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Friday, June 21, 2024

06/21 Links Pt1: Biden’s Italian Strike; All eyes should be on Al Jazeera for being directed by terrorists; Israeli doctor who saved Sinwar's life repaid with nephew's murder

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: All eyes should be on Al Jazeera for being founded, funded — and directed — by terrorists
Considering how much attention the American media get, it’s amazing that one piece of actual, unbelievable subversion keeps going on.

That is the Al Jazeera network — founded, funded and directed by the terrorist-supporting state of Qatar.

Last month, The Washington Post reported darkly that the Israeli government had shut down the Al Jazeera network’s operations in Israel because of its coverage from Gaza.

WaPo portrayed this as a “dark day” for press freedom.

In fact, there were a lot of good reasons for the Israelis to stop the network from operating inside Israel.

Just one being that a number of Al Jazeera journalists reporting on Israel’s war against terrorists in Gaza were — er — terrorists.

Take Muhammad Washah, whom Al Jazeera presented as a stellar part of the press corps merely reporting the truth.

Unfortunately for them, their man is also a senior commander in Hamas.

He used to be in Hamas’ anti-tank missile unit, but since 2022 he has been in charge of research and development for aerial weapons.

Known to you and me as “rockets.”

It’s quite something to pull off.

On the one hand, Washah can spend his days making rockets to fire at Israel.

But in the evenings he can report on the terrible destruction in Gaza caused by the “Zionist entity.”

As though it is inexplicable that the Israelis could have any reason to strike any targets in Gaza.

He might have kept getting away with it if IDF soldiers in Gaza had not managed to get a hold of his laptop.

Something that proved the Al Jazeera man’s true loyalties.
Michael Doran: Biden’s Italian Strike
This gaslighting has successfully hidden the true nature of Biden’s policy from the public eye. To be sure, some press outlets, such as Politico, have poked holes in the administration’s cover story, but they have failed to recognize the Italian strike for what it is: namely, a coherent policy hiding behind the appearance of incoherence. Even while treating some of the details of the cover story with skepticism, the press has almost uniformly accepted the general framing of the administration, which presents the disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem as a fight over the Rafah campaign and how best to prevent civilian deaths.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in early May, referring to 2,000-pound bombs. “I made it clear that if [the Israelis] go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with … the cities.” But a close examination of the timeline reveals that the Italian strike began no later than last December, many months before the fight over Israel’s Rafah campaign had ever begun. What accounts for the early application of pressure?

For some clues to the answer, we might look to the Israeli delegation, headed by the director general of Israel’s Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who traveled quietly to Washington in January to meet top administration officials and executives of defense industries. The trip received very little press coverage. Only the Israeli news outlet Walla reported on the trip, and the story was lost amidst the dramatic news from Gaza. Zamir, Walla reported, had two main goals: to shorten the time it takes to produce and supply weapons for the IDF and to increase “the scope of aid.” In other words, Zamir came shopping for more weapons, more kinds of weapons, and for a faster delivery of them.

The Americans responded by calling the Italian strike. The Biden team, according to Walla, disappointed Zamir and sent him away, saying “they would study the issue, but that no answer would be given before the [American] elections so as not to allow political considerations to influence the administration’s decisions.” The rationale was transparently bogus, but the message was clear enough. The Biden administration intended to keep the Israelis on a short leash. Why?

The Americans were undoubtedly seeking to counter the thinking that had brought the Israeli delegation to Washington in the first place. Gen. Zamir made clear to the Biden team that he had come shopping not for weapons to prosecute war in Gaza, but out of concerns, according to Walla’s report, about “the ongoing tensions with Hezbollah along the northern border and with other Iranian proxy forces across the Middle East.”

Hezbollah represents the most formidable direct military threat that Israel faces. A full-scale conflict with it will burn up an enormous amount of equipment and ammunition in a very short period, and it risks drawing Iran more directly into the war. The Israelis came to Washington to stock up, to be ready for the conflict should it erupt. The Americans, by contrast, seek to restrain them. The purpose of the Italian strike is to force the Israelis into dependence on the United States, to deny them the ability to make long-term plans—namely, plans regarding Hezbollah and Iran.

To the extent that the administration even admits it is withholding arms, it justifies its actions by expressing concern over civilian deaths in Gaza. The Biden administration sees a gauzy humanitarianism as a defensible explanation, before the American public, for its policy of restraining Israel. Almost all press outlets in the United States depicted Netanyahu’s protest over the withholding of weapons as the latest move in the fight over Rafah, but his video statement referenced Iran, not Gaza. “Israel, America’s closest ally,” he said, is “fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies.”

The administration has little hope that the American people will understand why it is preventing Israel from defending itself against attacks from Hezbollah and Iran. Publicly, therefore, it has drawn the line in the sand in Rafah and screamed about civilian deaths. Privately, however, it has its eyes locked like a laser on the Lebanese-Israeli border. If a full-scale war kicks off in the north, the Obama-Biden policy of achieving “equilibrium” in the Middle East by integrating Iran and its proxies into the regional order comes crashing down.


Hamza Howidy: Here's What the Day After Israel's War Should Look Like in Gaza—From a Gazan
The Palestinian Authority is riddled with corruption and tyranny. The P.A. routinely jails political dissenters, including people who simply post criticism of Abu Mazen on social media. Abu Mazen has exploited the fate of 2.4 million Gazans as a negotiating tool to secure concessions in the West Bank while being too cowardly to make any proposals about dismantling what is left of Hamas or how the P.A. would avoid a Hezbollah scenario in Gaza, in which the P.A. takes on the role of governing the strip while Hamas and other jihadist groups serve as a militia that will eventually lead to another civil war among the Palestinians, or another war with Israel.

The only real option is to hand over control of Gaza for an interim period to a completely rebuilt Palestinian Authority, with the assistance and supervision of the international community. But before assigning that role to the P.A., it must be pressured to submit a proposal to dismantle what remains of Hamas. The P.A. must also commit to putting an end to the so-called "Pay for Slay" program in which the P.A. pays for martyrs, prisoners, and their families. Instead, it must commit to investing this money in welfare programs to put an end to the aid dependency status that has spread throughout Palestinian society.

This new governing body should be controlled by its sponsors to ensure that it will begin to deradicalize Gazan society and supervise the NGOs to execute their tasks without being stopped by Hamas members. And it must ensure that Gazans have access to information that is not controlled by Hamas propaganda.

This is how you truly liberate both Israelis and Palestinians from the threat of Hamas.

What scares the Gazans the most is the thought that the day after the war is ended, the totalitarian and tyrannical regime of Hamas will still have power, and will punish all the dissenters who criticized Hamas for gambling away the lives of the Gaza—as Hamas has promised to do.

Replacing Hamas with another authoritarian regime like Fatah is no answer.

It's crucial to provide protection for people who have publicly dissented and criticized Hamas during this war, and to protect their families and friends. International protection for free voices in Gaza is the only way to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Freedom of speech, inquiry, assembly, and protest are the rights that come before all other progress. It is these rights which will enable us to promote, develop, and protect peace—through local Gaza communities capable of taking the lead following the interim period of rebuilding Gaza and deciding our own fate in the near future.

The major Palestinian parties will most likely have influence in Gaza following the conflict; thus, safeguards must be put in place to prevent unscrupulous and aggressive power brokers from crushing us and impeding progress.


By Picking Fights with Israel, the U.S. Is Encouraging Hizballah
If Israel were to take dramatic action against its nuclear program, Iran would likely retaliate by unleashing the full strength of Hizballah and its vast arsenal of rockets and drones. But if Iran obtains nuclear weapons, it can use them to deter any Israeli attempt to destroy Hizballah. The Lebanon-based terrorist group has already succeeded in driving thousands of Israelis from their homes, and just yesterday launched 45 rockets into the Western Galilee. To prevent a major conflict, France and the U.S. have been engaged in frantic diplomatic activity, but their proposals seem unlikely to bring about anything like lasting calm. David Daoud and Jonathan Schanzer write that

the international community’s fixation on futile deals has only whetted Hizballah’s appetite for violence. The group sees the desperation to prevent a wider war. Its leaders note with glee how Israel has been restrained by the Biden administration. Their belief—mistaken and dangerous—is that Israel’s hands are tied by the White House.

The Biden administration’s baseless signals of public displeasure with Jerusalem are undeniably seen by Hizballah as a constraint on Israeli freedom of action. They are also treated as a green light for Hizballah’s provocations. Washington’s decision to pause weapons shipments to Israel surely encouraged Hizballah’s latest and most dangerous escalation. The group’s attacks suddenly became more destructive, reaching deeper into Israel.


Israeli foreign minister decries ‘grossly erroneous’ UN data on Hamas war
Israel’s foreign minister chided the head of the United Nations, expressing “extreme concern” over the global body’s “ongoing misreporting” of Israel’s war against Hamas.

Israel Katz, Jerusalem’s top diplomat, sent the letter, which was viewed by JNS, on Wednesday. Secretary-General António Guterres’s office confirmed receipt of it.

Katz said that the online informational humanitarian-aid delivery dashboard published by UNRWA—the scandal-plagued Palestinian-only aid and social services agency overseen by the United Nations—was “grossly erroneous” due to an underreporting of some 8,000 trucks since the start of the war, including 4,800 in May alone.

Katz complained that the dashboard did not include deliveries from the Erez Crossing or the U.S.-constructed Gaza floating pier, and included only partial data from the Kerem Shalom Crossing.

In addition, at some point this week, the dashboard Katz referred to ceased to function, with no immediate explanation from the United Nations. Critics have pointed out significant flaws with the dashboard, including labeling food as non-food items and vice versa.

In recent days, the dashboard indicated that a large percentage of trucks entering Gaza had been looted in transit.

Katz also referenced the controversial revisions last month by the U.N. Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs of the fatality tolls in Gaza. The newer numbers, taken from Hamas’s reporting, showed an eye-popping decrease in the number of women and children killed.
UN Rapporteurs Call for Arms Embargo on Israel
Latest Developments
Several United Nations (UN)-appointed special rapporteurs issued a statement on June 20 calling on weapons manufacturers to immediately halt arms transfers to Israel. The group — including Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for Palestinian human rights who is known for her inflammatory statements against Israel — also called on financial institutions like Bank of America and BlackRock to curtail their relationships with weapons manufacturers that do business with Israel. “Arms initiate, sustain, exacerbate, and prolong armed conflicts, as well as other forms of oppression,” the group said. “The imperative for an arms embargo on Israel and for investors to take decisive action is more urgent than ever.”

The UN group cited allegations from the International Criminal Court (ICC) of supposed Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. “By sending weapons, parts, components, and ammunition to Israeli forces,” companies “risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian laws,” the UN group asserted. Many of the ICC’s accusations against Israel, which include false claims of enforced famine and deliberate targeting of civilians, were rebutted in a May 10 State Department report submitted to the U.S. Congress.

Expert Analysis
“Investors and C-suites should be reminded that the UN Human Rights Council and its expert community have peddled in antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel for years while giving a pass to the world’s worst human rights abusers like China and Cuba. What’s outrageous is that the U.S. government legitimizes this pro-Hamas group by remaining a member of the council. American participation in this farce needs to end.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“The UN ‘human rights’ community continually erases Israeli security concerns to falsely portray Israel as an evil, malicious entity. Now, it is seeking to eliminate Israel’s ability to defend itself through an arms embargo. The UN has become an accomplice in Hamas’s genocidal ambitions and the Iranian ‘ring of fire’ aimed at annihilating the Jewish state.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

UN Bias Against Israel
The UN General Assembly failed to unequivocally condemn Hamas after the Iran-backed terrorist group killed more than 1,200 Israelis and abducted over 200 more on October 7. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also failed to acknowledge reports of Hamas’s sexual crimes until November 29, seven weeks after Hamas’s massacre. UN Women, an agency tasked with promoting women’s rights, waited until December 1 to call out Hamas’s “gender-based atrocities and sexual violence.”

On December 29, South Africa initiated proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, claiming that Israel has committed genocide in its response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre. South Africa submitted another request on May 10 over Israel’s “assault on Rafah.” The secretary-general’s annual report on children in armed conflict, which was published on June 13, blacklisted Israel as an offender for the first time. The report falsely equates Hamas’s deliberate crimes with the unintentional harm caused by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in its campaign against Hamas.

U.S. Officials, Experts Discredit Claims of Israeli War Crimes
President Joe Biden called the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “outrageous,” while Secretary of State Antony Blinken questioned the ICC investigation’s “legitimacy and credibility.” On May 31, a bipartisan group of 24 legislators sent a letter to Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen describing the ICC charges against Netanyahu and Gallant as “baseless,” reflecting “the ICC’s well-documented historical bias against Israel.” The U.S. House of Representatives on June 4 voted 247-155 to impose sanctions on the ICC.

Separately, on June 8, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) — a body consisting of five prominent scholars of food security and nutrition — rejected as not “plausible” the conclusion that northern Gaza has entered a state of famine. The FRC concluded that flows of aid and the availability of food increased significantly in March and April and “that nearly 100 percent of daily kilocalorie requirements were available for the estimated population of 300,000 people in April, even using conservative calculations.”
Senators demand Justice Department respond to ICC’s anti-Israel efforts
The effort by International Criminal Court prosecutors to arrest Israeli leaders has provoked nine members of the Senate to insist that the U.S. Department of Justice declare its position on the decision.

“This action is especially troublesome considering the bipartisan conversation held between members of the Senate and prosecutor [Karim] Khan last month in which Khan assured senators that a complete and thorough investigation would be conducted before any action was taken,” stated the letter led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Thune (R-S.D.).

Pointing out the court’s double standards against Israel, the letter said the choice by Khan “cannot be justified in light of the ICC’s other investigations—such as the one into crimes against humanity in Venezuela—that have been under investigation for years. There are also several rogue nation-states that routinely and brazenly commit horrific violations of international law, including China, Iran and North Korea, which the ICC has summarily ignored.”

Other signatories of the letter included Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).


Seth Frantzman: What’s next in Gaza after Rafah?
Israel has apparently abandoned the policies that its leaders floated at the outset of the war, such as “Hamas is ISIS” and “Hamas will be no more.” These talking points would have called for replacing Hamas. It has also abandoned the idea of “bubbles” in Gaza, where local authorities would be given control. Further, it is unclear if Israel is even interested in a force in Gaza that would be backed by Arab states.

This leaves many questions as to what comes next. If there is no ceasefire and the IDF continues to control parts of Gaza, or even if there is a ceasefire and the IDF maintains some control, what will happen? It does not seem that Hamas will be defeated.

The security cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has defined the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities as one of the goals of the war. The Prime Minister’s Office reiterated this on Wednesday. Still, the terms “military and governing capabilities” are quite broad. Because of that, there are many junctures along the way, and in the future, Israel will be able to claim “mission accomplished.” But that won’t necessarily mean that Hamas has been defeated.

And, once Rafah is figured out, questions will loom about central Gaza. Israel has never fully operated in El-Bureij, Nuseirat, Deir el-Balah, or Maghazi, as Hamas’s control there was deep, and it continues to be a threat.

For instance, the raid into the Nuseirat refugee camp to free four hostages this month illustrated how the area is teeming with terrorists. It has always been a major recruiting ground for Hamas. Indeed, as has already been exposed, many men from Nuseirat played a role in the October 7 massacre. Therefore, these areas in central Gaza, known as the “central camps” because they grew out of refugee camps established in the 1950s, clearly represent Hamas’s home turf.

There are also concerns that Hamas members left Rafah and went back to Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Additionally, some of them may have relocated to the humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi. Rocket fire from Gaza has increased slightly in the last few weeks, illustrating that terrorists continue to possess 107mm rockets as well as mortars and other weapons, such as the Yasin 105 rocket and RPGs. It will be hard to declare victory in Gaza as long as rocket or mortar fire continues to be directed toward Israel’s border communities.

If the IDF chooses to reenter northern Gaza, going into areas it has already operated in, like Beit Hanun, Shati, Zeitun, or Shejaia, this will raise questions regarding Hamas’s ability to rebuild its networks quickly.

If the IDF goes back into Khan Yunis, this will raise similar doubts. All of this will point to how this war may be conducted in the future. Will it continue to use the sandpaper doctrine of slowly grinding down Hamas with each pass the IDF makes over these areas? If so, is there an objective, or merely diminishing returns in terms of what is found each time this happens again?


IDF says it struck rocket launcher embedded in ‘humanitarian zone’ for displaced Gazans
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket launching site, embedded within a shelter for displaced Palestinians in the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, was struck by a drone yesterday, the military says.

Before carrying out the airstrike, the IDF said that “much effort was made to reduce the risk of harm to uninvolved [civilians].”

“Terror organizations continue to place weapons and terror infrastructure in the heart of the civilian population, putting them at risk and using them as a human shield,” the military says in a statement.

The strike comes as troops continue to operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah and in the Netzarim Corridor in the Strip’s center.
IDF engages terrorists, finds weapons in Gaza university used as Hamas HQ
The IDF announced on Friday that it had located and destroyed weapons caches at a university in Gaza that Hamas had been using as a headquarters.

Combat teams from the Alexandroni Brigade, the 8th Brigade, and the Multidimensional Unit operated in the Gaza Strip under the direction of the 99th Division, the military added. Alexandroni Brigade operating in southern Gaza, June 21, 2024. (CREDIT: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The IDF reported that the combat teams completed a number of operations all across the Strip to expand and increase IDF operational control in the area.

The 8th Brigade's combat team operated in Al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Nuseirat.

Destroying weapon caches
The soldiers eliminated dozens of terrorists and located a weapons storage facility that contained mortars and military equipment belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization.

The Alexandroni Brigade'combat team operated in Al-Omdan, on the outskirts of Gaza City, and located many weapons and tunnel shafts in the area.

The Multidimensional Unit conducted a targeted raid on a university that was being used as a Hamas headquarters, from which terrorists fired on IDF troops, the IDF noted.

The soldiers located weapons and barrel bombs inside the university compound.

The soldiers eliminated a terrorist who fired an RPG missile at them from a building in the area.


Two IDF soldiers killed in Gaza
Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in a mortar attack launched by Hamas in the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip, the military announced on Friday morning.

The troops, from the Alexandroni Reserve Infantry Brigade’s 9203rd Battalion, were named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Smadga, 25, from Ganot Hadar, near Netanya, and Sgt. First Class (res.) Saadia Yaakov Dery, 27, from Tel Aviv.

Smadga died on the 54th birthday of his father, Oren Smadga, the first Israeli man to win an Olympic medal, having taken a bronze in judo in the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the mortar fire on Thursday in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.

Three additional soldiers from the battalion were seriously wounded in the attack.


Son of first Israeli to win an Olympic medal killed in Gaza
The son of the first Israeli man to win an Olympic medal has been killed by a Hamas mortar attack in Gaza on his father’s birthday.

Sgt. First Class Omer Smadga, 25, died alongside Sgt. First Class Saadia Yaakov Dery, 27, while stationed in the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts through the centre of the Gaza Strip.

His father, Oren Smadga, won a bronze in judo in the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Yaakov Dery is the son of right-wing news pundit Laly Derai, who ran in a Likud primary in 2022.

“My Saadia was a boy who put everyone else’s will before his own,” she said in a statement.

“He did a lot more than was expected of him in every field. He was a smart student, studied for the rabbinate exams, and began studying for his bachelor’s degree in teaching.”

Derai insisted: “My son did not fall on the altar of a diplomatic arrangement but for the sake of complete victory over the enemy.”

The Olympic Committee of Israel said Smadga had “only begun his life’s journey” when he was killed.

"All of Israel and the Israeli sporting family grieve his heroic fall,” they said in a statement.

“Dear Oren, a great coach, a great athlete. Just like you prepared and trained entire generations of excellent athletes, carrying the Israeli flag with pride and the human spirit – your dear son, too, is an example of someone taking on the most difficult tasks.”


Police say 2 Islamic Jihad members killed in West Bank raid, one was planning attack
Israeli forces eliminated two wanted persons who were in a car in the West Bank Palestinian city of Kalkaliya, Israeli state broadcaster KAN reported on Friday afternoon.

One of the individuals reportedly belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization.

Wafa, a state-run media outlet of the Palestinian Authority, reported that Israeli forces had opened fire at the vehicle. The Palestinian media outlet also claimed that Israeli special forces had surrounded a building in the heart of the city.

According to Wafa, more Israeli reinforcements were on their way to the scene.


5 takeaways from the new ‘Gaza famine report’
The June 2024 IPC Report about “famine in Gaza” is the most important thing going on in the world of hasbara right now. Are people in Gaza suffering from famine, or does this new report debunk everything the world has been saying (screaming) for the last four months?

The truth is, all I’ve seen on social media about this new report is either way too complicated or oversimplified to the point of being fake news. So I meticulously went through the 12-page document to see for myself exactly what it says, and it turns out it’s worth the read. Let’s dive in.

What is in this report and why is it important?

The narrative that there is currently or projected to be famine in Gaza was based on “special reports” and “targeted analyses” published in March, April, and May by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). This organization has the US Aid logo on their website but also a disclaimer that what’s posted there is not official US government information, so take that as you will. They use a five-phase scale called the “Integrated Food Security Phase Classification” (abbreviated as IPC) to classify current and projected levels of food insecurity.

At the top of this same organization, there is a Famine Review Committee (FRC) led by a team of four to six experts on food security and nutrition, whose job it is to conduct a Famine Review process on the aforementioned FEWS NET “special reports” and “targeted analyses.” So when we talk about the new June 2024 IPC Report, this is all one organization reviewing its own data from April and its own projections for May, June, and July. The FRC report was published on the UN website, but it’s unclear to me if the FRC is considered a UN agency, partner, or something else. (If you know, please reach out!)

Sparknotes summary: FEWS NET told the world there was currently/about to be famine in Gaza, and everyone believed them. FRC did a report on FEWS NET’s information.

So now let’s dive in, for real, into what this report actually found. I’m going to list them in order of importance (in my opinion), not in order of appearance in the text.
Israel Advocacy Movement: Proof there's no famine in Gaza
They said there’s a famine in Gaza.

But they've been forced to admit that it's not plausible.

Watch as we debunk their manipulative narrative.




Israeli doctor who saved Sinwar's life repaid with nephew's murder
In the mind of Yahya Sinwar
Having spent hundreds of hours in Sinwar's company, Bitton explained that he understood Sinwar’s mindset and perceptions of the world well. He told CNN that Sinwar believes that Jews have “no place” on “Muslim lands.”

It was based on his understanding of Sinwar that Bitton had hypothesized it was “only a matter of time and timing that they [Hamas] will act against us and try to expel us from the place where we live.”

Sinwar, Bitton asserted, was primarily focused on remaining in power - not on the safety and security of the Palestinian people that the terror group governs.

Sinwar is “willing to sacrifice even 100,000 Palestinians in order to ensure the survival of his rule,” Bitton said. “He is willing to pay with the lives of militants, Hamas members, [and]civilians. He doesn’t care.”

Israel's costly mistake
Bitton said that Israel had made a mistake in not establishing an alternative to Hamas rule in Gaza.

Bitton added that Sinwar still “feels he is in a powerful position.”

“He is running the negotiations while still operating from within Gaza, and still controls the areas from which the IDF evacuates, he also controls the humanitarian aid, and therefore he feels strong and won’t sign an agreement to release the hostages unless the IDF withdraws from Gaza and the fighting ends.”

“Our attitude towards Hamas was arrogant. We dismissed Hamas. And Hamas said everything it intended to do, but we didn’t want to listen.”


US envoy visits NYC Nova festival exhibit targeted by antisemitic mob
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited a New York City exhibit memorializing the October 7 massacre at the Nova music festival earlier today.

Earlier this month an anti-Israel mob protested outside the exhibit, waving flags of Hamas’s armed al-Qassam Brigades terror wing and of the Hezbollah terror group and carrying banners with slogans such as “Long live October 7” and “The Zionists are not Jews and not humans.”

“The ambassador’s visit to the exhibition comes after recent abhorrent antisemitic protests outside the venue. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield has forcefully spoken out against antisemitism,” her office said in a statement.

“The harsh reality is that antisemitism is pervasive and growing worldwide. We must stand up to this threat and show solidarity with Jewish communities everywhere. Let us foster hope, develop practical solutions and build stronger partnerships to combat antisemitism and prevent future violence,” Thomas-Greenfield adds.


The Commentary Magazine Podcast: Why Is Biden Impeding Israel?
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
With Senators Cotton and Risch going aggressively at the Biden administration for seeming to slow down the delivery of American weaponry to Israel—all part of the aid package they supported and President Biden signed into law—we try to figure out what the strategy is here on both sides. And we apply the back hand to the “both-sidesism” of investigations into anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus.


The Israel Guys: HEZBOLLAH Threatens The Country Of Cyprus - Is This A Regional WAR?
For the first time ever, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is threatening the country of Cyprus with war. Does this mean that the war with Lebanon could become a wider conflict? Also, a terror attack tragically leaves an elderly Israeli dead, and a hero in Israel is honored.


First Things PodCast: Israel, June 2024
The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. Gabriel Brahm joins the podcast to discuss life in Israel after October 7.


FDD Morning Brief | feat. Kylie Moore-Gilbert (Jun. 19)
FDD Senior Vice President Jon Schanzer delivers timely situational updates and analysis, followed by a conversation with Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Australian-British author and academic, who was imprisoned for more than 800 days by the brutal Iranian regime.


FDD Morning Brief | feat. Noa Tishby (Jun. 21)
FDD Senior Vice President Jon Schanzer delivers timely situational updates and analysis, followed by a conversation with Israeli activist, author, and actress Noa Tishby to discuss antisemitism, extremism in Hollywood and on U.S. college campuses, anti-Israel bias on the world stage, and more.




London church hosts concert by ‘antisemitic’ Pink Floyd star Roger Waters
Alleged antisemite Roger Waters will perform in a Church of England building this evening along with anti-Zionist rapper Lowkey.

Notorious for his use of Nazi-era symbols, the Pink Floyd frontman has become known for his anti-Israel rants and offensive costumes.

After they received numerous complaints, on Friday afternoon St Pancras Church said it would not cancel the concert featuring Waters, despite recognising “that the programme has greatly offended friends in the Jewish community.”

This church said it did not intend to cause any offence but that the concert would go ahead as planned.

The Gaza fundraising event, “Rock for Palestine,” is an external booking by alternative media outlet Double Down News, and will be streamed on YouTube on Friday evening.

Protests erupted outside the church on Euston Road on Friday afternoon to demonstrate against Water’s “virulent antisemitism” being allowed in the church.

Jewish protest organisers said that hosting Waters “is utterly unacceptable, and we must show London that we will not tolerate a church in our city giving stage to such disgusting collection of known Jew haters.”

Campaign group Christian Action Against Antisemitism told the church leader: “Platforming a renowned Jew hater is not only offensive but it is also entirely unacceptable.”


Antisemitic Slogans from Nazi Germany to Today
Catchy slogans are crucial in encapsulating a brand or product in just a few words and increasing brand recognition. But they can also be used for harmful purposes, such as spreading hate and lies. In Nazi Germany, propaganda slogans incited hatred, fueled discrimination, and unified people under a malevolent ideology.

Nazis meticulously designed slogans to instigate passivity and acceptance of the discriminatory actions taken against the Jewish population. These slogans portrayed the Nazi regime as a force restoring order, masking their true intentions behind a facade of perceived injustices against ethnic Germans in neighboring countries acquired post-World War I.

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi propaganda intensified its efforts, supporting narratives that linked Soviet Communism with European Jewry. Germany positioned itself as the protector of "Western" values against the supposed "Judeo-Bolshevik threat," painting a grim picture of the consequences of a Soviet victory. These propaganda tactics, significantly amplified after the devastating defeat at Stalingrad, played a pivotal role in rallying support from both loyalists and coerced collaborators to continue the fight until the bitter end.

Below are some of the Nazi slogans and their meanings:
- "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer" ("One People, One Realm, One Leader"): This slogan emphasized the unity of the German people under Adolf Hitler's leadership.
- "Juden sind unser Unglück" ("The Jews are our Misfortune"): This slogan blamed Jewish people for Germany's problems, fostering antisemitic sentiment.
- "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work sets you free"): This slogan was inscribed at the entrances of concentration camps and suggested that hard work would lead to liberation.
- "Blut und Boden" ("Blood and Soil"): This phrase connected ethnic purity with the rural homeland, advocating agrarianism and the expansion of the Aryan race's living space.
- "Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz" ("The common good before the self good"): This slogan promoted self-sacrifice for the benefit of the nation.
- "Deutschland erwache" ("Germany, awake!"): was a rallying call to rouse the German nation.
- "Unsere letzte Hoffnung: Hitler" ("Our last hope: Hitler"): This slogan portrayed Adolf Hitler as the savior of Germany.

These slogans were used as powerful tools for evoking emotional and psychological responses that aligned with the Nazi propaganda objectives.

Today, slogans are used to create polarization and spread extremist views. Following the tragic events of Hamas's attack on October 7th, there has been a notable surge in global support for Palestinians. This wave of solidarity has been fueled, in part, by impactful slogans that have become synonymous with the movement. However, many of these slogans carry inherent antisemitic undertones and advocate violence and the destruction of the State of Israel.

The prevalence of these slogans at pro-Palestinian rallies, particularly in major cities like New York and London, has coincided with a concerning rise in antisemitism. These parallel crises are not isolated but interconnected, fueled by a collective turning of a blind eye and deaf ear to the hateful rhetoric expressed during pro-Palestinian demonstrations, on university campuses, and in the media.

Below are some of the common phrases utilized by supporters of Hamas:




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