Sunday, August 04, 2024

08/04 Links: Israel Will "Take the Win" only After It Has Won; IDF discover Hamas tunnel under Egyptian army post; Two killed, two wounded in stabbing terror attack

From Ian:

WSJ Editorial: Israel Will "Take the Win" only After It Has Won
During a call between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu on Thursday, Barak Ravid of Axios reports that Biden warned Netanyahu not to escalate in response to an Iranian attack and to move immediately to a Gaza ceasefire. A Gaza ceasefire is no easy call. It would mean releasing hundreds of terrorists and giving Hamas a fair chance at ruling Gaza when this ends. The least America can do is not undermine Israel when its leaders insist on reasonable conditions, such as control over Gaza's border with Egypt to stop Hamas from rearming.

Moreover, Biden's message to Iran is: You will pay no price for attacking Israel. That isn't advice Israel can afford to take. A senior official tells us, "Israel will 'take the win' only after we have won and our war objectives are achieved." Otherwise, direct Iranian attacks would become one more thing Israel is expected to live with. Missing from all the White House statements is what Iran should have to fear if it again fires hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel.
JPost Editorial: The West’s criticism of Haniyeh’s assassination misses the anti-terror point
Under Haniyeh’s leadership, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets into Israeli territory, targeting civilian populations. These indiscriminate attacks have resulted in numerous casualties and significant damage to infrastructure.

For instance, during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, over 4,500 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. Hamas also has a long history of using suicide bombers to attack Israeli civilians. One of the most notorious attacks occurred in March 2004, when a double suicide bombing at the port of Ashdod killed 10 Israelis and injured dozens. Haniyeh planned and endorsed these tactics.

Haniyeh played a crucial role in orchestrating the Great March of Return in 2018, which involved tens of thousands of Gazans attempting to breach the border fence with Israel. While framed as peaceful protests, many of these events turned violent, with armed participants attacking Israeli soldiers and civilians.

This campaign resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. Hamas, under Haniyeh’s leadership, has been responsible for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. The most notable case is the abduction of Gilad Shalit in 2006, who was held captive for over five years before being released in a prisoner exchange deal – Yahya Sinwar, now Hamas’s Gaza military commander, being among those released.

Several Western countries – including the US, Egypt, and Qatar – have expressed concerns that Haniyeh’s assassination undermines ongoing peace negotiations and escalates regional tensions. For instance, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry labeled the killing as a “dangerous escalation,” while Qatar condemned it as a “heinous crime” and a “blatant violation of international and humanitarian law.” These reactions, however, ignore the broader implications of allowing a terrorist leader to operate with impunity.

It is essential to recognize that Israel’s actions are not acts of aggression but of self-defense. Eliminating Haniyeh sends a solid message to terrorist organizations worldwide: Their leaders are not beyond reach. This act demonstrates Israel’s advanced intelligence capabilities and its unwavering commitment to neutralizing threats to its national security and the safety of its citizens.

The international community must consider who aligns themselves with individuals like Haniyeh. Those who see him as a friend or ally are, in effect, partners in terror.

Critics argue that Haniyeh’s assassination could derail peace talks and provoke further violence. While it is true that any significant military action can have immediate repercussions, the long-term benefits of removing a key critical figure outweigh the temporary instability. Haniyeh’s death disrupts Hamas’s leadership structure and diminishes its operational capabilities, thereby weakening the organization’s ability to carry out future attacks.

Furthermore, this assassination aligns with the broader global effort to combat terrorism. The West, particularly nations like the US, which have been victims of terrorism, should understand the necessity of such actions. The fight against terror requires a united front and a willingness to take decisive measures against those who perpetuate violence and chaos.

Israel’s alleged targeted killing of Ismail Haniyeh should be viewed not as a provocative act but as a necessary step in the fight against terrorism.
NYPost Editorial: Taking Out Ismail Haniyeh Was Morally Necessary
Terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh is dead. Good riddance!

Those blaming Israel have it exactly wrong. Haniyeh, the killers he commanded, and their patrons in Iran are the ones causing war and chaos.

They're the escalators, not Israel, which - as so many conveniently forget - is the victim, not the aggressor.

Haniyeh helped lead an organization devoted to genocide against the Jewish people. His death was a strategic necessity for Israel, and a moral one as well.

That his death generated a new crop of equivocators devoted to his defense is beyond obscene.


Walter Russell Mead: Israel Brings Deterrence Back to the War on Terror
The death in Tehran of Hamas's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, suggests to the world that its security services are deeply penetrated by Israel. This is a devastating demonstration of incompetence for the regime.

In some quarters, Haniyeh is being eulogized as a moderate and Israel's attack on him condemned as prolonging the war.

There were hopes in Qatar, Gaza, Turkey and Iran that the U.S. could be bamboozled into supporting a ceasefire leading to a "moderate" Hamas government in a unified West Bank-Gaza Palestinian protostate under Haniyeh's leadership.

For many on Team Biden, getting a ceasefire and moving toward establishing a Palestinian state had become America's top objective.

To most Israelis, ending the war with the installation of a Hamas-led government in the West Bank is unthinkable.

It would reward terror and give Israel's enemies greater power than ever before.
Iran Counts on U.S. to Check Israeli Strength
Iran routinely depicts the Jewish state as irreversibly in decline. Yet the killing of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh shows that Israel can get its man, anytime, anyplace. Israel is testing the proposition that all militant Muslims welcome martyrdom.

It's not unlikely that Tehran believed that by inflaming Israel's frontiers with deadly attacks by its proxies, it could provoke the international community to impose a ceasefire on Israel. Both the Biden administration and the Europeans have acted helpfully, dispatching a parade of mediators seeking a ceasefire. In that scenario, a battered Hamas would survive to fight another day, and Hizbullah's large missile stockpiles would remain, deterring Israel and the U.S. from attacks on Iran.

Should Washington warn Iran clearly that if Tehran retaliates against Israel, the U.S. will intervene in the conflict on Jerusalem's side - and far more muscularly than before - the mullahs will take note and proceed more cautiously. They still respect American power and understand that their regime can't afford a conflict with the U.S. Regrettably, the Biden administration has so far taken the opposite path.
Blinken Says U.S. Not Responsible for Ismail Haniyeh Killing. That's Too Bad
Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to television to deny any American responsibility for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, in Tehran. That is nothing about which to be proud. Blinken may see such a statement as a way to prevent Iran and Hamas from going after American targets. The problem is that Iran and Hamas already target Americans.

The Iranian government quite openly has put bounties on former government officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Iran point man Brian Hook and has sought to kidnap Iranian and Iranian American dissidents from American soil. Showing weakness in the face of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps outrage does not bring security; it encourages aggression.

Nor should targeting terror leaders be something from which the U.S. shies away. The U.S. first designated Hamas almost three decades ago, because Hamas killed not only Israelis but also Americans. It targeted children and civilians. It specialized in bombing civilian buses, markets, and restaurants. Its covenant openly embraced genocide.

For decades, the U.S. did not shy away from targeting terrorists. President George W. Bush killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a man responsible for dozens of American and hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqi deaths. President Barack Obama (over Vice President Biden's advice) eliminated Osama Bin Laden. President Donald Trump eliminated Iranian Quds Force Chief Qassem Soleimani. Why should anyone be embarrassed about killing Haniyeh?

The reluctance to strike terrorists on Iranian territory only shows that the White House and State Department fail to understand the Iranian regime's commitment to its own ideology. Blinken's statement was an expression of weakness that further diminishes the U.S. in the eyes of its enemies. The only unfortunate aspect of Haniyeh's demise was that Israel beat the U.S. to it.
Elimination of Hamas, Hizbullah Leaders Deals Strategic Blow to Radical Axis
Israel has dealt a devastating blow to two of its most formidable adversaries - Hizbullah and Hamas.

In the symbol-rich world of Islam, this event deals a severe blow to Iran's image and shatters the self-assurance of the radical axis.

The intelligence vulnerability of Iran and its allies, coupled with the Israeli military's remarkable boldness and operational capabilities, pose a genuine challenge to Iran and its partners.

Israel is well-acquainted with Iran's arsenal and capabilities. To the best of our knowledge, they do not possess any secret game-changing weapon, and therefore, the expected response will likely follow familiar patterns of action.
Netanyahu: ‘Prepared to go far to release all our hostages’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday, said that he is “prepared to go very far to release all of our hostages, while maintaining the security of Israel.”

He also slammed media reports that portrayed Israel as rejecting the proposed agreement while Hamas has accepted it.

“Our commitment stands in complete contrast to the leaks and mendacious briefings on the issue of our hostages,” the premier said.

“These briefings harm the negotiations and, to my great regret, they also mislead the hostages’ dear families. They create a false impression that Hamas has agreed to a deal while the government of Israel is opposed to it.

“The complete opposite is true. The simple truth is, that as of now Hamas has not agreed to the most basic conditions of the outline,” Netanyahu continued.

“While we have not added even a single demand to the outline, it is Hamas which has demanded to add dozens of changes. It has not withdrawn its demand that Israel not be able to return to the war. It demands that we withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing—its lifelines [on Gaza’s Sinai border], which would allow it to rearm and rebuild its strength. It is important to determine the principle: We are not leaving from there.

“Hamas is also unprepared to allow any mechanism to check for and prevent the passage of munitions and terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip. It is doing all this because it wants to recover and rebuild, and return again and again to the massacre of October 7, as it has promised to do,” Netanyahu continued.
CENTCOM chief in Mideast to mobilize against Iranian attack
Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), arrived in the Middle East on Saturday amid sky-high tensions as Israel prepares for an imminent attack by Iran and its terrorist proxies.

The trip by the general in charge of American forces in the region was already planned. However, in light of Tehran’s pledge to retaliate for the targeted killing of Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil on July 31, his visit will focus on building a multilateral defensive alliance similar to the one that fended off the vast majority of the more than 300 missiles and explosive drones Iran fired at the Jewish state in mid-April.

Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy, has separately vowed revenge for the targeted killing of senior member Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30.

Israel took responsibility for the Shukr killing, which occurred after Hezbollah murdered 12 children on a soccer field in the Druze Golan town of Majdal Shams on July 27. Jerusalem has not commented on the Haniyeh hit.

Kurilla is expected to visit several Gulf states, Jordan and Israel. Amman is an important stop because King Abdullah II played a pivotal role during the April 13 onslaught. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) head Gen. Erik Kurilla meets in Israel with IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, June 2024. Credit: IDF.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi will visit Tehran on Sunday to discuss the security escalation in the Middle East following the Haniyeh assassination, the Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadid reported.


Israel detains top PA cleric who mourned Haniyeh as ‘martyr’
Israeli authorities on Friday briefly detained former Palestinian Authority mufti Ekrima Sabri after he mourned slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during prayers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday.

In a sermon at the mosque, located on the Temple Mount, Sabri said that “the residents of Jerusalem are praying to God to have mercy on the martyr. We are asking for him to receive compassion and paradise.”

Sabri’s lawyer told AFP that the Palestinian cleric was “under investigation on suspicion of inciting terrorism because he mourned Ismail Haniyeh during the Friday sermon and described him as a martyr.”

The Israel Police, without naming the suspect, announced on Friday it was probing “remarks by a preacher during the afternoon prayer.”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the Israel Police, confirmed that Sabri was arrested at his Jerusalem home. “My policy towards inciters is clear—zero tolerance,” he tweeted.

Sabri was reportedly released later on Friday pending an indictment, and on the condition that he stay away from the Temple Mount for a week.


Shukr killing spurs Hezbollah to arrest suspected informants
Hezbollah is cleaning house after the July 30 assassination of Fuad Shukr in Beirut, making a series of internal arrests of terrorist operatives it suspects may have passed information on to Israel about the movements of its No. 2 man.

Israel targeted Shukr following the July 27 massacre of 12 Druze children in the Golan Heights village of Majdal Shams when a Hezbollah rocket slammed into a soccer field.

The arrests included high-ranking officials, among them a senior member of Hezbollah’s security apparatus who was responsible for keeping Shukr’s movements secrets. He was placed under house arrest, according to Shi’ite sources.

The investigation is led by the head of Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit, Wafiq Safa, described as one of Nasrallah’s close associates. Slain Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an undated picture released by the terrorist organization on July 31, 2024. Credit: Al Mayadeen/X.

Shukr reportedly returned to the office, where he was killed, after a visit to a nearby mosque. He had been waiting to coordinate a meeting with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.

The investigation is also reviewing the details of the Jan. 2 assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, reasonable for Hezbollah’s terrorist operations in Judea and Samaria, who was similarly hit by a missile while in an office in the southern Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut.

Al-Arouri was one of the top Hamas leaders on Israel’s target list following the group’s mass murder of Oct. 7.


Israeli FM’s tweet raises storm in Turkey
A tweet by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of destroying his country has garnered nearly 40 million views and has drawn a sharp reaction from Erdoğan’s supporters.

In the Aug. 2 tweet, Erdoğan stands in the foreground as a Turkish flag and the city of Istanbul go up in flames.

“Erdoğan is turning Turkey into a dictatorship just by reason of its support for Hamas’s murderers and rapists, against the stance of the entire free world,” Katz tweeted in Turkish.

“[Erdoğan’s Turkey] blocks Instagram, interrupts sports broadcasts because an Israeli athlete beat a Turkish athlete, threatens to invade a democratic country with which Turkey is not in a military conflict, and inflicts an annual loss of $6 billion on Turkish exporters by severing trade relations,” the foreign minister said in his tweet.

“Erdoğan is taking and destroying a Turkish state with scientific, cultural, technological and economic capabilities, and eliminating the legacy of [President Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk, who built a progressive and prosperous Turkey,” Katz concluded.



Senior officials in the Turkish government were quick to attack Katz and Israel in response.

The tweet also united Erdoğan’s political opposition. “We are not going to learn democracy and law from someone whose hands shed the blood of tens of thousands of children,” tweeted Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a member of the secular Republican People’s Party.
Jordanian FM in Iran amid Mideast tensions
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi arrived on a rare visit to Tehran on Sunday afternoon amid Iranian threats to attack Israel and perhaps drag the Middle East into all-out war.

Safadi traveled to the Iranian capital to “deliver a message from His Majesty King Abdullah II to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the situation in the region and bilateral relations,” Amman said.

The visit marks the first diplomatic trip to the Islamic Republic by a high-level Jordanian official since his predecessor, Nasser Judeh, led a government delegation to Tehran in 2015.

Safadi was expected to meet with his Iranian counterpart and other senior officials, Tehran’s official IRNA news agency reported.

The Iranian regime has vowed revenge following the July 31 killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who died in an explosion at his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guesthouse in Tehran. Both Iran and Hamas have accused Jerusalem of carrying out the assassination.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct attack on the Jewish state following the alleged Israeli attack on the high-security compound, The New York Times reported last week, citing Iranian officials.

Israel has also been awaiting the response by Iran’s terrorist proxies since it killed Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr, a commander responsible for a recent rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights, as well as a 1983 bombing that killed more than 300 U.S. and French troops in Beirut.

On April 13, the Royal Jordanian Air Force participated in a coalition that helped shoot down most of the 300 missiles and drones fired towards Israel as part of Iran’s first-ever direct attack on the Jewish state.


3 suspects in Sde Teiman abuse case released after new evidence presented
Three soldiers suspected of the sexual abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel were released from custody on Sunday.

Military prosecutors dropped their demand to extend their remand following new information brought into the case, which related to the extent of their involvement in the incident.

Another five soldiers were to remain held over the high-profile abuse case, with a military court at the Beit Lid base extending their remand until Tuesday, as the Military Police continued its investigation.

In all, 10 soldiers were detained in the case. Last week, prosecutors dropped their demand to extend the detention of two of them.

According to the IDF, the soldiers were suspected of aggravated sodomy (a charge equivalent to rape), causing bodily harm under aggravated circumstances, abuse under aggravated circumstances, and conduct unbecoming of a soldier.

Some of the suspects were also suspected of assault and interfering with the work of public servants, the IDF said.

The reservists were arrested by masked Military Police detectives at the Sde Teiman base in southern Israel on Monday.

After the arrests, a mob of far-right activists and lawmakers broke into the base and demonstrated, and later stormed the Beit Lid base where the suspects were being held and questioned.
Israeli forces in Gaza discover Hamas tunnel under Egyptian army post
Israel Defense Forces soldiers operating in southern Gaza have located dozens of cross-border tunnels used by Hamas terrorists to smuggle weapons into the enclave from Egypt, the military revealed on Sunday.

“In recent operational activity, IDF troops destroyed dozens of tunnel routes in the area of the Philadelphi Corridor and continue to locate additional ones,” the military announcement said, using the IDF’s name for the Gaza Strip’s 8.5-mile border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

One of the smuggling routes—which soldiers discovered early last week and that was large enough for vehicles to drive through—was dug directly underneath an Egyptian army position on the border, photos show.

“At this time, the forces are continuing to discover and neutralize the underground route that was detected, in addition to other large-scale routes that were found,” the IDF said, adding that it “will thoroughly destroy all underground infrastructures on the Philadelphi Corridor and will act resolutely to prevent their formation in the future.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted on Sunday, in reference to a ceasefire deal under consideration, “We have warned how dangerous it would be to leave the Philadelphi Corridor under Hamas’s control as part of a surrender pact with [the terrorist group’s leader in Gaza Yahya] Sinwar.”

Letting the terrorist group control the corridor would mean “giving a green light to its rehabilitation and the execution of another massacre of Israeli civilians,” added the Religious Zionism Party leader in his post on X.


Terrorists in south Gaza fire 5 rockets at Ashdod
Terrorists in the southern Gaza Strip fired five rockets that crossed into Israeli territory on Sunday, setting off sirens in communities just east of the coastal city of Ashdod.

IDF Home Front Command alerts sounded in the Shefala (lowlands) communities of Moshav Bitzaron, Gan Yavne, Kibbutz Hatzor, Moshav Azrikam, Moshav Sde Uziyahu and Moshav Shtulim.

According to the IDF, a strike was detected in the Hof Ashkelon region, with no injuries reported. According to reports, one rocket hit an open area near Route 4, setting off a bushfire.

The attack is believed to have originated from Khan Yunis, from where IDF troops withdrew last week after a brief operation in which more than 150 terrorists were killed.

Troops from the 98th Paratroopers Division dismantled Hamas tunnels, weapons storage facilities and terrorist infrastructure during the operation, in addition to seizing weapons caches.

Following the barrage, the Ashdod municipality said that it was opening public shelters for residents, who had not experienced incoming rocket alerts in months amid the IDF’s Gaza activities, which include destroying the rocket-launching capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.


IDF can now send location-based alerts to phones in case of large-scale attacks
As Israel continues to brace for a retaliatory attack by Hezbollah or Iran, the IDF Home Front Command said Sunday that it has now launched a new system to send location-based public warning messages, following successful trials.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, meanwhile, continued to stress that there were no changes to emergency instructions for civilians.

The new alert system is based on Cell Broadcast, which is a method of sending short messages to multiple phone users in a defined area. Many other countries have similar systems in place.

The Home Front Command said the system will “enable the receipt of a message in large-scale emergency events, such as rocket fire on Israel.”

The alerts will pop up on a user’s phone without needing to install an app or other previous action. It will sound an alarm with an emergency message.

The Home Front Command said the system doesn’t aim to replace its app or the physical sirens, but rather is intended for “surprise large-scale emergencies.” Cell Broadcast is not based on GPS, which has seen disruptions amid the ongoing war, but rather on the positioning of cellular towers.

In the case of rockets, missiles or drone attacks, sirens ring out in the affected areas. However, those with their windows closed who are using loud air conditioning units or fans, as well as those who are hard of hearing, may not always hear the alerts.

The IDF Home Front Command app, which was launched in 2016, tracks users based on their GPS location and alerts them to threats in their immediate area by sounding an alert and showing a message.


Two killed, two wounded in Holon terror attack
A 66-year-old woman and an 80-year-old man were killed and two other people wounded in a terrorist stabbing in Holon in central Israel on Sunday morning.

The woman, identified as Rina Daniv, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the man succumbed to his wounds after being transported to the city’s Wolfson Medical Center along with the other victims, one of whom was identified as Rina Daniv’s husband, Shimon, 69.

The stabbings occurred at two locations in the city, and the assailant was shot dead by a police officer.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that another terrorist may have fled the scene.

Shimon Daniv, in serious condition, and a 26-year-old man, Ya’akov Levertov, in moderate condition were treated on the scene and then evacuated to Wolfson Medical Center, according to Magen David Adom spokesperson Zaki Heller.

The terrorist was identified as Amar Razak Kamel Odeh, 35, from the Arab city of Salfit in Samaria. He did not have an Israeli residence permit. He was pronounced dead at Shamir Medical Center (formerly Assaf Harofeh Medical Center) in Be’er Ya’akov.

The stabbings occurred at a gas station on Moshe Dayan Street and at a nearby street, Channel 12 reported. According to MDA, the attacks occurred at three separate locations, around 500 meters apart.

“The terrorist went on a killing spree. The police are working to rule out the presence of another terrorist and accomplices,” Israel Police spokesman Eli Levy told Channel 12. “We are in the first minutes after the attack. It is important for me to emphasize that we have not ruled out the possibility that there are additional terrorists in the area, we are conducting many scans.”


The Quad: 'We Were Running for Our Lives': Reliving the Nova Festival Massacre
"The Quad" host Fleur Hassan-Nahoum interviews Nova Festival survivor Yoni Diller. He tells the harrowing story of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on the festival and his escape from the terrorist onslaught.

Dealing with the trauma of friends being killed and kidnapped, Yoni has found a new purpose in bearing witness to what has happened and telling the story of his survival to audiences all over the world.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
01:04 The NOVA Festival Experience
05:05 Escaping the Festival and Rockets
06:04 The Invasion and Chaos
09:23 Encountering Injured Individuals
11:18 Taking Cover and Fleeing
14:11 Walking to Safety in Patish
18:17 Returning Home and Sharing the Story
20:17 Advocacy and Fighting Misinformation
29:33 Shani's Escape and Tragic Discoveries
35:08 Finding Strength and Combating Hate Speech




What Matters Now to Prof. Gerald Steinberg: Hypocrisy of human rights groups on Israel
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan.

“Ex astrophysicist now Hobbesian realist.” Not many people can pull off that social media profile moniker. In fact, there’s likely only one: Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the founder of NGO Monitor.

Today, Steinberg is an emeritus professor of Political Studies from Bar Ilan University. Among his realms of interest, he is an expert in human rights, soft power and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He’s delved so deeply into NGOs that in 2002 he founded one himself, the Institute for NGO Research, which is a recognized organization in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council since 2013.

NGO Monitor states that it aims to promote accountability and discussion on the reports and activities of NGOs claiming to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas in Israel. Steinberg often targets the bigger “corporate” NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and a word that came up several times in our discussion is “hypocrisy.” But during our conversation, he also names several smaller groups that are going fair-minded work.

So this week, we ask Prof. Gerald Steinberg, what matters now.
Daniel Greenfield: Kamala is Anti-Israel. Her Husband’s Law Firm Repped the PLO
“Will Doug Emhoff’s Legal Career Be an Issue for the Biden-Harris Ticket?” the New York Times asked four years ago.

The newspaper noted that Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, was a partner at DLA Piper whose “lobbying clients” had included the governments of Afghanistan and Bahrain, as well as the Qatari government-funded Al Jazeera Network and the Palestine Monetary Authority.

DLA Piper was good to the Emhoff-Harris family with the family taking home $2.7 million in 2019 and $1.2 million in 2020. “To aspire to create wealth is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. If that is what one chooses. I, on the other hand, have chosen to live a life of public service,’ Kamala had claimed. But the “life of public service” led to her husband’s role at DLA Piper.

And two DLA Piper clients are connected to a flashpoint in Kamala’s foreign policy.

As vice president, Kamala pursued a harsher line against Israel than Biden, virulently denouncing the Jewish state over its military campaign against Hamas terrorists after Oct 7.

DLA Piper not only represented Qatar through its state-owned Al Jazeera terrorist propaganda network, but has an office there as part of the Qatar Financial Centre Branch of DLA Piper Middle East. Qatar harbors Hamas and funded it along with other Islamic terrorist groups.

The enemy terrorist outlet hired DLA Piper around the same time that some members of Congress had asked why Al Jazeera was not complying with the Foreign Agents Registration Act and why the Department of Justice had failed to bring the Qatari operation into compliance.

This occurred in 2019 when Emhoff was still a partner at DLA Piper, though he was not involved with that particular case, that was part of a relationship with Qatar that predated his time there.

DLA Piper however also entered into an agreement with the Palestine Monetary Authority for $600,000 to “strengthen its relationship with the American government” signed with PMA boss Jihad Al Wazir. As of 2019, DLA Piper was still representing the ‘banking arm of the PLO and sending out invitations to members of Congress to meet with then PMA head Azzam Shawwa. By 2021, the PMA had become DLA Piper’s largest foreign principal.
Burke appointment further disappoints Australian Jewish Community
Tony Burke is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and has served as member of parliament (MP) for Watson since 2004. According to obtainable ABS data, the electorate of Watson has the second highest proportion of Muslim voters with (at least) 21% identifying by the Islamic faith. This is more than twenty times the national average for any federal electorate in Australia. The division is mainly located in the south-western suburbs of Sydney, with smaller parts located in the Inner West.

Stephanie Peatling from the Sydney Morning Herald reported that “Tony Burke will take on a super portfolio of home affairs and immigration in a ministerial reshuffle Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will use to build momentum against the Coalition heading into the next federal election.” To say this is frightening from an Australian Jewish Community perspective is putting it mildly.

It therefore comes as no surprise that placing someone like Tony Burke in charge of home affairs and immigration has raised more than a few eyebrows on those on the conservative side of politics like myself. Why on earth would Burke portray himself as even remotely supportive of the Australian Jewish Community, or better yet, being open to supporting the State of Israel. When you have one in five from your electorate identifying as Muslim, it would be committing political carnage by doing so. Burke, like any federal politician, wants to keep his seat. He wants to keep his job.

To give you a little taste of what our newly appointed home affairs and immigration minister believes in relation to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza: “In my part of Sydney, people are watching, everyday, death, they’re watching, everyday, images, sometimes of people they know, often of children. Often the images they are seeing turn out to be people they know.”

Burke has a proven, tangible track-record of being biaised and one-sided when it comes to issues relating to the tidal wave of antisemitic abuse being hurled on Australian Jews since the barbaric acts of Hamas on October 7th last year. Here are a couple of examples to illustrate my point:
- In November last year, Burke was interviewed by ABC Radio host Patricia Karvelas. As reported by the Australian Jewish News, “Burke described people in his southwest Sydney electorate “seeing horrific images updated every hour” from Gaza. He also quoted Hamas casualty figures from Gaza as fact. Burke also quoted Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant referring to ‘human animals’ without clarifying that Gallant was speaking strictly about Hamas.”
- Canterbury-Bankstown was the first council in Australia to officially raise the Palestinian flag since the Hamas-Israel war broke out. In November last year, SBS reported that “Canterbury-Bankstown Councillor Khodr Saleh said the motion to raise the Palestinian flag passed easily, with support of the mayor and unanimous support of city council members. The council says the flag will fly until a ceasefire is declared in the Hamas-Israel conflict.” This Council falls within Burke’s electorate of Watson, where he tweeted “I completely support the Canterbury Bankstown Council’s decision to raise the Palestinian flag”, following this decision, as a way to “truly represent the grief in the community.”


Anne Frank statue in Amsterdam park vandalized again with pro-Palestinian graffiti
A statue of Anne Frank, a Holocaust victim famous for her diary account of hiding from the Nazis during World War II, has been covered with pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel graffiti, AFP learned on Sunday.

According to images published on X, the base of the statue was spray-painted with the slogan “Free Gaza,” while the girl’s hands were painted with the same blood-red color.

Police have opened an investigation into the most recent defacement, which likely occurred overnight between Saturday and Sunday, an Amsterdam police spokesman told AFP, adding that no suspect had yet been identified.

Anne Frank, who died of starvation and disease at age 16 in the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in 1945, is an icon of the Dutch Jewish community and arguably one of the most well-known Holocaust victims in the world.

Her diary has become one of the most influential accounts of the Holocaust, which wiped out around three-quarters of the country’s 140,000 Jews during the Nazi German occupation.

The Amsterdam house where the Frank family took refuge for two years before being captured by the Nazis in 1944 — after which they were sent to Bergen-Belsen — has become a museum dedicated to her story.

August 4 marks exactly 80 years to the day that the Franks were arrested and deported after their hiding spot was discovered. The question of who turned the Frank family in to the Nazis has never been definitively settled.

This weekend’s incident marks the second time in less than a month that the statue has been targeted, according to television station AT5 and confirmed to AFP by the police source.
Officeworks managing director says incident ‘not acceptable’
Officeworks managing director Sarah Hunter has apologised to the Jewish community over the incident in which a visibly Jewish man was refused service.

But the customer at the centre of the controversy has rejected the apology, saying he is still going ahead with action against the company at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

The incident in March saw a staff member decline a request to laminate an article in the Australian Jewish News because she was “pro-Palestine”.

Hunter on Friday directly addressed the Jewish community, telling The AJN, “I’m sorry that this happened in our store, I want you to feel safe. We want to be part of the community in which we live and work, and we are going to use this as a moment to continue to improve education around antisemitism and discrimination. It is not acceptable in our store.”

She rejected the idea that the company didn’t take the incident seriously at the time.

“When we received the letter and the customer complaint in March, we investigated it all within 48 hours and responded back with an apology to the customer, as well as addressing the other concerns that they had raised in their letter,” she said.

Hunter said the staff member was given a final warning and transferred to another store, and also visited the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

“And as a result of that, did a complete 180 in their understanding of the impact that they had had, the impact on the Jewish community, and how disrespectful and inappropriate that their behaviour was and how wrong it was,” she said.

Hunter has been in contact with Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin and they are going to work together to create a training session for company leaders to educate them around antisemitism and discrimination.

She said there has been a lot of feedback from customers, and she feels “the anguish and the disappointment and the hurt and the anger”.

“I’m devastated by it. It shouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry it happened. But I hope together we can move through it … the way we make this better in the long term is with education and moving past antisemitism and discrimination,” Hunter said.
Anti-Israel protester charged with hate crimes for vandalizing homes of NY museum heads
A woman who police say helped vandalize the homes of the Brooklyn Museum’s leaders with red paint during a wave of pro-Palestinian protests against Israel has been arrested on hate crimes charges.

Taylor Pelton, 28, was arrested Wednesday on charges of criminal mischief and criminal mischief as a hate crime, police said.

Police say Pelton was one of six people seen on surveillance video vandalizing the homes of the museum’s director, Anne Pasternak, and its chief operating officer, Kimberly Trueblood, on June 12. The other people seen in the videos were still being sought Thursday.

Pasternak is Jewish. The activists left the front of her apartment building splattered with paint and a banner calling her a “white-supremacist Zionist.” An inverted red triangle that authorities say is a symbol used by Hamas to identify Israeli military targets was sprayed onto her door, according to court papers.

Pelton was arraigned Wednesday night and released with court supervision, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.

In an email, Pelton’s attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, didn’t address the specifics of the charges but criticized “the increasing trend of characterizing Palestine solidarity actions as hate crimes.” She said the willingness of prosecutors “to endorse the rhetorical collapse of Zionist ideology and protected religious identity, in order to criminalize criticism of Israel, signals a troubling departure from the principles on which our legal and political systems rest.”

The paint splashing happened days after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters marched to the museum, occupied its lobby, vandalized artworks, and hung a “Free Palestine” banner from its roof. Police arrested several dozen people.


Jewish LGBT+ group excluded from Brighton Pride
Members of the Jewish LGBT+ community have expressed outrage at the decision of Brighton & Hove Pride to exclude a Jewish LGBT+ group from attending this weekend’s parade.

Despite welcoming Jewish and Proud’s application in May and reserving a provisional place for the group in the parade, Brighton & Hove Pride later announced that the application had not been approved, saying the group “did not meet the criteria for the Pride Community Parade’s clear aims of representing, promoting and celebrating local LGBTQI+ communities”.

Jewish and Proud, a Jewish LGBT+ group based in Brighton, said they would instead be assembling in the area close to the parade.

A spokesperson for Jewish and Proud told the JC: “That first meeting with [Brighton & Hove Pride] was so positive, and we came away feeling so optimistic. They said they were so pleased to have received our application and told us we’d be a lovely group to join in on the march. We talked logistics, security, everything seemed fine.”

Brighton & Hove Pride organisers then called Jewish and Proud to request more details and asked for a second meeting to be set up, one which proved to be “disastrous and incredibly painful”, the Jewish and Proud spokesperson said.

“They spent the whole-time nitpicking, again and again, over anything they could. They started saying they were not sure they could offer us a place because Jewish and Proud doesn’t fit the criteria, but they were so loose about what that meant and were never specific.

“I pleaded with them, saying we have between 50 and 100 Jewish LGBT+ people who want to march and celebrate pride. We expressed how painful it has been for many in the Jewish LGBT+ community since October 7, how they feel betrayed by their own community and had lost friends.”


UKFI: Toxic anti-Israel internal chat groups at Amazon cause hostile atmosphere for Jews
Amazon employees have been using its internal social media platform, Slack, to exchange offensive and virulently anti-Israel messages.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to Amazon pointing out that these messages have caused a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli employees, which breaches the Equality Act 2010 as well as Amazon’s internal guidelines.

The offensive messages have mostly been posted in the #Arabs channel, for the Arabs@Amazon affinity group. However it is accessible to anybody else at Amazon.

The posts include
- Calling the Israeli army the “Israeli occupation genocidal force” and “terrorists” and “a militia that deliberately murders innocent people”
- Making false claims of Israelis decapitating babies
- Calling the IDF “evil beings”
- Calling an Israel supporter a “bad person” who “ shouldn’t be considered a human”
- Referring to the whole of Israel’s existence as “an act of terrorism that has been going for decades”
- Accusing Israel of “actually committing all the made-up atrocities”
- Denying mass rape on 7 October 2023 and calling it Israeli atrocity propaganda
- Accusing Israel of controlling the US media
- Accusing AIPAC of controlling the US Government
- Accusing the “Israel Lobby” of controlling the UK Labour Party
- Accusing Israel of torturing, executing and burying children alive
- Accusing Israelis of using sexual violence against women

These posts contain a visceral hatred of the Israeli state and its army and include obvious lies and twisted facts about the Gaza war, as well as antisemitic tropes.

These messages have created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for Amazon’s Jewish and Israeli employees.

Amazon has failed to respond to UKLFI’s letter, sent more than two weeks ago, which asked what action Amazon intended to take over these posts.

However, Amazon responded to a question from the Sunday Telegraph, commenting: “We don’t tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind in the workplace. We investigate any such conduct that’s reported and take action against any employee who is found to have violated our policies, up to and including termination.”
UKFI: Starling Bank withdraws question to job applicants about living or working in Israel
Starling Bank has withdrawn a question to job candidates, asking whether they have lived in Ukraine, Russia, Israel or Belarus for the past 5 years.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) were approached by an Israeli who was going to apply for a job at “Engine by Starling Bank”, which is the platform that powers Starling’s Current Account. In the course of completing the online application he had been asked:

“Have you worked or lived in Ukraine, Russia, Israel or Belarus in the past 5 years? Yes or No?”

UKLFI pointed out that by asking if the applicant has lived or worked in Israel over the past 5 years, Starling Bank appeared to be indirectly discriminating against Israelis, most of whom are likely to fall into that category, and also indirectly discriminating against Jews, since Jewish people are more likely than others to have lived or worked in Israel.

Starling Bank was therefore in breach of section 39 (1) of the Equality Act 2010, which says that “An employer (A) must not discriminate against a person (B) … in the arrangements A makes for deciding to whom to offer employment …[or] by not offering B employment.”

The Israeli candidate commented: “this question has been the sole reason for me NOT to apply for the role, given how and where it’s placed. Made me feel very uncomfortable.”

Starling Bank has responded to UKLFI, saying: “For the avoidance of doubt, the bank is an equal opportunities employer and it does not accept that it has breached the Equality Act, as alleged by you in your letter or at all. That being said, the bank understands that the question you have identified in your letter could cause concern. We recognised this before receiving your letter and removed it from the set of questions we ask job applicants on the careers website.”

Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI, commented: “We are pleased that for whatever reason, Starling Bank has removed this question from its application form. As can be seen, it did serve to discriminate against Israelis, who were put off from applying for the job.”
Senate Appropriations Committee fails to meet administration request on campus antisemitism funding
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to approve a bill providing a $10 million funding boost in 2025 for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for investigating antisemitism and other discrimination complaints at schools and universities.

But the proposed allocation comes in $12 million short of the administration’s budget request for the office, and some in the Jewish community are calling it insufficient.

The committee voted to provide $150 million in funding for the office, known as OCR, in 2025. The administration requested $162 million. Department of Education officials have said that, in light of the significant increase in complaints since Oct. 7, each officer in OCR is currently working on 50 cases and the office is severely under-resourced.

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee approved a $10 million cut to OCR funding in a meeting last month. The Senate’s bill passed the committee on a bipartisan basis.

Language in the explanatory report accompanying the Senate bill acknowledges OCR’s funding needs and states that the $10 million increase should be used to combat antisemitism and help schools comply with their anti-discrimination obligations.

It also directs OCR to ensure it is processing antisemitism complaints in a timely manner, and to report quarterly to relevant congressional committees on the status of antisemitism and other related investigations.

The report includes an amendment, proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), stating that the committee is “deeply concerned” by antisemitism on campuses.

It urges the department to provide guidance to schools on developing religious discrimination and harassment and “encourage the prompt reporting” of discrimination and harassment incidents and how the schools.

The report further calls on the secretaries of education, health and human services, and labor to issue public reports on how their departments are addressing antisemitism, including steps they’ve taken to implement the administration’s national antisemitism strategy.
‘The View’ co-host argues anti-Israel student wrongfully expelled from Bronx prep school
Parents of Jewish students at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS) in the Bronx, N.Y., have long voiced their frustrations about institutional antisemitism, and since Oct. 7, anti-Israel graffiti and taunts of “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Now, co-host Sunny Hostin, 55, of the daytime talk show “The View,” has seized on the case of an “antiwar advocate” who she believes was wrongfully removed by administrators.

Hostin signed a letter sent to the school on July 7 making accusations of “unequal discipline, unfair treatment and biased standards we perceive our children to be subjected to.”

The letter was inspired by an unnamed student expelled after she wore a dress with a Palestinian flag and the protest slogan “Free Palestine.” She is also alleged to have created art featuring the Jewish eliminationist phrase “from the river to the sea.”

The school has not disclosed the offenses that led to her expulsion.

Hostin told the New York Post that the student “was discriminated against because she was an antiwar advocate” and that she “received disparate treatment than other students, and that was the impetus of the coalition forming.”

While not directly addressing the matter at hand, a school spokesperson told JNS: “We are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive ECFS community for all our students, and this absolutely and unequivocally includes our Jewish students.”
Harvard administrations drafts regulations to limit disruptive protests on campus
Following months in which anti-Israel protests overwhelmed Harvard University’s campus, the school’s administration has drafted a new set of rules that would prohibit daytime and overnight camping, excessive noise, unapproved signage and chalk or paint displays on campus property, the elite college announced earlier this week in a draft document first obtained by the Harvard Crimson.

The six-page document, which was approved by Harvard’s Office of General Counsel and the Working Group on Campus Space, comes months after illegal anti-Israel student encampments overtook the campus for several weeks in the spring. Most of the policies outlined in the new document draw on existing Harvard policies that went largely unenforced last semester.

“Not only were most of these new policies not actually new, but have been repeatedly violated by students in an effort to harass Jews,” Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who is suing the university over its handling of campus antisemitism, told Jewish Insider.

“These rules mean little when there is neither enforcement nor discipline for those breaking them,” said Kestenbaum, who spoke last month at the Republican National Convention about his experience with antisemitism on Harvard’s campus.

Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, in a statement, echoed Kestenbaum’s skepticism that the school will enforce the new policies.

“These policies, like many that have been promulgated, are fine and reasonable,” Summers said. “The issue is that the university, over the last year, has consistently failed to act and impose sanctions when policies are violated and has been slow to implement policies on behalf of Jewish student groups. That is why it is subject to multiple federal government investigations and civil suits.”

The draft document, a copy of which has been obtained by JI, has not been finalized or broadly shared with the Harvard community. Jason Newton, a university spokesperson, emphasized to the Crimson that the university is still finishing writing the policies and the document is subject to change. “Once the document is finalized, it will be shared with the Harvard community,” he said.

The initial document says that it is designed to “foster the well-being of community members and to preserve these resources for future generations” and warns that violations of the policy could result in punishment.


Jewish Democrats call for hearing on terrorism sanctions violations, antisemitism on X
A group of 17 Jewish House Democrats requested on Friday that House Republicans “take immediate action to address the unacceptable and dangerous rise in antisemitism on the social media platform X,” formerly Twitter, and accused the company of violating U.S. sanctions law.

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), asking him to instruct House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) to call a hearing with X owner Elon Musk and other company officials on the platform’s “profiteering and amplification of antisemitic content” and provision of premium account services to U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

“Such a hearing would be a critical first step in combating the alarming rise of antisemitism and the influence of foreign terrorist groups in the United States,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

Musk has become a prominent backer of former President Donald Trump and attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress as a guest of the Israeli leader.

The lawmakers accused X of taking a “blasé attitude toward the pervasive and growing problem on its platform — which either represents a lack of concern, or, more nefariously, a tacit endorsement.”

The lawmakers said that several of them have written to both X and Comer about their concerns but have received “unsatisfactory answers from X and deafening silence from Chairman Comer.”

The letter argues that X’s previous selling of premium account services to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem, both U.S.-designated terrorists, was prohibited under U.S. law.

They separately noted that other U.S.-sanctioned entities including Iran’s Press TV and Russia’s Tinkoff Bank also previously appeared to have paid premium accounts on the site.




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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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