Tuesday, July 23, 2024

07/23 Links Pt1: A Turning Point in the U.S.-Iran Shadow War?; Knesset to shut down UNRWA in Israel, declare it terror group; The UN’s illegal occupation of Jerusalem

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: A Turning Point in the U.S.-Iran Shadow War?
The most important metric here is deterrence. If the response hasn’t altered the Houthis’ ability to threaten the sea lanes, then the overall number of missiles we’ve blown up doesn’t matter much. Kurilla seems to speak for a not-insignificant part of the defense establishment that would like permission to, as the Journal puts it, “carry out a broader range of strikes.”

“If you tell the military to re-establish freedom of navigation and then you tell them to only be defensive, it isn’t going to work,” one U.S. official told the paper. “It is all about protecting ships without affecting the root cause.”

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is flirting with providing the Houthis with antiship cruise missiles, which would certainly make U.S. officials wish the conflict had been solved already. In fact, Russia is leveling that threat as a direct response to U.S. support for Ukraine, more proof that the conflicts cannot be compartmentalized and treated as if in a vacuum. As if to reinforce the point, on Tuesday a Ukrainian security team guarding a cargo ship in the Red Sea appears to have destroyed a Houthi naval drone fired at their vessel.

Behind the Houthis stands Tehran, behind which stands Moscow, behind which stands Beijing. American strategists may not like it, but they cannot pretend otherwise anymore.

That is especially true because the U.S. consulate in Tel Aviv was nearly hit by the Houthi drone and may very well have been its target.

In its response, Israel did not seek to be polite. The strike had to be real. And it had to be attention-getting, because the Houthis do not ultimately act independently. So the air force struck the port of Hodeidah, which is controlled by the Houthis and used as a transit point for Iranian weapons. The strike did extensive damage to the port’s oil storage facilities and halted all ship traffic for a couple of days.

“The Houthis attacked us over 200 times,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said. “The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required. The blood of Israeli citizens has a price.”

Yet the Tel Aviv attack was also an escalation, a finger in the eye of the U.S. defense establishment, which has been failing to deter the Houthis for months. The fact that the Houthis—and thus, the Iranians—may have targeted the U.S. consulate is not just dangerous but deeply insulting: The Houthis could not possibly be less afraid of the American superpower.

U.S. presidents have long justified their aversion to taking strong retaliatory measures by dismissing the terrorist target as unworthy of the effort and posing no real threat to the United States. But this is Iran shooting at our consulate, and it is Russia threatening to give them advanced antiship missiles. Time to get real.
Jake Wallis Simons: Israel is about to discover how revolting the Democratic Left have become
It is commonly accepted that the reason Biden has been blowing hot and cold on Israel as the November election approached was to placate the progressive wing of his party. With Michigan, a key swing state, home to the largest community of Arab-Americans in the country, and with Rashida Tlaib representing it, the electoral pressure was on.

The Democrats were disunified and morose, while the Republicans looked ever more energised. Hence Biden delaying shipments of arms to the Jewish state. Hence Biden talking of the IDF going “over the top” with “indiscriminate bombing”, despite the fact that his own administration was sending precision munitions to Israel, explicitly to enable the IDF to limit civilian casualties.

With Harris in the White House, the Squad and their fellow travellers will be pushing at a far easier door. Yesterday, the co-leader of Britain’s Green Party, Carla Denyer, was forced to apologise after she praised Biden, triggering a backlash from the Israelophobic grassroots of her party.

Owen Jones, who has apparently become even more profoundly unhinged since October 7, appointed himself their mouthpiece, ranting on Twitter about how Biden had “armed and facilitated the mass slaughter of innocent people”. It didn’t take long for Denyer to cave to the pressure, bleating that she apologised if her supporters felt she was “offering my unmitigated support for his Presidency”, particularly selling arms to the Middle East’s only democracy as it fights for its life against the forces of jihadism.

Let the Greens be a cautionary tale. A second Trump term threatens to undermine America’s democratic institutions and usher in an era of isolationism, not least on Ukraine. A Harris administration may embolden the new radicalism that increasingly dominates her party and unleash it even more violently across the United States.

For those of us who care about global stability, principled and pragmatic foreign policy and the future of America, the Biden years – for all their significant failures – may come to look like a golden age.
UNRWA is only indispensable to Hamas, not ordinary Palestinians
A just approach to rebuilding Gaza would be to give Palestinians the agency to solve their own problems. Despite the insistence in the declarations, UNRWA is only indispensable to Hamas. Beyond the weapons, rocket launchers, tunnels, dead hostages and server farms found in and underneath their facilities, and octogenarians held captive by their employees, UNRWA has been funnelling significant sums of cash straight from donors to Hamas for years.

The money laundering works like this: UNRWA insists on distributing cash aid to Gazans in US dollars, a currency they have to convert to shekels in order to use locally. In the West Bank, Jordan and other countries, UNRWA distributes cash aid in the local currency. Hamas, controlling the only licensed money changers in Gaza, charges Gazans a 10 to 20 per cent commission to convert their dollars to shekels. For more than a decade, over a billion dollars in cash from donations has been diverted into Hamas’s coffers.

In New York, diplomats and world leaders like Secretary General António Guterres only decried the delegitimisation of UNRWA as a partner to Hamas, and urged further donations with no end in sight. There was no attempt to counter the money laundering. No path to countering Hamas’s systematic desecration of UNRWA’s neutrality. No resolution to have UNRWA work to promote a sustainable peace between Palestinians and Israelis. By funding UNRWA as it is, we will only meet the same problems in the next generation.

At the start of the next school year, Abed will go back to teaching in his UNRWA classroom while Hamas restocks its storage cupboards with guns. Printed with the UN seal, the textbooks he will teach from contain tasks like writing out the sentence “I will nourish the homeland with my blood”, and learning early mathematics by counting martyrs from past wars.


How Israel Proved the World Wrong in Rafah
On Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu told negotiators to return to Doha to continue negotiations for the release of hostages. That Hamas has recently appeared more willing to come around to Israeli demands shows how greatly Western governments have misunderstood the war in Gaza, and how much Israel has gained by ignoring their counsel, as the Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz explains in an interview by Elliot Kaufman:

After months of rejecting Israeli ceasefire proposals and holding out for more concessions, Hamas has begun to offer concessions of its own. Israel is closer than ever to freeing many of its remaining hostages, and it has gained the leverage to demand terms that protect the strategic gains of the war.

If you believe the media drumbeat—that Israel’s war effort is futile, its strategy absent, and its political isolation growing—it’s impossible to account for the breakthrough. Why, after months of contemptuous stalling, did Hamas begin to bend?

“Two reasons,” says Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, in an interview at the Journal’s office. “One, they understand now that there will be no ceasefire without a hostage deal. Two, the IDF is acting aggressively against the terrorists in Gaza. Especially important was entering Rafah,” Hamas’s stronghold at the southern end of the Strip.

Israeli intelligence confirms it. “We see now the signs that there is a lot of pressure from the military arm of Hamas. They push the leaders in the hotels outside”—Hamas’s politicians, who live in luxury in Qatar—“to achieve an agreement. It wasn’t like that before,” Mr. Katz says. Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, “didn’t want a deal before. Not even when we offered everything.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise that pressure on Hamas could yield gains in negotiations. Yet for months Western powers took the opposite approach, pressuring Israel to end the war and leave Hamas victorious. They called for an “immediate ceasefire,” increasingly delinked from a hostage deal. . . . No critics recanted, but the pressure on Israel quietly diminished.
The Case for Military Force in Gaza
After Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, murdering 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, Israel's war cabinet directed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to destroy Hamas's military and governing capabilities, free all hostages, and ensure that Gaza would no longer pose a threat to Israel. Limiting the goal to merely preventing another Oct. 7 is not enough. No sovereign state would allow a genocidal terrorist organization to exist on its border.

Numerous studies, including my own, have shown that targeted killing is effective in mitigating Palestinian terrorism but is insufficient. Applying military pressure is also required. That is what Israel is doing, and it is doing so carefully and precisely.

Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties. That is an integral part of its counterterrorism policy. Hamas seeks to maximize civilian casualties. That is an integral part of its propaganda strategy, and too many people are falling for it. The war in Gaza might have ended long ago had Israel applied indiscriminate force, akin to the force the Allies applied in Dresden during World War II.

As of July, the IDF has dismantled 22 of Hamas's 24 battalions, killed over 17,000 Hamas terrorists, incapacitated a similar number, and captured about 5,000. The unfortunate deaths of civilians, used by Hamas as human shields, are Hamas's responsibility. Israel has enabled over 30,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including 500,000 tons of food and medicine, to enter Gaza.
Well-Intentioned U.S. Policies Have Prolonged the Gaza Conflict
The U.S., while providing crucial military support to Israel, has inadvertently hindered our war efforts against Hamas. With humanitarian aid that benefits the terrorists and restrictions on IDF actions, America's well-intentioned policies have prolonged the conflict and increased suffering.

Alongside the air and sea bridge of armaments and weapons to Israel, the U.S. ensured a "humanitarian train" for Gaza residents, including fuel and food in insane quantities. Hamas seized most of it and even made a nice profit from selling it to the Gazan population. Thus, in practice, the U.S. helped to preserve Hamas's governing capability and provided Hamas's leadership with more and more fuel, allowing it to fight and exist for many more months in underground Gaza and continue firing at Israeli border communities.

Moreover, there is an inherent anomaly in the decision to aid the murderous enemy of your closest ally in the Middle East, conduct that would not have crossed America's mind against its own enemies.

The U.S. also sought to limit the nature and pace of Israel's fighting, as well as the types of armaments it is allowed to use. These restrictions further endanger IDF soldiers, slow down their rate of progress in the combat zones, and prolong the war.

In addition, it turned out that the delay in sending weapons to Israel does not relate to one weapons shipment of a certain type, as Biden claimed, but to various ammunition that Israel paid for, and which was delayed for months, in the fields of artillery and air and tank warfare, as well as thousands of kits which turn bombs into smart target-guided bombs.
Cruz: Biden let Iran build drones made ‘almost entirely’ of US parts
The Biden administration let the Iranian regime access $100 billion, which it uses to create “suicide drones,” among other weapons that are “are made almost entirely of American components, which the administration has failed to keep out of Iran’s hands,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stated on Monday.

The ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Cruz penned a letter to Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security advisor, asked questions about the White House’s Drone Task Force after the Iran-backed Houthis attacked Tel Aviv—reportedly targeting the U.S. consulate—with a drone, killing one person.

“Military production of the drones is financed by funds available to the Iranian regime, including roughly $100 billion that the Biden administration has allowed to flow to the ayatollah,” Cruz stated. “However, the construction of the drones is enabled by the regime’s access to American components, and indeed the drones are built almost entirely from components produced by U.S. companies.”

“In December 2022, the White House reportedly launched an ‘expansive task force’ to examine how Iran obtains the American-made components necessary for its militant drone-building,” Cruz added. “However, since the announcement of this task force in 2022, there has not been a single published update, report or announcement.”
Seth Frantzman: What China's goal to unite Palestinians means, particularly for Hamas and the West Bank - analysis
SINCE OCTOBER 7, there has been a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes to see how Hamas and other groups might use the attacks to further their goals in the West Bank. The clashes in Tulkarm and other battles in the West Bank over the last year illustrate that Iran-backed groups are gaining strength there. They are seeking to stockpile explosives for use in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and they are acquiring large numbers of weapons, especially M-4 or M-16 style rifles. These are increasingly seen at marches and memorials and there are increased threats to Israel.

The goal of October 7, in the eyes of the countries that back Hamas, is to bring the group to power in the West Bank. Israel’s goal since 2007 has been to keep Gaza and the West Bank separate and to isolate Hamas in Gaza. The war since October has not resulted in Hamas being defeated or removed from power in the embattled coastal enclave.

This is why the Beijing meetings are important. In the absence of Israel defeating Hamas, it will continue to leverage support from Beijing, Ankara, Tehran and Doha to grow its power and seek a larger regional role. Hamas leaders reside in Doha and easily fly back and forth around the region. Hamas has not been isolated because of the atrocities of October 7, rather it has been strengthened in some ways. The Beijing meetings were an example of this strength and clout.
Katz: PA embracing ‘murderers and rapists of Hamas’
Instead of rejecting terrorism, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas “embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas, revealing his true face,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Hamas and Fatah signed an agreement in China for joint control of Gaza after the war,” the top diplomat said. “In reality, this won’t happen because Hamas’s rule will be crushed, and Abbas will be watching Gaza from afar. Israel’s security will remain solely in Israel’s hands,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, senior Hamas terrorist Musa Abu Marzouk announced the signing of a Palestinian unity agreement that includes Abbas’s Fatah faction, which rules areas of Judea and Samaria.

“Today, we sign an agreement, and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity. We are committed to national unity, and we call for it,” stated Abu Marzouk.

The “Beijing Declaration” was signed by 14 Palestinian factions that took part in negotiations hosted by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Fatah, based in Ramallah, and Hamas have been split since 2007 following the latter’s violent takeover of Gaza. There have been many failed attempts to bring the two factions together.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted that an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” should ultimately govern Gaza.
Hamas says it signed national unity declaration with Fatah at China summit
Senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzuk says the terror group signed a national unity declaration with other Palestinian groups, including rivals Fatah, while on a visit to China.

“Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity. We are committed to national unity and we call for it,” Abu Marzuk said.

The declaration did not set out a timeframe for forming a new government.

There have been multiple announcements of unity agreements between the factions over the past years, however none of them have actually come to fruition.


Palestinian Authority Asks Israeli Court to Overturn Law Giving Bereaved Israeli Families PA Funds
In May, the Palestinian Authority petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice to annul Israel's Victims of Hostile Actions Compensation Law which permits bereaved families to claim financial compensation from entities funding terrorism. The Court is scheduled to hear the petition on Aug. 4.

Attorney Barak Kedem, who represents nearly 300 bereaved families, said, "We will fight to have this petition dismissed outright. The Palestinian Authority's attempt to evade compensating terror victims while financing bloodshed will not succeed."

In July, dozens of bereaved families sued the Palestinian Authority for NIS 210 million ($58.8 million) in the Jerusalem District Court. The lawsuit claims the PA initiates, supports and encourages terrorism against Israeli citizens, rewarding terrorists with substantial financial payments, in a scheme known as "pay for slay."
French anti-terrorist unit deployed to protect Israeli team at Olympics
An elite French anti-terrorist unit has been deployed to provide a “ring of steel” around Israel’s first event at the Paris Olympics amid calls for pro-Palestine demonstrations.

France’s BRI Search and Intervention Brigade will patrol fans ahead of Israel’s football match against Mali on Wednesday evening.

The fixture takes place two days before the Olympics opening ceremony and will be the first major test for an “unprecedented” security threat at the Games.

Armed Israeli agents have also been sent to Paris amid tension over the Israel-Hamas conflict and to add to the heat around Wednesday night's game, Israel’s opponents Mali cut diplomatic ties with Israel following the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Officials confirmed this week that Israeli athletes had received threats in the build-up to the Games.

Thomas Portes, MP for the France Unbowed party, said at the weekend: “The Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris.”

Mr Portes said Israelis should be banned from competing in their country’s name, just as Russian teams are not allowed because of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

He even called for thousands to rally at the Parc des Princes and was supported by many colleagues including MP Aymeric Caron.

Mr Caron said: “The Israeli flag, stained with the blood of the innocent people of Gaza, should not fly in Paris this summer.”

Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), said such words were “irresponsible and dangerous” and referred to the Munich Olympics of 1972 when 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists from the Black September group.

He said: "Black September put targets on the backs of Israeli athletes, already the most threatened in the Olympic Games.”
Masked figure threatens ‘rivers of blood will flow’ at Paris Olympics over West's support of ‘Zionist regime’
A video circulating on social media shows a masked figure threatening that “rivers of blood will flow” at the upcoming Olympics in Paris, which Israel is set to compete in.

In the minute-long clip released on Tuesday, an Arabic-speaking man whose face is concealed by a keffiyeh addresses “the people of France and the French President [Emmanuel] Macron” and warns them that they will be punished for supporting “the Zionist regime in its criminal war against the people of Palestine.”

“You provided Zionists with weapons, you helped murder our brothers and sisters, our children,” the man, standing before a slate grey background, says to the camera. “You invited the Zionists to the Olympic games. You will pay for what you have done.

Wearing dark attire and a Palestinian flag over his chest, the man continues: “Rivers of blood will flow through the streets of Paris. This day is approaching, God willing. Allah is the greatest.”

The video, originally posted on an Egyptian news website, concludes with the masked man holding up a fake severed head.

Though speculators have been quick to pin responsibility on Hamas, the video does not provide any indication of the group behind it, nor does the figure bear any emblems – like the traditional green headbands – worn by Hamas militants and it has not been shared on official Hamas channels.

Though the veracity of the clip remains unclear, it does little to assuage fears of terrorist attacks and other security risks at the upcoming summer Olympics in the French capital, which are set to be the most heavily policed games in the modern era.


The UN’s illegal occupation of Jerusalem
June 5, 2024, marked the 57th anniversary of the U.N.’s occupation of Government House in Jerusalem.

Before the termination of the British Mandate in 1948, the Government House complex, deliberately erected by the British in the 1930s on the commanding heights of the southern Jerusalem ridge overlooking the Old City, was a symbol of British rule.

Between 1949 and 1967 this area complex was acknowledged as a no-man’s-land per the Israel-Jordan armistice of April 1949. On June 5, 1967, at 10:45 am, the Jordanian army opened fire on Jewish Jerusalem despite then-Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s attempt through the offices of the U.N. to persuade Jordan not to become involved in the hostilities.

The Jordanians subsequently captured Jebel Mukhaber and by 2:10 pm had seized Government House. In the battle to retake the complex from this illegal occupation, the IDF lost 21 soldiers—testified to by the memorial plaque on the Hass Promenade.

Having pushed out the Jordanians at great cost in lives, the Israeli government procrastinated—as shown in documents found in the State Archives—as to what should happen to the complex. The government failed to show its mettle and disregarded that the complex had been the prestigious headquarters of the Mandate. It should have been incorporated into Jerusalem to serve as the official residence of the president of Israel like the White House in Washington, the Élysée Palace in Paris or the Kremlin in Moscow.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government retained the galut mentality of cowering before the nations of the world instead of exhibiting self-confidence and pride. Were they afraid of offending the King of Jordan or the defeated Arab states? Or were they kowtowing to the “great” powers?

The U.N. was immediately permitted to reoccupy the complex without negotiations, lease or any other quasi-legal conditions.
Knesset advances bills to shut down UNRWA in Israel, declare it terror group
Bipartisan Israeli lawmakers on Monday passed the first readings of three bills seeking to designate the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees as a terrorist group, cancel the legal immunity of its staff members and bar it from operating from Israeli soil altogether.

The pieces of legislation will now be sent back to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for preparation for the second and third readings necessary for the bills to become law, the Knesset announced.

The Bill for Cutting Off the State of Israel’s Relations with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Declaring it a Terrorist Organization passed 50-10.

The second bill—the United Nations Immunities and Privileges Ordinance (Revoking the Immunities and Privileges of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)—received support from 63 lawmakers; six MKs voted against.

The third piece of legislation, the Bill for Stopping the Activity of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), passed the first reading with a vote of 58-8.

The latter bill’s explanatory notes state that “since it has been proven to the State of Israel that UNRWA and its employees participate and are involved in terrorist activity against Israel, it is proposed to determine that Israel will work to stop all of the agency’s activities within its territory.”


In address to congress, Netanyahu to reveal ‘new way’ of dealing with Iran
In his address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to present a “new way” of dealing with the threat that Iran’s axis of evil presents, according to an Israeli official familiar with the prime minister’s plans.

Netanyahu plans to address the threats that Iran poses both to the Jewish state and to other countries in the region, the member of the Israeli premier’s delegation said on Tuesday.

The prime minister’s address is also expected to focus on Israel’s efforts to achieve a complete victory over Hamas and liberate the remaining 120 hostages held in the Gaza Strip and to emphasize the justness of the war on Hamas and the bravery of Israeli troops.

In Washington, Netanyahu is seeking to solidify bipartisan support amid ongoing conflicts on the Jewish state’s borders and following Biden’s decision, on Sunday, to drop out of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The Israeli leader is scheduled to meet with evangelical Christian leaders on Tuesday afternoon and to attend an event with members of the U.S. Jewish community, his office announced.

Prior to his speech at the Capitol on Wednesday, Netanyahu is scheduled to attend a memorial service for Joe Lieberman. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are among the other leaders expected to attend the service for the late Jewish senator.

Netanyahu’s address to the joint session of Congress is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
Bibi Flies to Washington Amid US Election Storm
After this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu will surpass Winston Churchill for the highest number of joint meeting addresses by heads of state in the US Congress. However, the meetings that will happen outside of Congress may matter most. Will he meet with both VP Harris and President Biden? Can he revitalize his old bromance with President Trump? All this remains to be seen in the coming days!
Also, the future of the Abraham Accords; Israel flattens the Houthis; the ICJ hopes to cleanse Judea of Jews; and the Knesset votes against a Palestinian state.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:00 Biden resigns
3:00 Netanyahu addresses Congress
4:30 Bibi’s internal opposition
7:30 How do American elections affect Bibi’s visit?
11:30 Future of Abraham Accords
17:00 Israel responds to Houthis
21:40 ICJ attacks Israel
27:00 Knesset votes against Palestinian state


FDD: Prime Minister Netanyahu Departs for Washington, Seeking Bipartisan Support
Expert Analysis
“Strong U.S.-Israel relations have demonstrably served the national security interests of both countries since Israel’s establishment, because they share core values and face common enemies together. Disputes between allies are not unusual. But Congress and the Biden administration both have demonstrated in concrete ways — especially since October 7 — that Israel’s core values and the country’s strategic value to the U.S. must supersede any disagreements.” — Toby Dershowitz, Managing Director of FDD Action

“Americans have overwhelmingly stood by Israel over the last nine months with Congress appropriating billions of dollars in emergency support. Congress will want to hear about the progress made in dismantling Hamas in Gaza, what it will take to prevent the re-emergence of Hamas control, and what more is needed to defeat other Iranian-sponsored fronts, including Hezbollah and the Houthis.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

U.S.-Israel Relationship Weathers Rough Patch Amid War in Gaza
Senior Israeli officials canceled a planned trip to Washington in March after the United States abstained from a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution that undermined Israeli objectives. “Regrettably, the United States did not veto the new resolution, which calls for a ceasefire that is not contingent on the release of hostages,” Netanyahu’s office stated on March 25. “This constitutes a clear departure from the consistent U.S. position in the Security Council since the beginning of the war.”

In May, the Biden administration announced that it was pausing weapons shipments to Israel over Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah. That announcement received bipartisan backlash in Congress, with 26 Democrats sending a letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan urging the administration to fulfill Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to Israel. Additionally, Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, introduced legislation that prohibits the Biden administration from withholding, halting, reversing, or otherwise canceling “the delivery of defense articles and defense services from the United States to Israel.”

In June, the Biden administration reportedly told Israel not to respond to Iran-backed Hezbollah’s escalating attacks, warning that a ground invasion into Lebanon risks drawing in Iran. According to Axios, Washington told Jerusalem that pursuing a “limited” or “small regional war” to defend against Hezbollah could compel “militants from pro-Iranian militias in Syria, Iraq, and even Yemen” to flood Lebanon.
Kassy Akiva: Source Confirms Netanyahu’s Biden Meeting In Limbo
The highly-anticipated meeting between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may not take place as Biden recovers from COVID-19, according to a source in the Prime Minister’s office.

Netanyahu, who will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, was scheduled to meet with Biden on Tuesday but canceled because the president has still not tested negative for COVID-19, according to the source.

Biden has made no public appearances since he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday. His doctor released a letter on Monday stating that most of his COVID-19 symptoms have “almost resolved completely” and that he is continuing to perform his presidential duties.

The meeting would’ve been the first time Biden hosted the Jewish State’s leader in the White House since Netanyahu was reelected in 2022.

Relations between Biden and Netanyahu have grown tense in recent years over Biden’s opposition to Israeli judicial reform and criticisms of some Israeli Defense Forces strategies to defeat Hamas in Gaza.

In June, Netanyahu released a video accusing the Biden administration of holding up weapons shipments.

“We appealed to our American friends to speed up the shipments,” said Netanyahu, “We did it time and time again. We did this at the senior echelons, and at all levels, and I want to emphasize — we did it in private chambers. We got all kinds of explanations, but we didn’t get one thing: The basic situation didn’t change.”


Major labor unions call on Biden to halt military aid to Israel
Several major labor unions on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to halt all military aid to Israel, in a joint letter sent to the president the day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Wednesday.

“We believe that immediately cutting U.S. military aid to the Israeli government is necessary

to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict,” reads the letter, which was signed by seven unions representing millions of American workers.

Signatories include the Service Employees International Union, National Education Association, United Auto Workers, Association of Flight Attendants, the American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters and the United Electrical Workers.

The unions declared that “the Israeli government will continue to pursue its vicious response to the horrific attacks of Oct. 7th until it is forced to stop,” and argued that Israel “refus[es] to minimize civilian harm.”

The missive to the president comes amid a push from the UAW to protest Netanyahu’s speech by organizing a “labor contingent” to a major anti-Israel protest planned for Capitol Hill on Wednesday. A sign-up sheet for the protest that the UAW shared on social media called Netanyahu a “wanted war criminal” who will ask Congress for “more U.S. aid for his ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.” The protest, which seeks the arrest of Netanyahu, will “express our solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

The letter to Biden is the most forceful condemnation of Israel yet from American labor unions, but it is not the first time that they have weighed in on the war in Gaza. In December, dozens of unions signed onto a petition calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. “The road to justice cannot be paved by bombs and war. The road to peace cannot be found through warfare. We commit ourselves to work in solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli peoples to achieve peace and justice,” the petition stated.

At the time, the UAW cited the union’s history of engaging on other global issues: “From opposing fascism in [World War II] to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe,” Brandon Mancilla, a regional director, said in December.
Cardin to preside at Netanyahu’s speech, with VP Harris absent
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the retiring chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is set to preside over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday to a joint session of Congress, filling a role traditionally held by Vice President Kamala Harris, a Cardin spokesperson told Jewish Insider.

Harris, whose presidential bid was endorsed on Sunday by President Joe Biden after he announced he would not seek reelection, is set to be traveling on Wednesday, on what her office said was a prearranged trip to Indianapolis. She’ll be meeting with Netanyahu separately this week.

Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-WA) would ordinarily be next in line after Harris to preside, but she declined to do so and won’t be attending the speech, a spokesperson told JI. Such a situation hasn’t happened in decades.

Murray is also the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and her decision to skip the speech suggests a sizable boycott of Netanyahu’s address among Democrats. She was not among the lawmakers who skipped Netanyahu’s last address to Congress in 2015.

“Securing a lasting, mutual ceasefire is of the utmost importance right now, and I will continue to push for one to be reached as soon as possible,” Murray said in a statement, while expressing her support for Israel’s security. “I hope Prime Minister Netanyahu will use the opportunity to address how he plans to secure a ceasefire — and lasting peace in the region.”

A source familiar with the situation told JI that Cardin was the next option after Murray declined to preside.


'At the request of Bibi': Trump and Netanyahu to meet Friday in Florida
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet both US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday and his predecessor Donald Trump at his Palm Beach resort in Florida on Friday.

The visits are part of Netanyahu’s trip to the United States which began Monday night, including a joint address to Congress on Wednesday, which may now extend to over the weekend.

Trump, who is the Republican presidential candidate running for his second term in office, had first invited Netanyahu to meet with him on Wednesday, then switched it to Thursday.

He then wrote on Truth Social that he had moved the meeting date to Friday at Netanyahu’s request. It was a statement that irked Netanyahu’s opponents, who noted that a Friday meeting would necessitate an extended stay in the United States through Shabbat during wartime when he should be pushing to return to Israel as quickly as possible.

Netanyahu is also expected to meet with the presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a post on Truth Social Trump wrote, “During my first term we had Peace and Stability in the Region, even signing the historic Abraham Accords — And we will have it again.” His words referenced his record as president from 2017-2021, in which he secured an agreement from four Arab countries to normalize ties with Israel.

“Just as I have said in discussions with [Ukrainian] President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other World Leaders in recent weeks, my PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH Agenda will demonstrate to the World that these horrible deadly wars and violent Conflicts must end,” he wrote.

“Millions are dying and Kamala Harris is in no way capable of stopping it,” he added.


Secret Service head resigns 10 days after assassination attempt on Trump
Kimberly Cheatle resigned as U.S. Secret Service director on Tuesday amid fallout from the agency’s failure to prevent an assassination attempt on former U.S. president Donald Trump on July 13.

Cheatle faced withering, bipartisan criticism from lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Monday, as she refused to provide clear answers about the shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, in which one man was killed, two were seriously injured and the former president was shot in the ear.

“Your horrifying ineptitude and your lack of skilled leadership is a disgrace,” said Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas). “Your obfuscating today is shameful, and you should be fired immediately and go back to guarding Doritos.” (Cheatle was previously director of global security at PepsiCo, which makes Doritos.)

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) compared Cheatle’s performance at the hearing to that of the presidents of Harvard and Columbia Universities, both of whom resigned in the wake of a congressional hearing about Jew-hatred on campus.

“I just want to give you an honest assessment of how this is going for you today,” Moskowitz said. “It didn’t go well, and the short end of that story was those university professors all resigned. They’re gone. That’s how this is going for you. This is where this is headed.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced the creation of a bipartisan task force to investigate the assassination attempt on Tuesday.

At a press conference, Johnson said that Cheatle’s resignation was overdue.


Jonathan Tobin: Do Kamala Harris and the Democrats have a Jewish problem?
The clearest indication of this has been her attitude toward Israel.

It was an open secret in Washington that even in an administration that was staffed largely by Obama-era alumni, Harris was the most openly sympathetic to the Palestinians and the least inclined to stand with a Jewish state that had suffered the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

From the start of the war that was launched by Hamas on Oct. 7, she has been careful not to go too far in denouncing Israel’s effort to defeat the terrorists in Gaza, but she has also repeatedly recycled Hamas propaganda about Palestinian casualties. Though left-wing Jews are already mobilizing to loyally vouch for her, her position is essentially one of moral equivalence between Israel and the people who committed murder, rape, kidnapping and wanton destruction on Oct. 7, while supporting a genocidal terror group bent on Israel’s destruction.

Take, for example, the instances in which she stood silent while being subjected to lectures calling for Israel’s elimination, or in which she expressed her sympathy and understanding for left-wing antisemites who turned college campuses into no-go zones for Jews.

She is guilty of doing exactly what Democrats falsely claimed that Trump did with respect to the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. For Harris, these pro-Hamas demonstrators really are “very fine people.”

In addition, as Al Monitor has noted, she has a record of opposing an American policy that would get tough or punish the terror-supporting Islamist regime of Iran.

Just as troubling, she is the face, along with her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, of an announced administration effort to create a new national strategy for combating Islamophobia. The problem is not that such a plan follows an utterly toothless strategy against antisemitism that has failed to combat the surge in post-Oct. 7 Jew hatred.

It’s that the entire point of raising the utterly fallacious claim that there is an epidemic of prejudice against Muslims is to silence criticism of members of this group who engage in antisemitism. Almost all of what is labeled as Islamophobia is nothing more than taking note that elements of the Muslim community have been radicalized and support Islamist ideology and engage in open Jew-hatred and support for terror groups like Hamas.

This plays very well in places like Dearborn, Michigan, America’s “jihad capital,” to which the Biden administration sent envoys earlier this year to try to appease Muslim-Americans who were angry about the president’s on-again/off-again stance in favor of eradicating Hamas.


Don’t believe the hype: Kamala Harris is bad news
Biden was a placeholder, so he made sure to pick an even weaker rival, Kamala Harris, as his nominee for vice president.

The same media that lied to you about Biden’s health will now tell you that Harris is good for the Jews and Israel. They will tell you that her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish. They will tell you that her adopted children call her “Momala”. They will relate her heart-warming history of interracial banter with her mother-in-law. If Donald Trump retains his lead in Michigan and Pennsylvania, they will even tell you that Harris keeps a bowl of lokshen pudding on the nightstand.

All nonsense.

The truth is that this administration is more hostile to Israel than any since the Eisenhower administration. Its first actions were to take the Houthis off the terrorist list and restore funding not just to the corrupt Palestinian Authority but also to Gaza, even though, as the State Department admitted, the money could go to Hamas.

The administration has empowered Iran by allowing sanctions to lapse and freeing up billions of fungible dollars, including $10 billion in the weeks after October 7. It has withheld crucial weapons from Israel in its hour of need and misled Congress that it was doing so. It has sanctioned Israeli citizens. It is working ceaselessly to give Hamas a state.

At home, the Democrats have not just presided over a wave of anti-Jewish incitement and violence without parallel in any Western state since 1945. They have encouraged it, by commission and omission. They have pushed a poisonous false history into the schools. They have looked the other way as Jews are beaten in the streets of Democratic-run cities.

Harris was the first senior administration official to demand an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza. She has falsely accused Israel of causing a “humanitarian catastrophe”. In March, she informed us that she had “looked at the maps”, and publicly warned the Israelis that “any type of military operation” in Rafah would be “a huge mistake”. She was, she said, “ruling out nothing” if Israel went ahead.
BLM founder: Right-wing pro-Israel activists will cast Harris as antisemitic
Right-wing, pro-Israel activists will attempt to discredit Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential candidacy by accusing her of antisemitism, Jewish writer Elad Nehorai and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in an Instagram post on Sunday.

Nehorai and Cullors argued in a social media cross-post that they anticipate Harris will face a significant amount of hate speech due to her status as a Black woman married to a Jewish man.

“No group is more falsely accused of antisemitism than Black women,” Nehorai and Cullors said. “People will believe a Black woman married to a Jewish man is antisemitic before they will be [sic] a former president who spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories and supports neo-Nazis is one.”

They further commented that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s Jewish heritage would not protect Harris from allegations of antisemitism, noting that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ Jewish background did not protect him from accusations of being a “traitor.”

They predicted that Harris would be subject to antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as being a puppet of her husband or the Soros family. According to Nehorai, some of these theories are already circulating, noting that X owner Elon Musk responded to Open Society Chair Alex Soros’s endorsement of Harris by thanking him for “not keeping everyone in suspense about who the next puppet will be.”

“Pure antisemitism,” Nehorai declared on X. “This is why antisemitism exists: for the powerful to use Jews as stand-ins for the evil they hope to perpetuate.”

Nehorai and Cullors believe that Harris’s critics will accuse her supporters of engaging in the Great Replacement, a white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theory that claims Jews are manipulating the government to allow more Black and other non-white denominations of immigrants into the country.
Anti-Israel Radicals Are 'Hopeful' Kamala Will Cast Aside the Jewish State. They Have Plenty of Reasons To Be.
Anti-Israel radicals who resigned their government posts over President Joe Biden's support for Israel are betting on Vice President Kamala Harris to adopt more hardline policies toward the Jewish state. It's a good bet: Harris throughout her vice presidency touted her public opposition to Israel's war on Hamas and praised campus protesters who have violently harassed Jews.

Harris, who is on track to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee following Joe Biden's departure from the race, was among the first administration officials to chastise Israel for its conduct during the war. In December, just two months after Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 Jews, Harris publicly broke with Biden's support for Israel, saying the Jewish state had killed "too many innocent Palestinians" and "must do more to protect innocent civilians."




Hamas's smuggling collapses: IDF's tactics and goals in fighting Gaza
With nine and a half months of fighting in the Gaza Strip, the IDF is refining its instructions and objectives coming from the office of Major General Yaron Finkelman, commander of the Southern Command.

According to findings from Division 162 along the Philadelphi Corridor, specifically in identifying and destroying tunnels underneath the route, the IDF is dismantling Hamas's smuggling arm. It has come to light that Hamas is attempting to smuggle money into Gaza to fund governance activities and pay salaries to its operatives. The IDF's current goals:
Dismantling Hamas's capabilities and infrastructure
The primary concern in the Southern Command is that Hamas will restore its military capabilities through the smuggling of weapons, ammunition, dual-use components, and materials and the reconstruction or concealment of sites for producing rockets, mortar shells, and explosive devices.

According to command sources, the working assumption is that Hamas will focus all its efforts on restoring its capabilities.

Therefore, the main emphasis is on potential smuggling routes: the Kerem Shalom crossing, tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor, the maritime arena, and from Sinai.

Additionally, there is an intelligence effort to locate weapons caches and manufacturing sites that Hamas keeps underground, far from the IDF's eyes. The assessment is that Hamas is not worried about a "personnel crisis." The terrorist organization will not struggle to recruit operatives for all its mechanisms in exchange for money and can manage with less skilled and less qualified personnel.

Therefore, the IDF focuses more on locating and destroying infrastructure and weapons rather than killing lower-level operatives. Preventing smuggling and Hamas's ability to rebuild itself will quickly eliminate the terrorist organization.

Return to areas of previous operations
The IDF has resumed operations in areas it has previously engaged in due to the renewed takeover by Hamas operatives. Yesterday, the air force carried out about thirty airstrikes in the Khan Yunis area, combined with artillery and tank fire. According to military sources, this was one of the highest firepower intensities employed in recent months within a short period.

From the morning hours, the IDF has been moving populations east of Khan Yunis to allow for large-scale maneuvers in the Bani Suheila, Al Qarara, and northern Abasan areas. The maneuver aims to damage rocket launch sites, underground sites, and Hamas's military infrastructure. According to military sources, the maneuver is based on intelligence from the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence.

Locating hostages and senior Hamas leadership
The relentless intelligence effort to locate senior Hamas leadership and military wing includes locating hostages' hiding places. The intelligence aim is to create opportunities for rescuing hostages and neutralizing senior figures. It is important to note that, according to security sources, Mohammed Deif, who was sitting next to Khan Yunis Brigade Commander Rafaat Salama, was eliminated along with him. At this stage, Deif's body has not been found, and Hamas has not declared his death.


IDF reinvasion of Khan Yunis kills dozens of Hamas terrorists as Hezbollah escalations rise
IDF Division 98 under the command of Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus has killed dozens of Hamas terrorists as of Tuesday as part of its reinvasion of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza which started on Monday.

According to the military, it launched the reinvasion, 14 weeks after withdrawing from the area, after IDF and Shin Bet intelligence followed a consistent rise in Hamas trying to reorganize itself in the area.

The IDF said that the operation is being carried out simultaneously above and below ground to eliminate Hamas’s ability to maneuver without being seen by Israel’s aerial surveillance.

Air strikes and tank shelling have been a large part of the reinvasion, with the Israel Air Force already having carried out 50 attacks on terror infrastructure, including weapons storage facilities, lookout positions, and tunnels.

In Maghazi in central Gaza, Hamas launched several projectiles towards Israel, but the rockets did not cross into Israeli territory, with one slamming into a school in the area of Nuseirat, the IDF said Tuesday.

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have misfired rockets, with projectiles landing within the Gaza Strip.

The IDF has previously stated that around one-fifth of the rockets fired by terror groups land in Gaza, often killing Gazan civilians.


Two Israelis wounded in Samaria bombing
Two Israelis were wounded on Tuesday when a bomb exploded along the security barrier near Mount Gilboa in Samaria, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

An initial probe found that the victims, both Defense Ministry employees, were patrolling the area when they identified a suspicious object.

As they were approaching, the bomb exploded, lightly wounding them with shrapnel.

The IDF is searching for those who planted the device.

Earlier Tuesday, an Israeli drone strike in the Samaria city of Tulkarem killed five terrorists, including two senior Hamas and Fatah operatives.

Among the dead are Ashraf Nafeh, the commander of the local arm of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, and Muhammad Abu Abdo, commander of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

On Monday, security services announced the arrest of a Palestinian suspect in connection with the murder of Israel Prison Service dog handler Yochai Avni in his home in the Samaria town of Givon Hahadasha earlier this month.

Ibrahim Mansur—a resident of Biddu, located just southwest of Givon Hahadasha in the Binyamin region of Samaria—was arrested two days after the July 8 murder. Authorities established that Mansur is a member of Hamas.
IDF Used Ruse to Bring 2 Terror Commanders to Area Where They Could Be Targeted
The Israel Defense Forces assesses that the drone strike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem this morning, killed at least six gunmen, including two senior terror commanders.

The two commanders were named by Palestinian media as Ashraf Nafeh, the head of Hamas in Tulkarem, and Muhammad Abu Abdo, the head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Tulkarem.

The IDF used a ruse to bring the senior commanders to an area where they could be targeted, according to military sources.

Also among those killed was an armed female combatant who was dressed up as a medic, military sources say.

The IDF raid in Tulkarem this morning was part of a series of operations against terror activity in northern West Bank refugee camps.

The military says it has recently identified attempts by the Gaza Strip-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad to ramp up attacks in West Bank, including by funneling money and providing know-how.


IDF: UN and aid groups ‘failing to utilize’ Israeli aid provision measures in Gaza
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told Israel's High Court of Justice on Sunday that UN and humanitarian organizations had failed to collect and distribute 35% of the aid brought into Gaza by Israel last month. The head of COGAT, Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian, rejected claims that the humanitarian aid delivery corridor from the Kerem Shalom crossing to central Gaza was in any way dangerous, stating that 150 trucks from the private sector use it every day.

He also said there is no humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza in recent months and that assistance coming via Jordan and the Israeli port of Ashdod was flowing freely. He added that Gaza's water and fuel requirements were being met, and that all requests for the entry of medicine and medical equipment were approved by Israel.

Alian said that there were currently 11 field hospitals operating in the IDF-designated humanitarian zone in southwest Gaza, alongside ten regular hospitals still operating in Gaza.


Rape denial is ‘new way to dehumanize Jews,’ Canary Mission says
Activists and journalists who deny that Hamas terrorists raped women and girls on Oct. 7 have found a “new way to dehumanize Jews.”

That’s according to a new, graphic video from the watchdog Canary Mission, which addresses anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill, podcaster Briahna Joy Gray and Max Blumenthal, editor-in-chief of The Gray Zone, among others.

Among the juxtapositions in the video is an Israel Police chief superintendent saying that the Jewish state has collected “substantial evidence for sexual violence” on Oct. 7, followed by Blumenthal stating that “right now there is no evidence of any rape taking place.”

According to Scahill, there is “an intense propaganda campaign to convince the world that Hamas had engaged in systematic campaign of rape aimed at Jewish women.”

“It’s time to call out these activists for what they really are: rape deniers,” the film states.
Knesset Hears Accounts of Hamas Rape, Infanticide from Casualty Identification Unit
In Knesset testimony, Rabbi Moshe Dickstein, a reservist who served as a commander of the casualty identification unit in the IDF's Southern Command, provided details of the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli communities.

"The first body we came across was in an overturned stroller. Inside the stroller was a baby, and his head was thrown aside with a knife in it."

"The woman we found, presumably the mother, was lying on the couch with blood flowing from her private area."

"And so we went from house to house and found women lying on the floor with legs spread, it's indescribable. Another house and another house, then also in the field."

"They cut off men's genitals, and we found women with severed breasts. A pregnant woman with her belly opened up to reveal the umbilical cord and the baby with a knife in its body."
Nine months on, Hamas hostages and survivors continue to be victimized
Nine months ago, I went to a music festival in Israel. It ended up being the most traumatic event of my life.

When the rocket warning sirens woke us up, my friend told me not to worry. It was normal in that part of Israel, she said — normal to live with the constant awareness that people close by want to kill you.

Then the music stopped, and the silence was more terrifying than the sirens.

Nova Music Festival security personnel, to whom I am eternally grateful, told us to get out. We fled from the sound of gunfire and explosions, watching Hamas terrorists advance in the distance, murdering, raping, and kidnapping people I had been dancing with just hours before.

I am alive today because of trivial choices — to go to the bathroom a minute before the stalls were riddled with bullets, to flee rather than hide, to run in one direction rather than another. If not for Moshe Sati and his son rescuing us, I would have been shot in the desert or, worse, taken hostage.

When I finally got home to New York, people kept asking me if I was glad to be safe at home. I should have felt better an ocean away from Hamas, but I didn’t.

How could I?

As I was bearing witness to Hamas’s atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, crowds of people were downplaying or denying them.

Like survivors of violent antisemitism before me, I thought the world would unite in condemnation of Hamas and its attack. Instead, Israelis and Jews were blamed for their own deaths and condemned for fighting back.

Massive parades, both in New York and around the world, actually praised the massacre as some form of “resistance.” Strangers disputed my experiences to my face, citing reports from terrorist-aligned sources such as Al Jazeera. The heartless and the hateful ripped down posters of the hostages, posters that could easily have had my face on them.

I wish I could say the situation here has improved as further evidence of Hamas’s atrocities comes out, but it’s only gotten worse.


Mother of hostage releases Oct. 7 abduction footage, last texts with captive son
Einav Zangauker, the mother of 24-year-old Gaza captive Matan Zangauker, released footage of her son’s abduction into the Gaza Strip on October 7, Israeli media reported.

Zangauker, who has been highly critical of the Netanyahu government since her son’s kidnapping, released a video of him being paraded on a motorcycle throughout Khan Yunis, sandwiched between two terrorists, one of whom was holding a rifle.

An Ofakim resident, she also shared a series of messages exchanged between herself and her son prior to his abduction. In the exchange, he asked his mother for updates and anything she may have seen on the news about what was happening in the country.

In the exchange, she told her son that there was no quick response from the IDF and that many people, both soldiers and civilians, were dead.


The Israel Guys: Yemen SUICIDE Drone Hits Tel Aviv | MASSIVE Israeli Airstrike in Response
Early Friday morning, a UAV sent over 1000 miles from Yemen, struck Tel Aviv, killing one Israeli and injuring 10 others. On Saturday, the Israeli Air Force struck the Houthis in Yemen sending a clear message that it is not OK to send suicide drones into Israel and kill civilians. . .




Candace Owens scheduled to headline Trump campaign fundraiser
Donald Trump Jr. is set to headline a Trump campaign fundraiser on Friday in Nashville, Tenn., that will feature Candace Owens, the far-right pundit who has frequently advanced antisemitic commentary.

Owens, a fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, has in recent months amplified the ancient blood libel against Jews, downplayed the Holocaust and defended Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist, among other incendiary remarks.

In March, the 34-year-old conspiracy theorist parted ways with Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire — where she had served as a weekday host — amid mounting tensions over her increasingly antisemitic rhetoric and fierce criticism of Israel in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

Trump Jr.’s scheduled appearance with Owens on Friday appears to underscore the influence he is now exerting on his father’s campaign — as Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, have played a less prominent role with the former president’s campaign after previously serving as top advisers in his administration.

The former president’s eldest son also played a key part in persuading Trump to choose Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, in an effort to anoint an ideologically aligned successor.


Adidas’ Olympics Campaign — With or Without Bella Hadid — Is a Disgrace to Israelis and Jews
The decision makers at Adidas are either suffering from mental decline, incompetence, or the virus of antisemitism.

The German shoe company fired Bella Hadid — an anti-Israel model and social media influencer who has more than 61.3 million Instagram followers — from a campaign marking the 52nd anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics, and their shoes from that year.

Forget Hadid for a second.

On September 5, 1972, eight Palestinian terrorists from the group Black September posed as athletes, and took 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage, killing two on the scene, and the remaining nine in helicopters by grenade and by shooting them.

German forces refused requests to have an Israeli special unit come to try to save them, and then bungled their own operation. Ultimately, some German police officers weren’t willing to go through with the operation. What a surprise that Germans didn’t want to risk their life to save Jews.

While none of the 200+ prisoners the terrorists demanded to be released from Israeli jails were freed, in a press conference, a Palestinian terrorist said it was a success because the whole world was talking about their cause.

To make matters worse, initial press reports claimed the hostages were saved, only to later be corrected, as ABC’s Jim McKay said, “They’re all gone.”

The Olympics continued anyway, and Israel buried Moshe Weinberg, Yossef Romano, Ze’ev Friedman, David Berger, Yacov Springer, Eliezer Halfin, Yosef Guttfreund, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, and Andre Spitzer.

In addition, the International Olympic Committee long rejected Israel’s request for a moment of silence for the athletes at the games in an open display of antisemitism.

For more horrific details about the attack, which were only released in the early 1990s, click here.

Why in the world is Adidas having any campaign to honor the 1972 Olympics, or the relaunch of its SL72 shoe line?




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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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