Iran – a policy that has endangered both the U.S. and its allies.

Absent aggressive congressional oversight to assess the Biden administration’s intelligence priorities – and to investigate its handling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, including the recent decision to withhold information and weapons from Israel – the situation will only get worse. Failure to accept responsibility for the national security malpractice – as demonstrated in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and now the Israel-Palestine conflict – will create present and serious consequences for Americans.

Under the Biden administration, rising foreign instability and conflict escalation have become routine. America needs to change course immediately and return to policies that foster peace and stability – both abroad and at home.


Netanyahu tells US lawmakers he ‘hopes arms issue will be resolved’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a bipartisan delegation of members of the Congress on Wednesday that he hopes the issue of American arms transfers to the Jewish state will soon be resolved.

“The Prime Minister expressed his appreciation for the bipartisan support for Israel, and said that he hopes that the arms issue will be resolved in the near future,” his office said in a statement following the meeting in Jerusalem.

The delegation is being led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and includes Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Jake Ellzey (R-Texas), Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Glenn Ivey (D-Mass.), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), as well as AIPAC Israel Director Cameron Brown.

On the Israeli side, the prime minister’s Cabinet secretary Yossi Fox, military secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman and political adviser Ofir Fleck also participated.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also met on Wednesday with the congressional delegation.

“I say repeatedly, we are utterly grateful to the United States of America for standing with us in this war. And I’m very grateful to the president of the United States for being here at the beginning of the war and sending a clear message on behalf of the American people,” said Herzog.

“And we also respect tremendously the bipartisan support that crosses all divides and conflicts within American society. We are fighting here the battle of the free world against the Empire of Evil. That’s why together we must stay together. And if we have anything to discuss, it should be discussed quietly,” he added.
White House Cancels Israel Meeting After Netanyahu Slams ‘Inconceivable’ Policy: Report
The White House reportedly canceled a meeting with Israeli officials the day after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called out the Biden administration for the "inconceivable" decision to withhold munitions from Israel.

Senior U.S. and Israeli officials were set to meet at the White House on Thursday to discuss Iran's nuclear capabilities. But that changed after Netanyahu released a video on Tuesday saying, "It’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel."

Axios reported that in the following hours, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein told Netanyahu that top Biden advisers were enraged by the video, saying it undermined the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back on Netanyahu’s assertion that munitions were being withheld, saying, "We genuinely do not know what he is talking about."

This is the second time a meeting between the two countries' officials has been canceled at the last minute. In March, Israeli officials canceled a meeting after the United States failed to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that included a reference to a ceasefire in Gaza.
‘Nothing has been canceled’: US denies report it nixed meeting over Netanyahu’s criticism
The White House denies a report that it canceled a high-level meeting with Israeli officials in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming that Washington has been withholding weapons shipments from Israel.

“As we said in the briefing yesterday, we have no idea what the prime minister is talking about, but that’s not a reason for rescheduling a meeting,” a White House official tells The Times of Israel.

“We have been working to find a time to schedule the next SDG that accounts for the travel and availability of principals, but have not yet fully finalized the details so nothing has been canceled,” the official continues.

“In the meantime, meetings with Israeli officials are being held throughout the week at expert and senior levels on a range of topics,” the official adds.


White House delays F-15 sale to Israel despite congressional OK
The White House is holding up delivery of a fleet of F-15 jet fighters to Israel.

The $18 billion sale of 50 fighter planes is “one of the largest arms deals with Israel in recent years,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

The sale had been delayed by two of four congressional leaders needed to sign off on major arms deals, but they removed their objections on May 22.

The next step was for the State Department to formally notify lawmakers about the sale. The administration hasn’t yet done that, White House and congressional officials said, according to the Journal.

The State Department denied it was holding up the sale, with an official telling the Journal, “There is no policy guidance to slow down transfers to Israel.”

The State Department official added, however, “We are looking tactically at the timing. It is not a question of whether, it is a question of when.”

Referring to last week’s Israel visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a social media post on Tuesday told the Biden administration to stop slow-walking the delivery of vital arms for Israel’s war effort.

“When Secretary Blinken was recently here in Israel, we had a candid conversation. … I said it’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas is like Boko Haram, says Kemi Badenoch
When some politicians talk about Israel, in many cases we’ve heard it all before. Countless times we’ve been told that “Israel has a right to defend itself” in a “proportional manner” along with a call for a two-state solution.

When Kemi Badenoch spoke, it felt distinctly personal. In an exclusive interview with the JC, the Business and Trade Secretary and Women’s and Equalities Minister, who grew up in Nigeria, compared Hamas’s atrocities on October 7 to the kidnapping of 276 girls by Islamist group Boko Haram in 2014.

Badenoch rejected the “oppressor vs oppressed narrative” that dominates much of the discussion around Israel’s war against Hamas, a narrative she called “nonsense”. Like Boko Haram, Hamas is a “violent Islamist group”, she said.

Badenoch described how moved she was seeing the release of Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov, and Almog Meir Jan in a daring raid by the IDF. She has met with the families of hostages in London and “told them that they need to stay strong so that they can be there for their families when they come home.” She was devastated when she learned of the death of Almog Meir Jan’s father, 59-year-old Yossi Meir, just hours before his son’s rescue.

She was keen to point out how she co-sponsored the so-called anti-BDS bill in Parliament and that in pushing for a free trade agreement with Israel she has had to fight against “obstructing” civil servants and unions. Both her and her staff have “faced intimidation” from of anti-Israel protesters, she added.


Israel rejects UN official’s explanation for leaving Hamas’s use of human shield
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jewish state’s mission to the United Nations reacted harshly to a U.N. official’s claim that a limited word count was responsible for the exclusion of Hamas’s usage of human shields from a controversial blacklist that included Israel.

Virginia Gamba, special representative to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for children and armed conflict, briefed reporters last Thursday about the annual Children and Armed Conflict report, which is also known as the “list of shame.”

JNS asked Gamba why the report she compiled contained only one sentence on Hamas’s use of human shields, which is central to the terrorist group’s military strategy and to understanding the casualty toll of Gazan children in Israel’s war against Hamas.

“If we put everything in the annual report on every situation, it will have at least 1,000 pages,” Gamba told JNS. “We have to choose very carefully what makes it to the report or not, if the figures must go there, as much context as possible.”

“But we have always been deterred from putting into context each one of these paragraphs because of word count,” the U.N. official added. “Perhaps by saying it here, I will be heard.”

Gamba said that she asked for waivers on the word count for her annual report, which is dictated by U.N. Security Council resolutions and other restrictions, and which she called “inappropriate.”

“It is mostly a financial issue and an issue of a standard across the U.N. system,” she said. “I’m not saying that if I had more room, you would have more answers.”

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t buy that explanation.

“As was evident in the press conference and as was stated by Israel time and again, the CAAC report is riddled with methodological problems, double standards and inaccuracies,” the ministry stated.

“Limited word count and budget restrictions are a pale excuse for the U.N.’s basic failure, of making a grotesque and false moral equivalency between Hamas and the IDF,” the ministry stated. “This is yet another glaring example of the moral bankruptcy the U.N. has reached under Secretary-General Guterres’s leadership.”
Israel may have violated laws of war in Gaza campaign, UN rights office says
Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in their Gaza Strip military campaign, the United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday.

In a report assessing six Israeli attacks that caused a high number of casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, the UN human rights office said Israeli forces "may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack."

UN believes Israel is not minimizing civilian harm in war against Hamas
"The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 37,400 people in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory, according to Hamas-run health authorities there.

Israel launched its assault after Hamas terrorists stormed across the border into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Last week the UN human rights office said the killing of civilians during an Israeli operation to free four hostages could amount to war crimes, but so might Palestinian terrorists' holding of captives in densely populated areas.


Majority at Munk Debates say anti-Zionism equals antisemitism
Douglas Murray and debate partner Natasha Hausdorff succeeded in persuading two-thirds of audience members at the Munk Debates on Monday night that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are the same.

While 61 per cent of listeners supported the proposition before the debate, that number grew to 66 per cent following the discussion. Support for the other side of the argument

Murray, a British author and political commentator, wore a yellow ribbon on his lapel throughout the debate, a symbol associated with the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza following the October 7 raids on Israel that saw around 1,200 people killed and 240 people taken hostage.

“You would’ve thought there would be some sympathy from the world; you might’ve thought the world would pay attention to the attack and at least pay attention to the people behind it. You might’ve expected, like me, there might have been worldwide opposition to the terrorists and rapists and murders of Hamas,” Murray said. “But no, there was immediate outpouring of rage against the state that had been attacked.”

In his opening monologue, Murray spoke about attempts by anti-Israel activists to infiltrate a Jewish community centre in early June. The anti-Israel activists, many of them carrying massive Palestine flags and with their faces covered, walked through a Jewish neighbourhood in North York and intimidated several residents along the way.

“F–king filthy f–king Zionist pig,” one masked male demonstrator screamed at an onlooker. “You’re a dirty Zionist rat. That’s what you are. Happy about killing babies, right? Happy about killing babies?”

Murray and Hausdorff, a lawyer in the United Kingdom, argued that double standards exclusively applied to Israel were emblematic of antisemitic tropes of the past.

Hausdorff argued “modern blood libels are widely believed — as widely believed as the ancient blood libel,” referring to the conspiracy that Jews killed children to use their blood in religious rituals.

Hausdorff explored four modern libels: that Israel is a colonial state; that it has ethnically cleansed Palestinians; that it is an apartheid state; and that it is committing genocide in Gaza. Hausdorff argued these are projected onto Israel and reproduce the earlier form of bigotry.

“This debate is about racism and creating a double standard, where you make an exception for the Jews,” Hausdorff said during her opening comments. “The genocide libel inverts reality. Hamas has spent 16 years embedding its terror infrastructure in mosques, schools, hospitals and every second house. Its central military tactic is to use civilians as human shields,” she continued. “Genocide is the latest modern blood libel that antisemites use to justify their anti-Zionism.”

Arguing against the motion, former MSNBC and Al Jazeera English anchor Mehdi Hasan and Israeli journalist Gideon Levy asserted that equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism silenced critics of Israel.


'Post' in Rafah: 'No home without a tunnel,' says Nahal Brigade commander
Never-ending tunnels in Rafah, posing challenges to the IDF
“Rafah is chock-filled with tunnels,” he said, adding that, “During the last days alone, I found 17 tunnels.”

“There is almost no home without a tunnel,” he said, as he explained that the tunnels connected the homes in the neighborhood in one vast labyrinth. Holes were also broken through the walls to connect them, he said.

To illustrate his point, he showed a photograph with an open closet door and behind it, a hole in the concrete wall.

Homes are boobytrapped with wired explosives that can be detonated at a distance, Zuckerman said, as he referenced the incident last week in which four soldiers were killed when the bomb was set off in a home believed to be free of such devices.

This is a different kind of battlefield, as he described the methodical inch-by-inch fighting that has taken place in Rafah, where soldiers are battling above and below ground.

“It’s slow and painstaking,” he said, but the achievements "are significant.”

Soldiers have found caches of weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, and long-range rockets, Zuckerman explained, as he argued that it was important that the IDF be given time to complete its mission of demilitarizing the area.

The soldiers here “understand that this existential problem rests on their shoulders,” Zuckerman said, as he described a situation in which a myriad of small almost indiscernible successes, would ultimately lead to complete victory.

He did not want to quantify how long it would take to complete the mission, just that it was important to finish the job.

“We don’t want to leave until we have solved the problem,” he said.

IDF operating in Rafah since May
An estimated 1.2 to 1.4 million Palestinians had taken refuge in Rafah since the outbreak of the war. The military subsequently stated it had evacuated 80% of the population from the area.

Amid international opposition, the IDF took the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on May 7, attaining full operational control of the crossing. The military has since been engaged in operations in the area.

Israel had maintained the importance of operating in Rafah to eliminate the last four Hamas battalions, which it believed were still in the region.

The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7 when Hamas launched an attack, in which thousands of terrorists infiltrated from the Gaza border and took more than 240 hostages into the Gaza Strip.

During the massacre, more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered, including over 350 in the Re'im music festival and hundreds of Israeli civilians across the Gaza border communities.

120 hostages still remain in Gaza captivity.


Egyptian source pushes back at ‘completely untrue’ report that Cairo could deploy troops to Gaza
A “high-ranking” Egyptian source pushes back on an earlier report that Cairo is willing to send troops to the Gaza Strip for a limited period of time after a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. The source tells the Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed outlet that the reports are “totally and completely untrue.”

Egypt’s position is to not send any troops to Gaza in any form, stresses the high-ranking source, and will remain so in the future.

The previous report in the newspaper had indicated that Egyptian Army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Osama Askar told his Israeli counterpart and the US Central Command head that Egyptian troops operating under the UN would secure the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing as well as the other crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel and some points along the Gazan coast, but would not be present inside cities and residential areas.
Nearly 15% of Arab Israelis want Hamas to govern Gaza
Some 14.7% of Arab Israelis believe the Hamas terrorist group should govern Gaza after the war, in direct opposition to one of Jerusalem’s key war aims, according to a study the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University presented on Wednesday.

That represents approximately 308,700 Israeli citizens out of an Arab Israeli population of around 2.1 million.

In contrast, some 8.4% of Arab Israelis say that Israel should govern the Gaza Strip after the war, which entered its 257th day on Wednesday.

The majority of respondents, 58.5%, felt that other Palestinian groups should govern Gaza. Broken down, about 24.4% believe that local bodies should be in charge, and 19.4% think that the Palestinian Authority should govern there, followed by Hamas at 14.7%.

Some 34.4% of respondents said that an external, non-Palestinian body should govern Gaza after the war. An international force is the preferred option with 19.4% support, while 8.4% chose Israel and 6.5% Arab states.

Other key findings include that nearly three-quarters of Arab Israelis reported a low sense of personal safety during the war. More than half the Arab-Israeli public—51.6%—say that there is a shared sense of destiny that has been created by the Israel-Hamas war.

The sense of a shared destiny shows a majority among members of all religions: 51.4% of Muslims, 62.5% of Druze and 61.2% of Christians.

Violence and crime are the No. 1 issues for Arab Israelis, the survey found.


IDF troops find 'Mein Kampf' copy in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip
A photo shared by Israel-Arab activist Yoseph Haddad in a post on Meta showed an IDF soldier in the Gaza Strip holding an Arabic translation of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Haddad shared that the location in which the book had been found was the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza.

“A picture sent to me just today by soldiers from the Nusirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

"Yes, from the area where the Israeli hostages who were rescued in a daring operation a week and a half ago were held,” Haddad’s post read.

Haddad added, “Hitler's manifesto "Mein Kampf" in a local house...This is the kind of “leader” the Palestinians adore, this is how they become the successors of the Nazis, and this is how the "uninvolved" can hold hostages and be complicit in the terrorism of Hamas!”


IDF green-lights ‘operational plans’ for Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces’ Northern Command has approved operational plans for a war against the Hezbollah terrorist group in Southern Lebanon, the army announced on Tuesday.

The plans were “authorized and validated” by Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin and Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, who leads the military’s Operations Directorate, the IDF said.

As part of a situational assessment held at the Northern Command base in Safed, the two commanders also took several decisions “on the continuation of increasing the readiness of troops in the field.”

Iran-backed Hezbollah has attacked northern Israel nearly every day since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, killing more than 20 people and causing widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.

Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah has fired more than 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and suicide drones at Israeli border communities.

The Iran-backed terrorist group ramped up its attacks last week. On Thursday, it claimed to have launched some 150 rockets and 30 drones in its “largest and most comprehensive attack” since the start of the war. Two people sustained light wounds, and the attacks caused widespread destruction.

Following a two-day lull in hostilities earlier this week, Hezbollah resumed its attacks on Tuesday afternoon, launching three “suspicious aerial targets” toward towns in the Upper Galilee, the IDF said.

Also on Tuesday, Hezbollah published video captured by a surveillance UAV of the Haifa Port, one of Israel’s most important commercial shipping gateways.

According to local media, the incident took place last week, and the IDF made the decision not to intercept the drone as it did not pose a threat, and due to the fear that interception fragments could hurt civilians.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. presidential envoy Amos Hochstein spoke in Beirut following talks with government officials, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a powerful ally of Hezbollah.

“The conflict along the Blue Line [the de facto border] between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on for long enough,” Hochstein said after the meeting with Berri. “Innocent people are dying, property is damaged, families are shattered and the Lebanese economy continues to decline. The country is suffering for no good reason. It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically,” he added.
Seth Frantzman: Hezbollah increases threats with Nasrallah speech
If Israel chooses to act against Hezbollah, it risks having a wider war, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday in a speech.

Hezbollah has already launched 5,000 rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel since the Gaza war began on October 7. Nasrallah is now threatening to strike all of Israel and muster other members of the Iranian-backed “axis of resistance” against it.

The Lebanese terrorist leader also threatened Cyprus. Cyprus and Israel increasingly have become partners in recent years. Hezbollah threatened Cyprus against letting Israel use its airports. It was not clear why this is an issue that Hezbollah has suddenly become focused on. Israel has conducted joint military training with Cyprus in the past.

Hezbollah has threatened other countries in the past through the use of terrorism and sending agents abroad to Europe, South America, and West Africa. But this was a direct threat to a European country in the Eastern Mediterranean. This shows how strong Hezbollah perceives itself to be.

Hezbollah intervened in the Syrian civil war beginning in 2012. Since then, it has taken on a major role in the Iranian-backed system of proxies and militias in the region.

For instance, Hezbollah has worked with the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. It has also worked with Iranian-backed groups in Syria and in Iraq. It has also sent forces to Syria and opened a “Golan file” of terrorists who operate near the Golan Heights.

As such, Hezbollah now views itself as a regional or global power. It is based in Lebanon, but it is far stronger than Lebanon.


Seth Frantzman: What is Hezbollah’s message behind their spy drone video?
The drone footage shows a site that “includes a large number of factories, warehouses, and experimental fields, where components of effective air defense systems are manufactured and assembled, especially the Iron Dome and ‘David’s Sling,’” Al Mayadeen reported, adding that this area is “extremely sensitive and secret. It has a total area of 6.5 square km. and is 24 km. away from the Lebanese border.”

“In addition to a full, high-resolution view of the complex, the scenes clearly showed several Iron Dome platforms, a rocket engine testing tunnel, rocket engine stores, air defense missile stores, missile component manufacturing facilities, David’s Sling platforms, systems factories control and guidance, the company’s administrative buildings, in addition to missile testing radar,” the report said.

The drones took footage of Haifa Port and also “ship maintenance hangars, computing unit building 3800, Haifa Naval Base, the main warehouse and supply department in the Haifa base dock, the depth missions unit (Yaltam) building, buildings belonging to the submarine unit, the submarine dock and berth, and Submarine Unit Command Building (Shayetet 7),” Al Mayadeen reported.

The video shows several Israeli naval ships, including a “logistical support ship ‘Patiam,’ the Sa’ar 4.5 ships, the Devora boats, the Sa’ar 6 ships, and the Sa’ar 5 ships,” the report said. The drones also flew over several piers in the port, it said.

“The scenes also included the Haifa Power Station, chemical tanks, Haifa Airport and its Iron Dome warehouses and Iron Dome platforms, in addition to oil tanks,” Al Mayadeen reported. Then, the drones took footage of the Kriyot, the bayside suburbs north of Haifa. These are civilian areas, and the report said the drones took video of various streets and commercial complexes.

“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon attached the clip to the phrase of the first episode, indicating more scenes that it will show later, stressing that the march bypassed the air defense systems of the Israeli occupation and returned without being able to detect it,” Al Mayadeen reported.

The messaging here is clear. The reports indicate a wide range of important sites and are designed to show that Hezbollah is very familiar with all the areas it filmed. The videos are intended not just to show that Hezbollah was able to fly drones around these areas and take videos but also to show that it could then bring the information back, edit it, and add annotations to the locations that had been filmed.

This is the point Hezbollah is making and one that pro-Iranian media has picked up on. Hezbollah is showing that it is very familiar with a plethora of areas in northern Israel. The terrorist group has claimed in recent months to target many of these types of sites, such as Iron Dome batteries in northern Israel and also the Rafael site.

Regarding the same videos, Al Ain reported: “Yesterday, Tuesday, Hezbollah published drone footage of the Israeli port of Haifa, located 17 miles from the Lebanese border, in an apparent attempt to demonstrate its ability to penetrate Israeli air defenses and reach deep into the country.”
Analysis of the Hezbollah UAV footage over Haifa from June 18
On June 18, Hezbollah released a 10-minute video showing an aerial reconnaissance sortie carried out by a UAV over the Haifa Bay area. The video shows several locations, including the Rafael complex, the civilian and military ports of Haifa, Haifa Airport, and sections of the Krayot cities. Hezbollah carefully analyzed the material throughout the film, identifying and pinpointing important potential targets and locations.

Is it possible to determine when the video was taken?

First, it is important to note that Hezbollah wishes to present the video as having been filmed during one continuous sortie. Hezbollah used a similar approach when it presented other attacks in the past, such as attacks on the Tal Shamaim site, Iron Dome batteries in Beit Hillel and Kfar Blum, attacks on a military site using suicide UAVs, and others. This is part of their psychological warfare effort aimed at sowing fear among the Israeli public with their threats on civilians. It can also be assumed that it was done to show Israeli decision-makers that Hezbollah is monitoring sensitive sites within Israel and that they are capable of hitting them in the event of war.

However, there is no certainty that the video was filmed during a single sortie. Although the entire video was filmed in daytime, an analysis of the cast shadows shows that there are differences between relatively close sites, indicating that they were filmed at different times. While the shadow in certain areas appears to imply that the footage was shot in the early morning, others seem to have been filmed in the afternoon and others near sunset.

Furthermore, it is highly improbable that the defensive systems, including those shown in the video, would fail to identify a UAV for an extended period and throughout an extensive region. (This analysis was done before the IDF’s clarification regarding the identification of the UAVs and the decision not to intercept one of them).

There is also doubt regarding the timeliness of the footage and whether all of them were taken in recent weeks.

An indicator that the film may not be entirely current is the presence of green foliage in many areas of the video. This could indicate that some of the photography was taken before the heatwaves in recent weeks.

Further substantial evidence is also acquired in relation to the photography of Haifa Airport. The runway at the airport underwent renovation and re-stratification over the past month (starting at the end of May). The condition of the runway in the video, as well as the fact that no construction tools are visible in its vicinity, indicate that it was carried out before the renovation.


Syrian officer killed in alleged Israeli strike; Hezbollah explosive drone hits north
A Syrian military officer was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in southern Syria on Wednesday morning, the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Citing a military source, SANA said two Syrian military sites in Quneitra and Daraa were targeted by Israeli drones. The strikes also caused “material losses,” the report added.

There was no comment on the strike from the Israel Defense Forces, which has carried out hundreds of strikes inside Syria since the outbreak of that country’s civil war in 2011, mainly targeting attempts to transfer weapons to the Hezbollah terror group, an Iranian proxy, or to keep Iranian fighters themselves from gaining a foothold near Israel’s border.

Alleged Israeli strikes have ramped up since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, when the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group launched a massive cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas and free the 251 hostages that terrorists kidnapped from Israel during the October 7 onslaught and took as hostages to Gaza.

Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with the Israeli army since the day after the Hamas attack. Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war against Hamas there.

On Wednesday morning, the IDF said an explosive-laden drone launched from Lebanon struck the Metula area in northern Israel. The drone caused damage to a vehicle in the community. but no injuries.

The military said additional suspected drones were shot down by air defenses over the northern town of Sde Eliezer and over southern Lebanon on Wednesday.


Senior US official says Israel not behind aid distribution woes in Gaza
A senior US official says Israel is not behind the limited distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“I wouldn’t say there is sufficient humanitarian aid going into Gaza — by no stretch of the imagination, but it is not because Israel is trying to impede it,” US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf says in testimony to a Senate subcommittee.

She says a series of factors are behind the dire humanitarian situation, including a breakdown in security apparatuses needed for the distribution of aid once it enters the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Gaza.

“As the IDF has stepped back, various violent actors have stepped in, to the point where the much-diminished Hamas enforcers cannot get control of independent families and gangs,” Leaf says, adding that humanitarian workers are facing incredibly high risks and that the US is working with Israel to ameliorate some of these issues.

Aid organizations have argued that Israel’s continued military operations are the reason for the distribution bottlenecks, with convoys routinely held up or turned back at IDF checkpoints throughout the Strip. Israel announced that it would be implementing daily localized pauses to allow more aid to be distributed earlier this week, but aid groups say they have yet to lead to improvements on the ground.

Jerusalem has routinely argued that the UN and other agencies are failing to keep up with the amount of aid it is getting into Gaza.
Daniel Greenfield: Biden’s $250M Gaza Pier to be Dismantled After Only 10 Days of Service
Biden’s Gaza pier is a perfect metaphor for his administration. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars, after months of work, it had to be towed for repairs after it couldn’t handle actually being on the water, it doesn’t seem to have actually delivered aid to anyone and now it’s on track for turning into scrap metal.

It’s like Bidenomics but in pier form.

The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected.

Weeks earlier?

Biden’s people were talking about transitioning it to a permanent facility that would act as a Gaza port that Israel would not be able to interfere with.

Now we spent the current estimate of $230 million (previous estimates were over $300 million) plus an estimated $20 million or so on repairs, for it to be in use for 10 days.

In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns.

Because some of the terrorists that the Biden administration had been protecting were shelling the pier.


Trade in smuggled cigarettes said to hamper aid deliveries in Gaza
Amid a breakdown of order in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian smugglers have turned their attention to contraband cigarettes due to the sky-high tobacco prices in the enclave, resulting in thousands of aid trucks being unable to deliver essential humanitarian supplies for fear of being attacked, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, cigarettes are regularly smuggled into war-torn Gaza via humanitarian aid trucks, having been placed there by UN and Israeli accomplices. Once past inspection and inside Gaza, the aid trucks are targeted both by smugglers retrieving their goods and other criminals hoping to get to them first.

Following the outbreak of the war with Hamas’s October 7 attack— when some 3,000 terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages— Israel limited imports into Gaza to essential goods, a category that does not include cigarettes.

A single cigarette can now sell for as much as $25 in Gaza, the report said, making the smuggling trade hugely profitable. “Cigarettes have become like the new gold in Gaza,” one UN official told the newspaper.

Prior to the start of Israel’s offensive in Rafah in early May, cigarettes were largely smuggled in via the Rafah Crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt, but after the crossing was closed indefinitely, criminals turned to the Kerem Shalom Crossing, on the border with Israel, the report said.

A Palestinian familiar with the smuggling operations told the Journal that smugglers hide packs of cigarettes in hollowed-out watermelons or bury them inside packages of legitimate goods. “The Israelis conduct thorough checks on a few selected boxes [within each aid shipment] but cannot possibly inspect every single pack, box or carton,” he said. Illustrative: Palestinians rush trucks as they transport international humanitarian aid from the US-built Trident Pier near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on May 18, 2024. (AFP)

As a result of criminal attacks on aid convoys, more than 1,000 truckloads of aid have reportedly remained stuck on the Gazan side of the crossing, and even the goods that reach their destination risk being looted by criminals attacking warehouses.

“This is threatening to undermine everything we’re trying to do,” a UN official was quoted as saying.


CEOs, senators strategize with hostage’s parents on Capitol Hill
A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers met on Tuesday on Capitol Hill with U.S. business leaders and Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh, is being held in Gaza — an unusual group that came together to strategize on potential paths forward amid stalled hostage-release negotiations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a lead organizer of the meeting, said he was hopeful that the private sector leaders would apply pressure for stronger action against Iran and the International Criminal Court. He said that the executives who attended the meeting were largely interested in focusing on the hostages.

“I told that group to do two things: help us get an ICC sanctions bill across the table in the Senate, and let’s come up with an Iran sanctions effort that will hit the Ayatollah [Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader] in its pocketbook,” Graham said. “You’re never going to get the hostages out until Iran feels it in the pocketbook.”

Graham added that the subject of holding certain weapons transfers to Israel — a shipment of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs was delayed due to concerns they would be used in Rafah and the Biden administration threatened additional freezes — was also a topic of discussion.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Oracle CEO Safra Catz and Booz Allen Hamilton CEO Horacio Rozanski were in attendance, according to an individual familiar with the meeting. Lawmakers who attended included Graham and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), John Cornyn (R-TX), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Katie Britt (R-AL).

“The meeting was frank, friendly and productive,” Blumenthal, the co-organizer, said.

Two sources familiar with the meeting said that the business leaders and lawmakers had agreed on a series of principles, including the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, support for Israel’s right to defend itself and providing the resources Israel needs to do so, the imperative of removing Hamas from power in Gaza and calling for the unconditional release of hostages.

“Corporate America is eerily silent,” Graham said. “We’ve got to up our game. … There’s a lot of economic power in that room. There’s a lot of ability to communicate in that room. So I’m asking corporate America and just citizens of all stripes to weigh in here, for us.”
Israeli and Jewish women protest outside the Times after controversial article on Hamas rapes
To mark the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, Jewish and Israeli women demonstrated outside the Times headquarters on Wednesday, calling on the world media to acknowledge the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 and which, according to evidence, continues to be carried out against hostages still held in Gaza for over nine months.

Against a backdrop of a sunny lunch hour outside the News Building in London Bridge,

16 women created a jarring spectacle, wearing trousers stained with fake blood, standing in silence, holding posters of the 16 women and girls still captive in Gaza.

On a big screen, graphic footage of five female soldiers being kidnapped on October 7 was being shown, along with interviews of released female hostages detailing sexual abuse they had either experienced or witnessed.

Amidst chants of “Rape is not resistance” and “We believe all women” from protesters, a few passers-by stopped to watch the film or take photos of the bloodied women, but the majority looked away or hurried by when they were offered an information leaflet, according to organiser Orit Eyal-Fibeesh from 7/10 Human Chain.

“It reminded me of the Holocaust, when people just turned away,” she said. “I was shocked that young women we offered the leaflets to weren’t even curious. You can reserve judgement until later, but at least be curious about why we are here.”

She said that they had decided to hold the protest on the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict ”because, for whatever reason, it seems that Israeli girls don’t count. We are here to say that Israeli lives matter and Jewish lives matter.”

“Girls and women are still being held hostage in Gaza and there is a substantial amount of evidence to know that they have been subjected to sexual violence, and men have too.”
'Normalizing taking hostages and rape': Hostage family members slam UNHRC sexual violence report
Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of 23-year-old hostage Romi Gonen, spoke at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday during discussions on the conclusions of last week’s UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report.

The report accused Israel, among other things, of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in its military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Leshem Gonen said the report compiled by the COI “has failed to properly address” the accounts of “sexual violence that occurred on the day of the attack [October 7] and during captivity.”

The report “trivializes the severity of sexual violence experienced by women in captivity by reducing their suffering to mere ‘parading of women as trophies,’” she said.

“This oversimplification and dismissive attitude are not only deeply insensitive but also indicative of a broader problem: the unwillingness to confront uncomfortable truths and the shocking decision to look away and not reach out to help the helpless ones,” Leshem Gonen said.

The report omitted the testimonies of released hostages Amit Sossana, Agam Goldstein-Almog, and Aviva Segal, she said. Calling for the release of the hostages

“The international community must not allow political considerations to override our core human values,” she said, adding that resources must be utilized for the release of the hostages.

“Mr. President, we should be on the same side – the side fighting hostage-taking, never accepting the use of young women as tools for trade,” Leshem Gonen said.

“Please, help me hug my daughter again,” she said.


Former hostage Ada Sagi to BBC: I understand Hamas doesn't want peace
Peace activist and former hostage Ada Sagi, 75, told the BBC that since being held hostage in Gaza, she has lost hope that peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible.

Ada Sagi, 75, is a mother of three and the daughter of Holocaust survivors from Poland. Ada learned Arabic in order to make friends with her neighbors close to Kibbutz Nir Oz and began teaching Arabic to fellow residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz in an effort to better communicate with their Palestinian neighbors.

Her son Noam said that he last heard from his mother at 9:20 a.m. on October 7, when his mother called to say she could hear voices speaking in Arabic outside her home, after which she entered the safe room. She was then abducted to Gaza.

In her first interview since her release, Sagi told Emma Barnett on Radio 4’s Today program that she was held in an apartment by paid guards, that Hamas kept her in a hospital just before her release, and that she now believes the world hates Jews.

“I don’t believe in peace, I don’t, sorry,” Sagi told BBC. “I understand Hamas doesn’t want it,” she added.

She said she is well aware of the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza and urged the government to agree to a new ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, the BBC reported. Captive in a home with children

Sagi revealed that when she was first taken into Gaza, she and some other hostages were hidden in a family home with children but were taken to an apartment in Khan Yunis the next day because it was too “dangerous.”

The person who held her in their apartment in Gaza was a nurse, she told the BBC, and his wife and children had been sent to stay with his wife’s parents, Sagi recalled.

Sagi shared that she overheard students being paid 70 NIS to watch over them. “It’s a lot of money in Gaza because they have no work. And if you have work other than with Hamas, it’s no more than 20 NIS for a day,” she said.


‘I saw my friends die next to me’: Nova music festival survivors speak on events of October 7
Nova music festival survivors Mazal Tazazo and Remo El-Hozayel have sat down with Sky News host Sharri Markson to discuss the event of October 7 when Hamas attacked.

“The terrorist come, found us, and he said in English, ‘get up, get up, get up’,” Ms Tazazo said.

She said they hit her in the back of the head with their weapon.

“They started to tie my legs and started to talk with each other in Arabic – I was unconscious.

“I know that I need to play dead, that’s it, and he come to check me, look at me, I hold my breath, and he pick up my face, look at me and let go, and after they go, I lose my conscious, two hours, and when I wake up, I saw my friends die next to me.”




The Global Implications of the War in Gaza
To Dan Schueftan, the war between Israel and Hamas isn’t just a local conflict between a democratic nation that values life and an enemy willing to employ the obscenest cruelty, rather, he argues, a Hamas victory will lead to the revival of jihadism throughout the Middle East and show the forces of barbarism throughout the world that they can triumph. Schueftan puts forth several other forceful arguments in this conversation with Ido Aharoni: he contends that Israeli political polarization is vastly exaggerated; that the IDF policy of “quiet for quiet”—that is, not attacking terrorist groups when they refrain from attacking—is a failure; and that Israel must “continue the war until the destruction of Hamas.”


Mark Regev & Ruthie Blum: Is Biden Selling Out Israel in Its Time of Need? | Israel Undiplomatic
Mark and Ruthie go head-to-head on the recent tensions between Israel and the United States regarding withholding weapons supplies. They explore the reasons behind Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's public criticism of the US and the potential implications for the relationship between the two countries. Does the US want Israel to win? Is a diplomatic solution solution even desirable?

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Weekly Update
02:05 Tensions between Israel and the United States
09:49 Concerns about Israel's Actions in Lebanon
13:06 Challenges of Achieving Peace in the Region
30:24 The Need for Israel to Defend Itself


Caroline Glick joins John Burnett and Krysia Lenzo of Newsmax for updates on the Israel-Hamas War.
Caroline Glick, former Netanyahu senior foreign policy advisor, senior contributing editor of Jewish News Syndicate, and host of the “Caroline Glick Show” on JNS TV, joins John Burnett and Krysia Lenzo of Newsmax, First Edition to discuss the latest news on the Israel-Hamas War, the Biden Administration, the remaining hostages, Hezbollah and more. June 18, 2024


Israel says Lebanon offensive plan 'approved' as tensions surge | Latest English News | WION
The Israeli army on Tuesday said plans for an offensive in Lebanon were "approved and validated" amid escalating cross-border clashes with Hezbollah and a relative lull in Gaza fighting. Watch in for more details!


Jonny Gould's Jewish State: Iran's War on Israel: Conricus on Iran nuclear threat, Bibi arms wrestle with Biden, sex crimes on October 7th
The headlines:
Israel faces full military confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon because of a significant escalation of tensions.

The IDF’s Chief of Staff meets with Arab counterparts in Abraham accords ally, Bahrain, while operations against Hamas continue in Rafah, 2 of the 4 remaining battalions are eliminated.

And Yemen’s Houthis increase their aggression against merchant shipping in and around the Dead Sea while announcing further joint strikes on Haifa and Ashkelon with Iranian-linked Iraqi Shia militias.

You’ll hear from Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus on how close Iran is to completing their long term ambition of making a nuclear bomb.

Ayelet Razin Bet Or, a criminal lawyer at the State Attorney's Office on the gender-based violence committed by Hamas on October 7th.

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accuses the US of withhodling weapons, but the US reply, “we don’t know what he’s talking about".


Macron denounces Jew-hatred ‘scourge’ after Jewish girl raped
After three boys were indicted for the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb, French President Emmanuel Macron again spoke out against hatred of Jews.

At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Macron “spoke solemnly and seriously about the scourge of antisemitism” and called for a “dialogue” on racism and hatred of Jews in schools to prevent “hateful speech with serious consequences” from “infiltrating” classrooms, AFP cited a source as saying.

The boys, two aged 13 and one 12, were arrested on Monday and indicted on Tuesday.

The 13-year-olds were charged with gang rape, antisemitic insults and violence and issuing death threats. They remain in custody.

The 12-year-old was charged with antisemitic insults and violence and issuing death threats, but not with rape. He was allowed to return home after being charged.

On Saturday afternoon, the girl, who had spent the afternoon with friends, was crossing Henri Regnault Park in Courbevoie, when she came across two boys, one of whom she vaguely knew. (Part of the La Défense business district spreads over the southern part of Courbevoie.)

They blocked her way and forced her to follow them to an abandoned daycare center. A third boy joined them and started insulting the girl as a “dirty Jew,” the teenagers told police.
In second blow to Israel ban at arms expo, court of appeals overturns ruling
Following the suspension of a French court ban on Israeli delegates, intermediaries, and companies from attending an international arms exhibition, a court of appeals has now also overturned the controversial ruling.

Patrick Klugman, an attorney working on the case, shared late Tuesday night the court of appeals decision overturning the Saturday Bobigny District Court decision to prevent Israeli representation at the Eurosatory 2024 exhibition was discriminatory.

French Defense Ministry supports appeal
Coges Events, which organized the June 17-21 Eurosatory arms exhibition, had appealed the ban. The French Defense Ministry had made a rare criticism of the courts and declared support for Coges’s appeal.

Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), one of the June 6 petitioners to the Bobigny court, had organized protests outside the Tuesday hearing.

The successful appeal came the same day that the Commercial Court of Paris had suspended the ban after accepting the France-Israel Chamber of Commerce’s charges of discrimination.

The Saturday Bobigny ruling had accepted the arguments by AFPS and a coalition of other organizations that the exhibition could facilitate alleged breaches of international law by the Israeli military.

While the coalition had widely spread news of the ban as a legal victory, by Wednesday morning they had not issued a statement on the two strikes against the decision.

On May 31, the French Defense Ministry had issued its own missive that there should be no Israeli booth at the massive defense exposition.

National Rally Party president Jordan Bardella said on social media on Wednesday that he regretted “that the French government has submitted to the demands of political movements which relay the ideology of Hamas. It is normal that there are defense partnerships with Israel.”


Japanese 'disgusted' by Kyoto hotel barring Israelis, ambassador says
The Japanese public finds the refusal of a hotel in Kyoto to host an Israeli guest "disgusting," according to Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen.

He reported that the embassy received numerous messages expressing outrage at Kyoto's Material Hotel after its manager informed an Israeli tourist that he would not be accommodated due to allegations of Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

"We are not able to accept reservations from persons we believe might have ties to the Israeli army," hotel manager Jeronimo Gehres wrote in response to the reservation request on Tuesday.

Many who contacted the embassy noted that Gehres, the hotel manager, is Brazilian, not Japanese. They also argued that refusing the reservation violated Japanese law.

"Who is this nut?" a Japanese journalist wrote. Japanese lawmakers also condemned the hotel's actions as unacceptable, with one saying that the hotel's conduct was a disgrace to Japan.

Cohen told Ynet that the incident at the Kyoto hotel did not reflect Japan's overall attitude, which has been welcoming and appreciative of Israeli tourists. "There is no antisemitism in Japan," he said. "There is a strong desire to host Israelis, and the El Al flights to Tokyo are full. This incident is an outlier."
Brussels declines to host upcoming Belgium-Israel soccer match, citing security risk
The city of Brussels said it won’t host a UEFA Nations League match between Belgium and Israel in September because of the “dramatic situation in Gaza” that creates a security headache for city officials.

Brussels’ first alderman Benoit Hellings said on Wednesday the city considers it impossible to organize the match, which was scheduled to take place at the Stade Roi Baudouin on September 6.

Anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators have repeatedly taken to the streets of Brussels since the start of the war in Gaza, sparked by Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7 devastating attacks in southern Israel.

Last month, ticket sales for the Belgium-Israel match were paused because of security concerns.

Hellings said that Brussels officials discussed thoroughly the possibility of hosting the match with the federal government, police forces and the Belgian soccer federation (URBSFA).

“Today, it is clear that the announcement of such a match being held in our capital will undoubtedly provoke major (counter-) demonstrations, compromising the safety of spectators, players, residents and our police forces alike,” he said in a statement.

“The Red Devils’ matches have always been moments of unity and togetherness. The humanitarian and security situation in Gaza and its repercussions force the (city) to inform the URBSFA that it is not possible to organize this match at the Stade Roi Baudouin.”
UKLFI: Heathrow accused of Harassment of Jewish and Israeli passengers as Security Staff sport Pro-Palestine Badges
El Al passengers who were on their way to catch their flight back to Tel Aviv last Sunday 16 June 2024 felt intimidated by this display of badges on the lanyards of the security staff. Two of the staff were also wearing watermelon badges – these days a symbol for Palestinian solidarity and “resistance”.

One of the passengers remarked “The people responsible for making sure terrorists don’t blow up aeroplanes were wearing badges that identify with terrorists.” A passenger complained and eventually the five security staff were moved and replaced by others, and their badges were taken.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written a letter of complaint to Heathrow’s services director, pointing out that not only were the staff in breach of Heathrow’s own uniform regulations by wearing political badges, they were also breaching the Equality Act 2010.

By wearing the badges, the security staff engaged in “unwanted conduct” relevant to a protected characteristic (being Jewish and Israeli), and this had the purpose of creating an intimidating and hostile and offensive environment for them.

This show of anti-Israel feeling amongst Heathrow staff comes just a week after all the passengers from an El Al flight were taken to one side at customs at Heathrow, whilst going through the Nothing to Declare channel, and made to have their luggage scanned. The passengers were made to feel as if they were being called out as Jews.

A spokesperson from UKLFI commented: “It is obvious that if staff wear these badges it would make most Jewish, Israeli and Israel supporting passengers feel uncomfortable and unsafe, particularly in the area of security checking at Heathrow.
Australian Border Force questions three people suspected of travelling to join Israeli army
The Australian Border Force has “intervened” at the border to ask further questions of at least three Australians suspected of planning to travel to Israel to serve in the country’s military.

The government is also warning Australians who seek to serve with the armed forces of a foreign country “to carefully consider their legal obligations and ensure their conduct does not constitute a criminal offence”.

Official sources who did not wish to be identified noted that the Criminal Code does not prohibit Australians from “serving in or with the armed forces of a foreign country”, but this carve-out applies specifically to foreign-incursion offences.

It does not provide a blanket exemption to other commonwealth criminal offences, and the Australian federal police has the power to investigate war crimes and other serious crimes allegedly committed overseas.

A UN commission of inquiry report will be presented to the human rights council in Geneva on Wednesday and alleges that both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes since the 7 October attacks and the resulting conflict in Gaza.

The report recommends that all countries “conduct investigations under domestic or universal jurisdiction on core international crimes committed during the current war”. The Israeli government has claimed the findings reflect a “political agenda against Israel”.

The Department of Home Affairs has revealed that it and the ABF “are aware of four Australian citizens who have travelled outside of Australia since 7 October 2023 and who were suspected to have departed Australia to serve or attempt to serve with the IDF”.

Responding to a freedom of information request, the department added: “The ABF intervened with three of the four Australian citizens suspected of departing for Israel since 7 October 2023.”

Guardian Australia understands that this language doesn’t mean the citizens were actively stopped or discouraged from travelling, but in this case refers to them being asked more detailed questions about their travel plans during customs checks.




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