Wednesday, July 10, 2024

07/10 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Abandoning Israel and the Jews; DOJ interviews Oct. 7 victims for case against Hamas; US House leaders demand probe into Palestine Chronicle

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Abandoning Israel and the Jews
Five days after Britain’s Labour party won an overwhelming parliamentary majority in the general election, we can see the outline of what this is likely to mean for British Jews and their country’s relationship with Israel. That outline is not reassuring.

The new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is said to have purged his party of antisemitism and has persuaded many British Jews that he has made Labour safe again for Jewish voters. On Sunday morning, he told the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas — antisemite, Holocaust denier and fan of Hitler’s wartime ally in the Middle East — that an independent state was the “undeniable right” of the Palestinian people and that “financial support for the Palestinian Authority” was one of his “immediate priorities”.

He did not tell Abbas that a condition of this financial support was that the PA must stop paying financial rewards to terrorists and their families for murdering Israelis. Nor did he say that a condition of receiving more British taxpayers’ money was that the PA must end its indoctrination of Palestinian Arab children in Nazi-themed demonisation of the Jews, teaching them that their greatest ambition should be to murder Jews and steal all their land.

Instead, Starmer proceeded to lecture Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that there was a “clear and urgent” need for a ceasefire in Gaza as well as an immediate increase in the volume of humanitarian aid reaching civilians. As for the war being waged by Hezbollah in Lebanon against northern Israel, Starmer warned Netanyahu:
It was crucial all parties acted with caution.

What kind of “caution” does Starmer suggest is appropriate in the face of a threat of genocide by Hezbollah and its patron, Iran? Or to put it another way, with Hezbollah primed to unleash its armoury of 150,000 rockets and other missiles that can reach all of Israel, and with Iran itself along with Iraqi, Syrian and Houthi militias not to mention the terrorist armies of the “West Bank” all primed to attack Israel if it launches all-out war against Hezbollah, does Starmer really believe that Israel actually needs to be told to act “with caution”?

Can he really not grasp that, given the daily onslaught over the past nine months from dozens of rockets, drones and guided missiles that have destroyed Israeli border towns, left swathes of northern Israel burning, made more than 60,000 Israelis refugees in their own country and kept other residents in the north trapped in their safe rooms (two Israelis were killed today by a Hezbollah rocket strike that hit their car) that if the Israelis abandon that “caution” it’s because they have no other choice?

Starmer shows absolutely zero understanding that this crisis isn’t about Hamas, Hezbollah or the Palestinian Arabs. They are proxies and pawns in an Iranian war of extermination against Israel, the essential precursor to the destruction and conquest of America, Britain and the west.

So little does he understand this that the new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is now poring over the government’s legal advice on whether to stop UK arms sales to Israel.
Justice Department interviews Oct. 7 victims for case against Hamas
The U.S. Justice Department is interviewing Oct. 7 survivors and victims’ families to build a case against the terrorist organization and its financial supporters.

Former hostages and families of U.S. citizens who have been killed abroad have spoken with prosecutors and FBI agents in recent months, sources told Bloomberg News.

Beyond acts of terrorism, the broader focus of the U.S. investigation is targeting the financial networks that have funded Hamas, the report said.

That support includes backing from countries such as Iran and Qatar.

The U.S. has seized assets in cases where it’s hard to arrest the people facing criminal charges. “In terrorism cases, seized funds can be potentially redirected into a reserve for U.S. victims of state-sponsored terrorism,” Bloomberg reported.

On Feb. 2, the Justice Department announced that it had seized more than 500,000 barrels of Iranian fuel it said provided funding for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force. In addition, it seized $108 million destined for the Quds Force.

“Iran utilizes the proceeds of its black-market oil sales to fund its criminal activities, including its support of the IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian-aligned terrorist groups,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a Justice Department statement.

Iran and Syria are facing a slew of recent lawsuits filed on behalf of hostage victims and their families for providing the financial backing that enabled the Oct. 7 attack.
Top House lawmakers demand federal probe into US nonprofit linked to Hamas operative
A pro-Palestinian news outlet linked to Hamas is facing scrutiny from three separate House committees in a joint memo urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate.

Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Education & Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday accusing The Palestine Chronicle and the U.S. nonprofit that runs it of running afoul of several laws.

"We write to urge you to investigate The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project for violating the law, particularly for providing material support to a known terrorist organization in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, for filing a false tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206, and for failing to file a valid tax return and pay estimated taxes in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203," the letter said.

It comes after multiple Israeli hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas during their Oct. 7 terror attack were found in the home of Abdallah Aljamal, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Aljamal was a contributor to media outlets, including The Palestine Chronicle, as well as a spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza Labor Ministry. He was killed by the IDF during an operation to rescue the hostages.

"During his time as a 'journalist,' Mr. Aljamal was listed as a ‘correspondent’ on The Palestine Chronicle’s website, but the publication later changed the description to 'contributor' after news of his holding innocent Israeli hostages was reported around the world," the lawmakers' letter said.

The Republicans also accused The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project of having ties to Iran, writing that the outlet's founder and editor-in-chief, Ramzy Baroud, "has also written for Kayhan International, an outlet that reportedly is funded by Iran’s supreme leader. Notably, Kayhan International has had six of its published writers appear on state-controlled sites that were previously seized in 2020 by the U.S. government after finding that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unlawfully used them to further a global covert influence campaign."

The lawmakers pointed to a federal statute that states anyone under U.S. jurisdiction providing "material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life."

"[B]ased on the facts available, The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project appear to be at the very least complicit in supporting Hamas, and at worst full-fledged financiers of terrorism," the letter said.


Gadi Taub: War With Hezbollah Is Inevitable
We now face an Iranian noose similar to Nasser’s. “We are engaged in a struggle for our survival,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset on June 24. “The struggle is taking place on seven fronts [and] is led by Iran.”

Apart from Hezbollah in the north and Gaza in the south, there are Shiite militias in Syria and West Iraq backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hamas forces in the West Bank, the Houthis down south at the straits of the Red Sea, and Iran itself. We cannot tell how many wars it will take to destroy this noose – this “ring of fire,” as the Iranians call it – but we may well be facing a decade of armed struggle with Iran and its proxies.

We have come to see that war with Hezbollah is inevitable. We know, too, that it is bound to be the most devastating war yet in terms of loss of Israeli lives and that it would be very difficult to wage it against American resistance. Difficult, but not impossible.

Not waging it, however, will be harder for Israel’s leadership – whoever that may be. The war may be delayed, but no Israeli government can leave the north of the country deserted forever. “Diplomatic solutions” and “international guarantees” are not likely to work since people will vote with their feet. They will probably not return home if they feel their children will face the danger of horrors the likes of which we saw on Oct. 7.

Israel’s government will probably use the diplomacy to buy time to prepare for the coming war. Since the 1956 war and its aftermath, Israel cannot sit idly by and wait for a noose – which may soon be backed up by nuclear weapons – to be tightened around our neck. That is what “Never Again!” now means.

A war with Hezbollah will not be the tail end of the Gaza war, as the administration seems to frame it. It is rather the next step in an inevitable showdown with Iran. The United States does not have to send its troops to fight it. But it would do well to look Middle Eastern realities in the eye. Doing so may lead it to accede to Netanyahu’s Churchillian request: Give us the tools, and we’ll finish the job. For your sake, not just ours.
Judea and Samaria are literally on fire
Over the past months, firefighters have battled well over 1,000 fires in Judea and Samaria, many of them adjacent to Jewish towns and Israeli army bases, almost all of them certainly caused by arson.

This included difficult-to-control fires around the community of Peduel, on the western ridge of Samaria, and adjacent to Elon Moreh, an Israeli town of 2,000 people in the Samarian highlands; fires near Revava, Shavei Shomron, Karnei Shomron, Salit, Nahal Shiloh, Yitzhar, Givat Itamar, Tzur Harel, Oz Zion and Kochav Hashachar; in Gush Etzion and the Jordan Valley; near the important IDF base on Mount Hazor near Ofra, near the Mount Kabir base above Nablus, and adjacent to the “Ofrit” base on Mount Scopus on the eastern ridges of Jerusalem.

And every single day, Palestinians and their extreme left-wing Israeli anarchist allies torch the grazing grounds of cattle in the central Binyamin and Samaria highlands where pioneering Israelis have established a string of some 100 ranches (in Hebrew: havot); or as Western media and hostile NGOs call them, “wildcat settler outposts.”

The grass and brush that grows in the vast and mostly unsettled parts of Binyamin and Samaria are “natural gold” for feeding these herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. Burning the pastures is outright warfare, designed to firebomb Jewish “settler sheep” off the land and drive settlers from the area.

This is not too different from the devastation caused by thousands of incendiary balloons and kites sent over the Gaza border by Hamas since 2018, firebombs that destroyed tens of thousands of acres of nature reserves and farmland in southern Israel. (Experts say it will take years to rehabilitate the burned farm fields in southern Israel.)

But who cared about the Hamas fire balloon blitz, and who cares about the manifold arson assaults in Judea and Samaria? Who cares about the dangerous and illegal Palestinian building juggernaut along the seam line and other strategic zones? The first is long forgotten, the second grossly underreported and third shrugged off (or even supported by the European Union).

And in the face of exaggerated reports of “settler violence” and crassly misreported stories of settler “land grabs”—well, the reality of Palestinian terrorist violence and belligerence does not stand a chance of grabbing anybody’s attention in Tel Aviv, Washington, or Brussels.
Defeating Hamas, Hezbollah key to winning PR war, Netanyahu says
Swiftly defeating Hamas and Hezbollah on the battlefield is critical to winning the global public-relations war against the Jewish state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told rabbis gathered at his office on Wednesday.

Netanyahu spoke at a meeting with Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries from Israel, the United States and other countries, marking 30 years since the death of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Schneerson was born 122 years ago on April 18. He died in Manhattan in 1994 on the Hebrew date of 3 Tammuz, which this year fell on July 9.

“We can win this war. We’re going to win it. We are winning it, in fact,” said the premier, per a readout. “But we also have to win the war in the world. The quicker we end this war, the quicker we’ll be able to also fend off the slanders, and that’s something that we’re going to do.”

Netanyahu told the Chabad emissaries, “Don’t bend, don’t cower, don’t surrender, not to these antisemitic lies, not to the fear, not to the intimidation. You are our ambassadors in the spirit of the Rebbe.”
Caroline Glick: The Israeli Elite Are Still Blind to Hamas' War
A revolutionary rubicon was crossed on October 7th - so why are Israel’s elite seemingly in denial? Saving Israel and civilization will ultimately require recognizing the Red-Green alliance for what it is.

Also, how will European elections affect Jews; what’s the big deal in recognizing “Palestine?” and Israel’s courts try to convict national heroes

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:40 European elections & the Jews
4:30 Recognizing Palestine: what’s the big deal?
22:20 Israeli legal complicity
31:00 The dysfunctional Israeli system


Why the Hostages Should be an International Issue — Not Just an Israeli One
When compared to previous high-profile hostage situations, such as the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, the disparity in global attention is unmistakable. The Iranian hostage crisis gripped the American public and media, whereas the Israeli hostages, including US citizens, have not gained similar levels of attention from the American people.

In 2014, when 276 girls were kidnapped from a school in Chibok, Nigeria by the Islamist militia group Boko Haram, a campaign for their return drew widespread international support.

The “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign included endorsements from prominent figures like Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. In stark contrast, the Israeli hostages’ plight has not seen comparable global outrage. This is despite the hard work of hostages’ families, who fly across the world to fight for loved ones’ freedom.

In some cases, the hostages have even faced negative attention – a phenomenon unheard of in past crises. Posters of the hostages have been torn down around the world, and some media personalities have questioned the legitimacy of reports from the October 7 attacks.

Shek sums up the universal nature of this cause. “It doesn’t really matter on which side of the political divide you are in Israel, the US, in France, or anywhere else. It doesn’t really matter on which side of the Israel-Palestine divide you are,” he says. “It’s unjust that innocent civilians have been held for nine months under inhumane conditions. They have been deprived of their rights under international law, and have had no decent medical care or access by the Red Cross. This should concern anyone who cares about human rights.”

The fact that 120 hostages from 22 different countries were taken from Israel by terrorists and remain in Gaza until today demands urgent international action. This hostage crisis is not only an Israeli issue but a global one.

So, world, where is your outrage? Why don’t you fight to bring your people home?
Netanyahu: Israel committed to hostage deal that respects red lines
The Israeli government remains committed to a hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists-release agreement with Hamas as long as the deal adheres to its red lines, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk on Wednesday.

According to a PMO readout of the Jerusalem meeting, the two men discussed “regional issues.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer also participated.

On Sunday, Netanyahu outlined his red lines for a deal: The ability to resume fighting in Gaza until all war goals have been met; an end to arms smuggling from Egypt; no return of “thousands” of terrorists to Gaza’s north; and maximizing the number of living hostages released.

“The plan that has been agreed to by Israel and which has been welcomed by President Biden will allow Israel to return hostages without infringing on the other objectives of the war,” the PMO said.

Netanyahu’s tête-à-tête with the Biden administration official came as an Israeli delegation led by Mossad Director David Barnea touched down in Doha to continue hostage release and ceasefire negotiations.

CIA Director William Burns, Egyptian intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Kamel and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani are also expected to attend the discussions in Qatar.
Biden sees some political gain in hostage deal, says Israel’s ambassador to US
There is a political aspect to US President Joe Biden’s push for a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel’s Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog told Army Radio on Wednesday.

“Biden will see it as an achievement and will want to take credit — as everyone knows, we are approaching the elections,” said Herzog.

“The ability to show an achievement on an issue he worked on for a long time is of course important to him,” the ambassador continued.

“I’m not saying this is the main reason he wants a deal,” Herzog said. “Even when there wasn’t a political mess, he was very focused on this. But there is of course a political dimension as well.”

A summit between Israel and Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators on a potential deal was held Wednesday in the Qatari capital of Doha. The three countries have been striving to hammer out an agreement between Israel and Hamas for the release of over 100 hostages that the Palestinian terror group abducted from Israel during its devastating October 7 assault and who are still held by the group.

Biden has put significant diplomatic muscle behind the effort to find a formula that both sides accept. In May, he revealed Israel’s latest proposal in a White House address. It took weeks of pressure for Hamas to issue a response that sparked renewed talks in Cairo and Doha.

“Americans are saying both that there is movement in Hamas’s position and that there are still gaps that we need to work to close, and that is what they are working on right now,” said Herzog.

The ambassador also denied that the Biden administration blamed Israel for the months of fruitless attempts to close a deal.
Hamas official warns terror group could harden stance at hostage negotiations due to ‘intensifying’ IDF operations
A senior Hamas official claims Israel is “intensifying” its military operations in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to pressure the terror group into a deal, and warns that it will have the opposite effect.

In recent days, the IDF has issued evacuation warnings in Gaza City, and earlier today said it had wrapped up a two-week raid in the eastern Shejaiya neighborhood. At the same time, the IDF has been continuing to operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah, and elsewhere across northern Gaza and the center of the Strip.

The IDF is also investigating reports that dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed and wounded in a strike in Khan Younis earlier this week. The IDF said a fighter jet launched a “precision munition” during a strike against a Hamas terrorist who had participated in the October 7 massacre.

Speaking to AFP about what he says are increased military operations, Hamas official Hossam Badran says that Israel “is trying to pressure negotiations by intensifying bombing operations, displacement and committing massacres”.

As long-stalled diplomatic efforts have gathered pace, aiming for a hostage release deal and Gaza truce after more than nine months of devastating war, Badran claims Israel was trying to force Hamas’s hands.
Nasrallah: If Hamas reaches ceasefire deal with Israel, Hezbollah will also cease attacks
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah says that the terror group’s goal throughout the last nine months of near-daily attacks on northern Israel is to “exhaust the enemy materially, financially and mentally,” and claims that it has achieved this.

Speaking at a memorial event for senior Hezbollah official Mohammed Nasser, who was killed in an Israeli strike last week, Nasrallah claims that the clashes on the Lebanon border have successfully distracted Israel from the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. The situation in northern Israel has “made them understand that if they want it to stop, they must stop the aggression in Gaza,” he adds.

He says that if there is a breakthrough in the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas that results in a ceasefire in Gaza, Hezbollah will “also cease” its attacks on Israel “without any discussion or negotiation.”
David Petraeus Is Wrong: Counterinsurgency Won’t Work in Gaza
STILL, LET’S PLAY ALONG with Petraeus and pretend that the IDF was fighting an insurgency in Gaza. Would population-centric counterinsurgency really be the IDF’s ticket out? COIN is messy. It requires time to build rapport with host nation security forces. That work is done at the lowest levels of the military. It’s built on the backs of privates and corporals partnering with indigenous forces. It takes time. A long time.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, that trust was built through thousands of cups of chai, gruesome dismounted combat patrols, and the shared trauma of killing each other’s enemies. Which group inside of Gaza could partner with the IDF like this and still survive?

While the IDF and Palestinian Authority have a working relationship, the PA is a weak, feeble group run by Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier who is in the eighteenth year of his four-year term as the PA’s leader. The PA is still incapable of securing the West Bank. How would they secure Gaza working shoulder-by-shoulder with the IDF?

Moreover, while there were always pockets of anti-Americanism and hostility to the West throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, many Iraqis and Afghans worked side-by-side with American forces. The United States Marine Corps had Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi in Iraq. In southern Afghanistan, American troops partnered with General Abdul Raziq. In contrast, Gazans are reared in antisemitism and, by and large, support Hamas and the October 7th attacks.

Again, let’s play along, pretending that somehow the IDF could find a partner force. How long would it take to clear, hold, and build? A year? Maybe two? Wouldn’t the international community claim that Israel is occupying Gaza? Even Petraeus admits that this would require an Israeli occupation of Gaza.

As a result, a short-term period of Israeli authority over Gaza’s security and governance may be unavoidable—and Israelis and Americans should acknowledge this reality, however distasteful. No one wants an Israeli occupation. But for the time being, the only possible alternatives are even worse.

Would the Biden administration support such a strategy two months before a pivotal election? Would Israelis support such a risky gambit after the last nine months? How would the IDF support such a long-term strategy while parrying blows with Hezbollah?

Furthermore, Iraq and Afghanistan, where population-centric COIN ultimately proved unsuccessful, have large porous borders. Gaza doesn’t have similar borders. Thousands of foreign fighters can’t cross into Gaza to support Hamas. American forces struggled to keep foreign fighters from streaming into Iraq and Afghanistan. However, with the “Philadelphia Corridor” finally secured, the IDF can restrict Hamas’s resupply of weapons, materiel, and manpower.

Petraeus is right to point out that Hamas is reconstituting throughout the battlefield. The IDF contributed to this problem by not taking the Philadelphia Corridor sooner, but so did the United States by halting the IDF’s advance into Rafah for months. Regardless, the IDF never set out to kill every last Hamas fighter. They’re trying to destroy its army, remove them from power, and prevent Gaza from being used as a launching point for further attacks. While the IDF has yet to achieve its war aims and the overall success of its operation in Gaza remains in doubt, following in America’s footsteps in both Iraq and Afghanistan would be a cataclysmic mistake. We lost both wars. Israel cannot afford to lose this one.
How the IDF is using lessons from Gaza to teach the US how to minimise casualties
One of the few sections of Israel’s security establishment that can say it was properly prepared for the war which began on October 7, and which has operated well in the nine months that have passed since, is the IDF’s Medical Corps.

This wasn’t through any special intelligence regarding the Hamas attack but rather the years spent preparing for just this sort of emergency – and the Covid pandemic, during which the corps had beefed up its personnel and organisational infrastructure when it looked for a while that it would need to set up a network of field hospitals as a backup for civilian hospitals which were on the verge of collapse. Ultimately that didn’t happen, but “the capabilities and readiness we built up were there on October 7, when they were needed,” says the IDF Surgeon-General, Brigadier-General Professor Elon Glassberg, who this week ended a four-year term, encompassing a war and a pandemic, after a military career of 34 years which began as a medical student and officer cadet.

In a war in which so many of the casualty numbers of civilians and Hamas fighters are deeply contested, Glassberg’s numbers are exact to the decimal point. His doctors and paramedics, 650 of them (nearly a quarter women) who served inside the combat zone in Gaza, are measured by one metric – CFR (case fatality rate) which in combat means the percentage of wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefield who they have failed to save.

In the Second Lebanon War in 2006 the CFR stood at 15 per cent. In the Gaza War the CFR was down to 6.5 per cent. Glassberg says there are three main reasons for this. “We were much more aggressive in deploying doctors and paramedics in the field. Most militaries usually have a senior medical figure at battalion level. In Gaza we deployed them also at company level, which meant that within minutes of a soldier being wounded they were being treated by a serious professional in the field. Then we streamlined the evacuation process, changing centuries of military medical practice by eliminating the battalion aid station as the hub of treatment, and instead putting more focus on the initial treatment followed by immediate evacuation by helicopter or armoured vehicles to the border and then helicopters home. Third, we developed both powdered plasma and ‘whole blood’ transfusions which can be used in the field and have been proven to save lives.”

Now he’s leaving with “mixed feelings” as his staff are preparing for a possible war in Lebanon. “If war does break out in the north, achieving the same level of CFR will be a challenge as we’ll be operating in a much larger area where Hezblollah has the tools to contest our air superiority and make it harder for helicopters to evacuate. But we’ve had these past nine months to get ready for a bigger war.”

Meanwhile, Glassberg is off to Washington to work with the American military medicine experts on sharing the IDF’s experience from this war. In his office there’s a framed copy of an article he published in the Lancet in 2017 on Israel’s field hospital for refugees from the Syrian war, which he ran on the Golan Heights. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to write another piece for the Lancet about our experience in this war,” he smiles. “They’ve become too political and we need to keep this about the medicine.”
Israel finally weighing state inquiry to block ICC – but will it be too late?
Israel’s political and legal establishments have been seriously discussing for some time opening a state inquiry into whether the government’s war decisions complied with international law, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

A key purpose of such an inquiry would be to stave off intervention by International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, who requested on May 20 that the ICC Pretrial Tribunal approve arrest warrants for alleged war crimes against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

According to the ICC’s own Rome Statute, it cannot intervene if a country is or has already probed its own citizens’ alleged crimes, that is, if Israel carries out its own inquiry.

But has the government and the legal establishment already missed two opportunities to open an effective inquiry, and will it now be too late?

The Foreign Ministry, Justice Ministry, and Prime Minister’s Office all refused to publicly comment for this article. The Post hopes to get responses from them and from the IDF legal division at a later date.

The first opportunity occurred between January 27 and May 20.

On January 27, Israel dodged a bullet at the International Court of Justice, when the ICJ lambasted the IDF rhetorically, but essentially declined to intervene in the war and postponed ruling on charges of genocide until a much later date.

However, it was apparent that the ICJ took the charges seriously and did not approve of the IDF’s conduct.The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry estimates, accepted relatively uncritically worldwide, maintained then that Israel killed around 25,000 Palestinians, of whom Israel claimed at least 9,000 were combatants.

ICJ made its doubts on Israel clear
The ICJ demanded a monthly report 30 days later to ensure that Israel conducted the war within legal parameters.Meanwhile, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan had accused Israel already in late October of alleged war crimes.

By mid-February, Khan had threatened that he would go after Israelis for war crimes if the country dared to invade Rafah.

This was a moment when opening a state inquiry would have stopped the ICC in its tracks and would have presented the Jewish state to the ICJ, the US and its allies in Europe as self-questioning and proactive. Instead it created the impression of being dragged into examining itself.

Likewise, the IDF legal division and the broader government legal apparatus including the Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the National Security Council, and the Prime Minister’s Office, could have already publicized the many criminal probes that had already been opened, and set benchmarks for when public reports on some of those probes would start to come out.

That did not happen.
Our position on ICC remains ‘under review’, UK diplomats say ahead of Lammy visit to Israel
David Lammy, who was appointed as the British foreign secretary earlier this month after Labour won the general election, is slated to visit Israel on Monday.

His itinerary includes meetings with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and other senior government officials.

Ahead of the visit, British diplomats have engaged in preliminary discussions with their Israeli counterparts, addressing recent media reports.

Specifically, they said that an article in the Guardian suggesting London's new government would abandon the UK's effort to challenge the International Criminal Court over attempts to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "not accurate," emphasising that the matter remains under review.

The previous government, under Rishi Sunak, joined Israel in fighting against ICC prosecutor Karim Khan after he applied to have the court issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes, along with Hamas leaders.

Sunak's administration had secretly filed a challenge on June 10, questioning the ICC's jurisdiction over Israeli nationals in relation to alleged war crimes in Gaza. However, Labour officials, according to the Guardian report, have recently said that the party continues to believe the ICC, based in The Hague, does have jurisdiction over Gaza.

Lammy said over the weekend that he will seek a “balanced position” on the Israel-Gaza conflict following the Labour Party’s landslide victory last Thursday.

“We want to see those hostages out,” Lammy told Reuters. “But when we see the tremendous loss of life, 38,000 people – women and children – the fighting has to stop. The aid has got to get in,” he said.

The 38,000 figure was supplied by Hamas.


Katz calls for action against Iran at DC NATO summit
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for action against Iran in meetings with international leaders at the opening of the NATO summit in Washington on Tuesday.

The minister met with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the conference, which is taking place until Thursday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to mark the 75th anniversary of the military alliance.

He also met on Tuesday night with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský.

According to his office, Katz emphasized the need to counter the shared Iranian threat.

“Our enemy is also your enemy. The Iranian missiles and UAVs that threaten us are being sent to Russia and threaten you too. Crippling sanctions must be imposed on Iran, and the [Islamic] Revolutionary Guards must be declared a terrorist organization,” he said.


Bipartisan congressional group condemns Erdoğan’s support of Hamas
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), as well as 28 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives, signed a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken raising alarm over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s support for Hamas.

“While allies can and often do disagree on key policy questions, Turkey’s conduct toward Israel is extremely troublesome and undermines our global fight for freedom and democracy,” the July 9 letter stated. “With democracy under assault around the world, we must protect our allies that are on the frontline battling these evil, authoritarian forces.”

Gottheimer told JNS that “President Erdoğan continues to offer dangerous support to Hamas. Instead of condemning their terrorist acts, he has praised them as a ‘liberation group’ and ‘freedom fighters.’”

He emphasized that “there is no room for honoring terrorists who murdered, burned, raped and kidnapped more than 1,200 people, including 44 Americans.”

Calling on Erdoğan to stop “imitating the domestic, autocratic policies of dictators” like Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Gottheimer told JNS that the Turkish leader “should work with the international community, including his NATO allies, to help secure the release of the hostages and end the war.”

Gottheimer warned that Erdoğan’s “rhetoric endangers the hostages, including my constituent, Edan Alexander, and emboldens Hamas to walk away from the negotiation table.”
Reports: Prime Minister’s Office advancing embargo on Turkish imports
The Prime Minister’s Office is advancing an embargo on the import of goods from Turkey, according to Hebrew media reports on Wednesday.

A draft resolution that was distributed to various ministers on Tuesday night explained that the import embargo was a response to a boycott on trade with Israel that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in May, according to Calcalist, The Marker and Walla.

Israel has since been forced to import Turkish goods through third-party countries.

Turkish exports to the Palestinian Authority are still allowed, however, which the draft resolution said violated customs agreements between the two countries.

“Turkey’s unilateral actions could set a precedent for other countries and harm Israel’s national security, especially at a time when the State of Israel is at war,” the draft resolution said.

“Furthermore, the violation could damage Israel’s economy because of the integration between the Israeli and Palestinian markets.”

If approved, the Israeli ban would only apply to imports from Turkey and not to products made in Turkey and imported from elsewhere.

The move is being discussed among a team of officials from the PMO and the Economy, Foreign and Finance ministries, according to Calcalist.

According to the draft resolution, trade between Israel and Turkey stood at $6.2 billion in 2023. Imports from Turkey were worth $4.6 billion, and exports to Turkey were worth $1.6 billion.
Turkish Islamist party proposes bill punishing citizens who serve in IDF
The extremist Kurdish Islamist party in Turkey proposed a bill in parliament on Tuesday that would revoke the citizenship of Turkish nationals who served in the Israeli military in Gaza and allow for the confiscation of their assets.

“We believe that Turkish-Israeli dual citizens who join the Israeli army and commit crimes against humanity should be stripped of their citizenship and have their assets confiscated,” Serkan Ramanli, a member of the Turkish Free Cause party said in a statement. “Therefore, we are presenting this bill.”

“According to international agreements, we must actively combat genocide and crimes against humanity. However, the Ministry of Justice has not taken any steps in this direction so far,” he continued. “Why have we been waiting for nine months?”

Ramanli added that confiscated assets would be donated to a “Family and Youth Fund,” a government welfare program that deals with stabilizing families and supporting at-risk youth.

It is unclear how many soldiers the bill could potentially affect, as there is no official figure regarding the number of Turkish nationals in the IDF.

In January, the Turkish Minute news site reported that two Turkish-Israeli women were investigated by Turkish authorities after enlisting in the IDF in the wake of the Hamas October 7 massacres.


Irish Times accused of sharing incorrect Gaza death toll
The Irish Times has published an article sharing misinformation on the Gaza death toll.

The article, published yesterday, claims the Lancet – the prestigious British medical journal – predicted the death toll in Gaza may reach 186,000.

The article reads: “The Lancet says the figure adopted as the base for its projection was ‘likely an underestimate’”.

The 186,000 figure, which has been widely shared by MPs and public figures, is not based on a peer-reviewed article.

The number comes from a “correspondence” published on July 5 in the journal. “Correspondences” are not journal articles. According to the Lancet, the letters are “our readers' reflections on content published in the Lancet journals or on other topics of general interest to our readers”. The Lancet confirms “these letters are not normally externally peer reviewed”.

UK Lawyers for Israel criticised the Irish Times for sharing the figure. “The item in the Lancet is clearly a letter sent to the journal by three individuals, not an editorial or article by the Lancet as suggested by the Irish Times,” they told the JC. “As for the letter, the authors’ efforts are worthy of a haggadah”.


Gallant: 60% of Hamas gunmen in Gaza killed or wounded
Israeli forces have killed or wounded 60% of Hamas’s combatants since the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Gallant also revealed that the IDF had broken up a majority of the Al-Qassam Brigades’ 24 battalions entrenched across the coastal enclave. (The Al-Qassam Brigades is Hamas’s so-called “military” wing.)

“The action of the IDF that has so far led to the elimination of over 14,000 terrorists and the collapse of the military frameworks of Hamas is, in fact, the testimony of what I am saying—everything will be done in accordance with the law and in accordance with the operational need,” Gallant said.

Israel’s air force began pounding Hamas targets immediately after the terrorist group led the bloody invasion of the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, killing, wounding and kidnapping thousands, while committing widespread atrocities. IDF ground troops entered Gaza on Oct. 27 and are continuing operational activities across the territory.

The goals as set forth by the War Cabinet at the start of the war and which remain in place are to dismantle Hamas as a military and governing entity in Gaza, return the hostages and ensure that Gaza can never again threaten Israel.

During his remarks to the Knesset members, Gallant stressed the importance of maintaining international legitimacy as a “basic condition” for continuing military operations in Gaza and preventing a humanitarian crisis there.


‘Fauda’ Actor Idan Amedi Shares Video From Rehabilitation Journey After Sustaining Injuries Fighting in Gaza
Israeli singer-songwriter and actor Idan Amedi shared on Tuesday a video from his rehabilitation after sustaining serious injuries earlier this year fighting as a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

The 35-year-old, who stars in the hit Israeli television series “Fauda,” shared a video on Instagram of him slowly walking in a hospital hallway while holding on to two people. In the caption, he reflected on his newfound appreciation for life after getting injured.

“Nothing is taken for granted in this life. We all learned this firsthand in the past year,” Amedi wrote in the caption. “This land, the people in it, the feeling of security, sunrise, sunset, the excitement of a mother for her son walking a few meters at the age of 35.”

“Nothing is taken for granted. Everything is worth the entire world,” he added, before saying that “half a year has passed and I watch the few videos from the hospital once every few days to remind myself that everything is a miracle.”

“To return to playing music, to watch soccer with friends, to take my daughter to swimming lessons, to laugh, to cry, to long for those who are no longer here. Nothing is for granted in this life. Even if I sometimes forget,” Amedi concluded.

Amedi served as a reservist in the IDF’s combat engineering unit after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. In January, he was severely wounded in an explosion in Gaza and was evacuated to Sheba Medical Center, where he was sedated and intubated after suffering shrapnel injuries on his body. Six soldiers were killed in the explosion.


Nir, Noa Baranes named as civilians killed in Golan Heights rocket barrage
Noa and Nir Baranes were named as the couple killed during Tuesday's Hezbollah rocket barrage toward the Golan Heights, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

The two were 46 years old and left behind three children.

Regional council mourns the loss
The Golan Regional Council, where the couple lived and where Kibbutz Ortal is situated, released a statement that read, "A heavy burden fell on Kibbutz Ortal. Noa and Nir Barnes, members of the kibbutz, were killed by a direct hit to their vehicle—Noa and Nir, 46 years old, [were] central and beloved members of Ortal.

"They came to Ortal in 2012. Nir managed the poultry branch and, before that, the tourism and culture branch. Noa was the secretary of the plantation branch. The couple has three children, ages 13, 16 and 18," the statement concluded.

The two were killed by a direct hit to their vehicle following a heavy rocket barrage fired by Hezbollah at the Golan Heights.


Samantha Power to visit Israel for Gaza aid talks
Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is set to visit Israel later this week for meetings on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Power’s trip will also include discussions with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas and Sigrid Kaag, the U.N.’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza.

Power last visited Israel and the region some five months ago. During a Feb. 26-27 stopover in Amman, Jordan, she announced an additional $53 million in U.S. humanitarian aid to the World Food Program and nonprofits for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria.

In May, Power repeatedly slammed the Jewish state in a call with donor countries, during which she mentioned Hamas terrorism only once.

“I just want to start by saying that our hearts, of course, go out with those mourning their loved ones this week after Israel’s strike in Rafah on Sunday killed at least 45 people, many of whom were in tent camps seeking refuge from the violence,” she said during the call.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf will also visit Israel this week, as part of a regional swing that started on Monday, the State Department previously announced.

In her visits with officials in the Jewish state, as well as in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Italy, Leaf will discuss “continued diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement, secure the release of all hostages and ensure humanitarian assistance is distributed throughout Gaza,” Foggy Bottom stated. “She will also have further discussions on the post-conflict period in a way that builds lasting peace and security.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk held a series of discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The visits of the Biden administration officials come as several U.S. sources told AP that the Pentagon was pulling the plug on a Gaza aid pier that has been beset with problems since it began operations in May.


US to permanently remove Gaza aid pier
The United States military is pulling the plug on a Gaza aid pier that has been plagued with problems since it began operations in May, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing several American officials.

Announced by President Joe Biden at his State of the Union address in March, the $230 million floating dock was intended to increase the flow of humanitarian aid via a Mediterranean sea route from Cyprus. More than 19.4 million pounds (8.6 million kilograms) of aid has entered the enclave since it was installed.

It will be reinstalled on Wednesday for several days to clear out the remaining aid that has piled up in Cyprus and get it on to the Gaza beach before the project is dismantled permanently.

The pier was damaged by high winds and heavy seas in late May and removed for repairs after only around a week of operation. Four support boats broke off from the structure and became beached and a portion of the causeway was damaged and broke off.

It was reconnected on June 7 but removed again due to bad weather on June 14. It was put back days later but was removed again on June 28 due to heavy seas.

Parts of the pier washed up at Tel Aviv’s Frishman Beach in late June.


UN Humanitarian Coordinator reports of 'groups of men with sticks' waiting to loot aid trucks
The United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that Israel's instruction on Wednesday for people to leave Gaza City will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said during a news briefing on Wednesday.

The civilians must be protected and their essential needs must be met, whether they flee or whether they stay, he said, and the level of fighting and destruction seen in recent days as the ceasefire talks are ongoing is truly shocking, he added.

Dujarric spoke of the challenges of receiving and distributing aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and said some aid is getting through but very little.

Aid is being dropped off from the Israeli side and is being left in an area where the UN and some private sector entities are also picking up the aid, according to Dujarric.

Dujarric said the UN trucks that are picking up aid are doing it often at a great cost because they are being either looted or attacked by criminal elements.

"The aid is being dropped off. But on the other side of that you have other lawlessness, plus you have continuing conflict," he said. ' So it's not as if we're operating in a beautifully safe environment. We're operating in a highly challenging environment and we are continuing to do our best to get that aid to those people who need it."


Our daughters have been held by sex attackers and could now be giving birth, say hostages’ mothers
For nine months, they have been begging for the lives of their daughters, abducted into Gaza by terrorists on October 7.

They know their girls may have been sexually abused and tortured; they may not even still be alive.

They’ve seen other hostages exchanged, and even rescued, but they have now come together to ask for a ceasefire deal that will bring their girls home.

The parents of four of the young women still held hostage – Daniella Gilboa, Doron Steinbrecher, Agam Berger and Romi Gonen – spoke at a press conference on Tuesday night to say the world must not forget their plight.

“Nine months is a symbolic time for a parent, normally a happy time, but my daughter is in the hands of terrorists who we know sexually abused and raped women and all I can think about is that this is a sad day for my daughter who may or may not be pregnant,” said Orli Gilboa whose IDF observer daughter Daniella is just 20.

Earlier this week, Orli made the decision to release Hamas footage of her daughter in order to keep the pressure up.

“I am letting myself be more optimistic these days because we understand that there is a deal on the table which is an Israeli suggestion and we hope that both sides want this deal. I call on my prime minister and all the governments involved to use all their strength to make this deal go through.”

Simona Steinbrecher, the mother of Doron Steinbrecher, 31, who was taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, said the last nine months have been pure torture.

“We know from the women who came back there that there has been sex abuse and all of us are worried about what is happening to our girls, which is why we ask that everyone push Hamas to make a deal. This is the only chance we have to get our daughters back. There is no choice.”
Why these intimate stories of the victims of October 7 are an emotional but important watch
“I miss his appetite, his hands, his voice — he had a broadcaster’s voice … and [I miss] how he handled bureaucracy and banking. I really miss that” smiles Ayelet Katzir through her tears.

As she makes her recipe for cream puffs, the widow is telling us about her husband David Katzir — Kachko to his friends and to her, Dov. The 72-year-old grandfather with a mane of grey hair had set off from Kfar Aza at 6.25am on a day trip with friends, but turned around as soon as the shelling started. “I told him there was a shelter, but he wanted to make sure I was ok” says his widow. He was killed at the kibbutz gate.

Ayelet is sharing her husband’s favourite treat as part of A Place At The Table, the project created by Tel Aviv-based non-profit organisation, Asif — the Culinary Institute of Israel. The video series provides a place for the bereaved to commemorate their loved ones lost on October 7 or in the war.

“He loved everything sweet” Ayelet smiles as she spoons thick chocolate sauce over the cream-filled choux pastry. She explains that she would limit her husband to four, as she knew they weren’t good for him, but knew he would sneak more.

As the short video closes, she carefully places the plate of buns in front of an empty chair at a table. It’s impossible to watch this or any of this series of films without shedding a tear.

Chico Menashe, CEO of Asif says that he and the team who created the videos also struggled to contain their emotions. “In every case we cried with them. It’s emotional and challenging — although nothing compared with their loss — but everyone participating feels like they are on a national mission to share the stories of the family members and victims. It feels important to put the spotlight on one victim’s story because the huge amount losses, means individual stories can get hidden.”

The concept of using the family dinner table was the brainchild of Asif founder, Nama Shefi, who conceived the idea shortly after the atrocities.

“For all of us, our family table represents the structure of the family. When one member is missing [from their place] that’s so strong” explains Menashe.

“The act of cooking is also emotional — it’s the taste, the smell; and for those family members who’ve lost their husband or wife or child, the act of preparing their favourite food brings on strong emotions. I think that’s why we’ve had so many immediate, positive responses from the families.”


The Israel Guys: Has Israel Used the Controversial 'Hannibal Protocol' In the Gaza War?
Israel's alleged Hannibal Protocol has been in the news this week. Does this protocol actually exist as a counterterrorism tactic, and if so, did the IDF employ its use in response to Hamas' attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7th or in the following war Gaza war? Did they target their own soldiers and civilians?




Proposed New York mask ban receives broad, bipartisan support
A push by New York state lawmakers to implement mask bans in some public settings, coming largely in response to recent antisemitic activity in New York City, is winning bipartisan support.

The effort comes weeks after masked demonstrators protested outside the Nova music festival exhibit in Manhattan, targeted Jews and Zionists on subways, harassed members of the board of the Brooklyn Museum at their homes and occupied parts of Columbia University’s campus for weeks.

Jewish and Black advocacy groups are pushing for pending legislation to ban masks at protests. New York had an anti-masking law in place since the 1800s, until the COVID-19 pandemic, initially implemented in response to the Ku Klux Klan.

The main state-level proposal is currently being sponsored by Democrats, but the initiative has bipartisan backing among New York’s congressional delegation.

State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a Democrat sponsoring legislation in Albany to ban masks at protests in most circumstances, said that the legislation essentially seeks to reinstate the pre-COVID masking ban.

“I think that people should not be able to cover their face, to conceal their identity in situations like what we’ve seen,” said Dinowitz, who represents Riverdale and other sections of the Bronx. “Part of the reason people feel free to do what they do is because they cover their faces.”

He said that while the legislation has been inspired by recent antisemitic incidents, it would be broadly applicable to protecting communities of all kinds. Dinowitz said the legislation wouldn’t apply to those masking for religious or health reasons.

“What we’re hoping to do, and what we’re trying to do, is put together a diverse coalition of people of good will who want to fight hate,” Dinowitz said. “It’s not just Jewish issue any more than it was once just a Black issue. It should be everybody’s issue and people should really care about this because the climate has just gotten worse and worse, and the freedom that people feel to do horrible things is shocking to me.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has said she’s considering pursuing a ban on masks specifically on the subway, saying that “no one should be able to hide under the cover of almost a full-face mask to commit these atrocities against fellow New Yorkers.”




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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