Wednesday, August 07, 2024

08/07 Links Pt1: ‘We carry you in our hearts, too,’ Herzog tells world Jewry; Sinwar Stands Alone; AIPAC headquarters vandalized

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Sinwar Stands Alone
More important, however, is that his communications network—Hamas deputies abroad, Hezbollah officials, Iranian government officials, Haniyeh in Qatar—has already been badly disrupted. His isolation means he is even more powerful within Hamas, but that is because now he is Hamas. And it also means that Sinwar is nothing more than an Iranian satrap.

That works for Sinwar, for now. But it’s a cult as much as it’s a movement. And Sinwar’s vision is a maniacal march to Armageddon, not a blueprint for governing. When the Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar talked to members of the Palestinian old guard who had left Gaza, they made clear to him just how much “the entire leadership had been taken captive by the Sinwar group’s deranged idea of an all-out battle. They had an orderly plan and they believed they were fulfilling a divinely ordained mission.”

Israel would fall, the Sinwar fanatics believed, in what they called the fulfillment of “the last promise.” Now the Sinwar fanatics are all Hamas has left. The terror group is planning a fight to the death with Israel, and the odds aren’t on Sinwar’s lonely side.

And that description of the conflict isn’t really in doubt anymore, either. Sinwar is now Hamas’s political “wing,” its military “wing,” and any other chimerical “wing.” Large terror groups like Hamas have different departments, sure, but the West has always fooled itself into believing there’s a fundamental difference between the guy playing Good Cop and the guy playing Bad Cop. In reality, they’re all the Bad Cop. And now there’s not even someone opposite Sinwar to pretend that a compromise is in the works and the West just has to keep making concessions to the “moderates” so the hardliners don’t lose their temper.

Sinwar was the mastermind behind October 7. That’s who he is, that’s who Hamas is, and there’s no plausible way to pretend otherwise.
Enough of waiting for disasters, Israel should strike pre-emptively
Israelis are on edge this week, awaiting an Iranian attack in retribution for the recent killings of two senior terrorists. While the Israeli military’s Home Front Command has encouraged the public to continue with their daily lives, a sense of fear and anxiety permeates Israeli society.

Israeli defense officials assess that an Iranian counterattack will come in a matter of days.

Iran and its proxies have threatened to avenge last week’s assassinations. Israel took responsibility for the targeted killing of Fuad Shukr of the Lebanese-based Hezbollah in Beirut a week ago. It did not acknowledge playing a role in the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last Wednesday, but it is widely believed to be behind the operation.

The threats by Iran have put Israel on high alert, although Israeli officials have repeatedly said that the country is prepared for a multifront attack. An attack of that sort could lead to a wide-scale regional war, one much larger than the mostly localized Israel-Hamas conflict that has been raging for ten months.

As tensions rise, some in Israel have called for a preemptive strike on Iran and its proxies. According to Israeli media reports, the country’s leadership would consider such a strike if it had solid evidence that Iran was planning a significant attack.

A poll conducted by the 103FM radio station published Tuesday showed that half of the Israeli public favors such a strike.

Ambassador Alan Baker, who directs the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center, told The Media Line that Israeli and American decision-makers will consider whether a preemptive Israeli strike would prevent a larger regional war.

“Israel and the US will probably have positive evidence which will then enable them to justify whatever action is proportionate to the immediacy of the threat,” he said. An attack looms

With a major flare-up hours or days away, Israel is building an international coalition, led by the US, to help thwart an attack by Iran and its proxies. A similar alliance helped Israel last April when Iran launched over 300 missiles and drones toward Israel.

The previous Iranian onslaught was in response to Israel’s killing of several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers at the Iranian consulate in Damascus, an attack Tehran considered a breach of its sovereignty. Iranian press branded its counterstrike as the “largest drone attack” ever launched, but Israel’s multilayered defense systems, together with American, British, French, and Jordanian forces, intercepted nearly all incoming weapons. One child was severely injured in the attack, and there was no major damage reported.

Israel retaliated against several military sites in Iran a few days later. That strike concluded the round of violence until last week, when a direct confrontation between the two rivals grew closer than ever before.

Now the region braces for more violence, with an expectation that Iran will try to upstage its previous attack.

“Any attack that Israel will carry out larger than the previous one in April will be considered a major escalation,” Professor Danny Orbach, a military historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Media Line. “Because of this, it is important that such an attack be of high quality in order to justify it. This will create a further escalation and in essence, a calculated cycle of violence.”

Ambassador Baker said that international pressure led Israel to pursue a subdued attack to the April strike. “Israel could have responded in accordance with its right of self-defense, as this was a major attack against its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.

Israel is now carefully considering its options as it anticipates the next strike.

“Israel is addicted to quiet and would much rather be preoccupied with its internal politics, and therefore it prefers to delay responses,” Orbach said. “This is done by waiting for disasters, when there is no other choice but to respond. Israel should strive to strike preemptively either right before an attack or at the very least at the exact same time.”

An efficient Israeli attack on Iran would target its oil refineries, economic infrastructure, and ports, Orbach said.
Gallant: Hezbollah could cost Lebanese dearly, ‘they can’t imagine what might happen’
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday warned Lebanon of the steep price it would pay if Hezbollah makes do on threats to retaliate forcefully against Israel for the killing of a senior commander in the terror group.

“As things stand, [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah may drag Lebanon into paying extremely heavy prices. They can’t even imagine what might happen,” Gallant said during a visit to troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade.

“This may also deteriorate into a war. It’s not theoretical, it’s real,” he added, according to a statement from his office.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis to remain calm as Jerusalem braced for a potentially separate attack from Iran for the assassination of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

“We are continuing forward to victory. I know that Israeli citizens are on alert, and I ask you one thing — stay calm and composed,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Tel Hashomer army recruitment base, where he met draftees to the IDF’s Armored Corps and Combat Engineering Corps.

“We are prepared for both defense and offense, we are striking our enemies and are also determined to defend ourselves,” he told troops, according to a statement from his office. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets with IDF soldiers at the Tel Hashomer recruitment base, August 7, 2024. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Netanyahu expressed his pride in the soldiers, both those in the reserves and in the standing army, calling them the “backbone of the nation.”

Speaking to Israeli Air Force personnel at the Tel Nof airbase, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Israel is on high alert and will be able to launch a quick response to any attack.

“We will know how to launch a very quick attack anywhere in Lebanon, anywhere in Gaza, anywhere in the Middle East, aboveground and belowground,” Halevi said.

“We will send a very clear message to our enemies, those who attack us, those who in every speech talk about how they seek to destroy the State of Israel. We will strike them, and we will continue to grow stronger,” he added.

Turning to Hamas’s Gaza leader, who was promoted to head of the terror group’s politburo after the assassination of Haniyeh, Halevi asserted that Yahya Sinwar’s new title wouldn’t prevent Israel from hunting him down.

“Yahya Sinwar yesterday received a new title, he is the head of the political bureau of Hamas. This title, a political one, will not absolve him from the fact that he is a murderer who was involved in the entire planning and execution of what happened on October 7,” the IDF chief said. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to troops at Tel Nof airbase, August 7, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

“Therefore, the change in his name, not only does not prevent us from looking for him, it spurs us on and we will make an effort to find him, attack him, and [cause Hamas to] replace the head of the political bureau once more,” he said.


‘We carry you in our hearts, too,’ Herzog tells world Jewry
As Israel braces for expected attacks from Iran and Hezbollah, the citizens of the Jewish state are acutely aware of the fears experienced in the Diaspora, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a recorded address on Wednesday night.

“We in Israel also see the anxieties, concerns and vulnerability of Jewish communities around the world. And just as you carry us in your hearts, we carry you in our hearts, too,” the head of state said in the message.

“These are difficult moments for the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” continued Herzog, noting that Wednesday was the 10-month anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, and Monday was the fifth birthday of Ariel Bibas, “the little red-headed boy from Kibbutz Nir Oz who was abducted from his home by Hamas terrorists on that dark day.”

“Our enemies, poisoned by hatred, blinded by radicalism and antisemitism, have vowed to attack us again. We all feel the tension, the anxiety and the vulnerability of these moments,” Herzog said.

“I want to state clearly: We have the capacity to confront our enemies and to defeat them. The State of Israel is blessed with many resources—most importantly, incredible human resources. We have an excellent and highly motivated military, air force, intelligence services and others. We have advanced air-defense systems.”

The president praised the country’s alliances with countries that are “committed to protecting not only Israel but the rule-based world order we are fighting for”—most notably, the United States of America—”which is leading the coalition actively defending the values of life and liberty.”

He added: “Beyond all of that, we carry another most precious resource, the remarkable resilience of our people. A resilience which is rooted in the deep sense of connection and shared destiny that we have shared all across the ages. It is what has enabled us to get back up and rebuild after even the worst tragedies, and it is what we lean into right now.

“Just as you carry us in your hearts, we carry you in our hearts too,” Herzog said in his wartime address to the communities of the Diaspora.




Freed hostage Maya Regev takes first steps, recovering from Oct. 7 injury, captivity
Freed hostage Maya Regev has managed to walk again with the help of crutches as she continues to recover from injuries she sustained in Hamas’s October 7 massacre, medical negligence during her time as a captive in Gaza, and subsequent surgeries to repair the damage.

Regev, 21, was abducted along with her brother Itay, 19, and their friends Omer Shem-Tov and Ori Danino from the Supernova music festival on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

At the music festival, terrorists massacred 364 people, gang-raped others, and abducted dozens to Gaza, among them the Regevs, who were both shot in the legs as they tried to escape the carnage.

The siblings were among 105 civilians released during a weeklong truce in late November, after weeks of captivity in Gaza.

Regev said that she returned from Gaza with many infections, a fungus growing inside her bone, and other signs of medical negligence. Eight months after her release, her road to recovery remains long.

In a video posted to her Instagram account on Monday that was shared by others on X, Regev wrote as a caption: “I’ve been through a lot with this leg. Lots of surgeries, lots of complications, and especially lots of frustration.

“At one stage, I didn’t believe it would happen, and I almost gave up, but it happened. I successfully took my first steps, and I’m proud of myself for the path I’ve taken, and am still on. I’m proud of myself, I did it,” the caption read.

Last month, Regev spoke about her treatment in captivity, recounting in an interview with Channel 12 news: “When changing bandages, when they wanted to see the wounds, they would purposely cause pain.”

“When they were changing my bandages they would give me ketamine and pethidine intravenously so that I wouldn’t scream. But they’re not really pain relievers, they’re muscle relaxants. So I couldn’t respond, but I could feel everything,” she said during the interview.

In the interview, Regev said that, one day, the doctor took a small knife and started cutting into her exposed flesh in the wound, ignoring her pleas to stop. “I wanted to kick him in the face, but he had a pistol and I had nothing, so I shut up,” she said.

Regev also described how her friend Shem-Tov, with whom she was kidnapped and, after five days of separation, held together in captivity, cared for her, calmed her down, and held her mouth so she would not scream, which she had been forbidden to do.

Shem-Tov is still a hostage in Gaza, one of 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 who remain there — including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.


Netanyahu’s office pushes back on White House claim Israel, Hamas must compromise more for deal
The Israeli prime minister’s office said on Wednesday that Hamas has yet to respond to the Jewish state’s proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal, shortly after the White House said that Israel and Hamas must compromise more.

John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters at a briefing that ceasefire negotiations are “as close as we’ve ever been” to achieving a breakthrough.

“The gaps are narrow enough that they can be closed,” he said. “What we’re talking about here is recognizing the fact that we’ve come an awful long way. There is a good proposal before both sides, and they need to both accept that proposal so we can get this in place.”

Asked whether a deal is being impeded by Hamas or by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kirby said that both sides must compromise.

“The deal hasn’t been accepted, because neither side has signed up to it,” Kirby said. “We believe that both sides need to do the final bit of work here, to come to a conclusion on this thing.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said in June that “Hamas is now the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire,” a sentiment that other U.S. officials subsequently echoed. The change in the U.S. description of negotiations—attributing a need for compromise on both sides—led to widespread speculation that Israel changed the terms of the proposal, or that Israeli military actions in Gaza and the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran may be hindering a deal.

Netanyahu’s office stated on Wednesday that Hamas hasn’t responded to Israel’s latest proposal. “Israel has already given a clear offer, and sent the negotiating delegation to Cairo last Saturday,” it said. “Until this moment, no response was received from Hamas.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said on Tuesday that “the negotiations have now reached a final stage.”

Sources reportedly close to the negotiations told Israeli media that they were surprised by Washington’s apparent optimism on a timeline.
Federal suit challenges Biden admin ‘settler’ sanctions
A group of American Jews and evangelical Christians filed a lawsuit in federal court this week challenging the Biden administration’s sanctions regime against Israelis accused of undermining “peace, security and stability” in Judea and Samaria, their attorneys announced Tuesday.

Texans for Israel, a Christian Zionist nonprofit, the Israeli NGO Regavim and three U.S. citizens living in the Jewish state filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, contesting the legality of U.S. Executive Order 14115, under which Washington has sanctioned 11 Israeli individuals and 11 Israeli entities since February.

According to the complaint, President Joe Biden’s order, which extends to U.S. citizens, chills constitutionally protected speech, violates due process requirements and denies equal protection under the law.

“Sanctions have never been used to silence policy disagreements like this,” international scholar Eugene Kontorovich, one of the plaintiffs’ legal advisers, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday.

“One of the plaintiffs, Ari Abramowitz, is a U.S. citizen from Texas who runs a sheep farm overlooking the Dead Sea. He has been repeatedly attacked by rock-throwing Palestinian terrorists,” Kontorovich said.

“Because the administration affords even U.S. citizens no due process before imposing sanctions, if Mr. Abramowitz, who is not subject to sanctions, is ambushed again, he must choose between his safety and the possibility of financial ruin. Palestinians face no such threat. No Palestinian terrorists have been sanctioned under this order.”


Military experts claim International Criminal Court charges against Israel lack evidence
A group of military experts, known as the High Level Military Group (HLMG), has submitted a report to the International Criminal Court (ICC) challenging allegations of war crimes against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in its war against Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. It also pushes back against arrest requests for leaders of the Jewish state, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The assessment was made in July, when the HLMG made a visit to Israel, where its members toured IDF headquarters, spoke with senior military commanders, monitored humanitarian aid operations and even entered Gaza.

In the report, the HLMG, which is composed of former chiefs of staff and senior military officers from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries, argues that the allegations are not supported by the evidence, so such charges and arrest warrants against Israeli leaders could have dangerous implications for future military operations by democratic countries involved in conflicts.

Is Israel causing famine in Gaza?
The HLMG paper stresses that, following a direct assessment of Israeli operations in Gaza, no evidence was found that the IDF adopted a deliberate strategy of starvation against the civilian population, one of the main accusations facing Israel. Instead, experts stress the considerable efforts made by Israeli forces to coordinate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, despite the logistical and security challenges in an extremely complex urban combat environment.

The HLMG notes that its members visited two crossing sites on the Israel-Gaza border that were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7 and on other occasions. At one of them, the Erez site, the IDF established two crossing points for vehicles. The group added that roads were found inside Gazan territory that were built by the Israeli military specifically to enable the delivery of aid from different points.

Military experts also state that IDF commanders said and demonstrated that they do not seek to hinder the delivery of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. In fact, HLMG members were able to observe the capabilities of Israeli forces to communicate regularly with international humanitarian organizations to facilitate their work.

The document further clarifies that the experts were briefed on efforts to assist relief efforts by the private sector, which are considerable but often are omitted from U.N. reports.

The HLMG adds that there have been approximately 16,000 IDF instances of communication with the U.N. and various NGOs inside Gaza since the start of the war, and there were very few incidents where, due to mistakes by Israeli forces in the difficult urban warfare they face, they opened fire on humanitarian convoys.

Deliberate attacks on civilians?
The HLMG also criticizes allegations of deliberate attacks against civilians by the IDF. According to its report, Hamas has used human shields by building subterranean military infrastructure and locating terrorists among civilians, which has significantly complicated Israeli operations.

Despite these difficulties, experts claim that the IDF has implemented stringent measures to minimize civilian casualties, such as the use of precision weapons and early warning systems, such as "rooftop hits," which consist of minimal pre-attack impacts to warn civilians to leave an area.

The HLMG argues that while any loss of civilian life is regrettable, the IDF has made significant efforts to minimize such losses, even when this compromised the effectiveness of its counterterrorism offensives.

A dangerous precedent
The report concludes that the IDF has acted in accordance with international law and warns that issuing arrest warrants based on this action could establish a precedent that would hinder future legitimate military operations by other democratic nations.

The HLMG report comes as the ICC is considering allegations against Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The panel's findings could significantly influence the international debate over the legality of Israeli operations and the rules of war in urban conflicts.


Turkey submits bid to join South Africa genocide case against Israel
Turkey on Wednesday filed a request with a UN court to join South Africa’s lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, the foreign minister said.

Turkey’s ambassador to the Netherlands, accompanied by a group of Turkish legislators, submitted a declaration of intervention to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

In seeking to participate in the case, Turkey, which has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel throughout its war against Hamas in Gaza, joined Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua and the Palestinians. The applications have yet to be granted, but if they are, the countries would be able to make written submissions and speak at public hearings.

“We have just submitted our application to the International Court of Justice to intervene in the genocide case filed against Israel,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan wrote on the social media platform X. “Emboldened by the impunity for its crimes, Israel is killing more and more innocent Palestinians every day.”

“The international community must do its part to stop the genocide; it must put the necessary pressure on Israel and its supporters,” he said. “Turkey will make every effort to do so.”

South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice late last year, alleging that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

Israel has rejected the accusations of genocide as baseless and says South Africa is acting as an emissary of the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza and seeks to eliminate the Jewish state. It says that the Israel Defense Forces is targeting Hamas combatants, not Palestinian civilians, but points out that civilian casualties in the fighting are unavoidable as terrorists operate from deep within the population.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, called for it to be punished in international courts and criticized Western nations for backing Israel.

He has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. In contrast, he often expressed support for Hamas, lauding the terror group as defenders of their homeland, and met with slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, after which he encouraged Palestinians to unite against Israel.


Evidence against UNRWA staffers stronger than UN investigators let on
Several media outlets and critics of Israel noted that Monday’s release of results of an internal United Nations investigation stated that nine UNRWA staffers “may” have participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

But a spokesman for the head of the United Nations later clarified that the conclusions were more definitive in nature.

Chris Gunness, a virulent anti-Israel former communications director for the scandal-plagued UNRWA Palestinian-only aid and social services agency, tweeted on Monday that “the U.N. investigation has found Israel’s claims that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7/10 attack to be baseless. Allegations into more than half were rejected outright. Of the few remaining, the UN says there MAY have been involvement, not that there was.”

Gunness, like others, used the official language of “may” to sweep away the findings.

But, pressed at a journalists’ briefing on Monday, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, conceded it went further than that.

Asked whether those nine UNRWA workers “likely or highly likely were part of the attacks,” Haq responded, “I think that’s a good way of describing it.”

The investigators from the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) insisted that without fuller evidence sharing from Israeli officials, they could not independently verify or corroborate the allegations, leaving doubt in the language of their findings as to the veracity of the allegations.

Nevertheless, UNRWA announced it had terminated the nine staffers under question.


US believes Tehran may be reconsidering major retaliation
Intensive American diplomacy and an increased military posture in the Middle East may have prompted Tehran to reconsider a major retaliatory strike against Israel, according to The Washington Post.

White House officials told the newspaper’s David Ignatius on Tuesday that they believe that President Joe Biden’s efforts to stave off a wider war are paying off, at least with regard to Tehran. However, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah “is still a wild card,” the officials said.

Iran blames Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, and has threatened harsh retaliation. Haniyeh’s assassination came just hours after Israel eliminated senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, and Hezbollah, too, has threatened a significant retaliation.

The Biden administration has been making an urgent diplomatic push to deescalate the situation, led by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“No one should escalate this conflict,” Blinken told reporters Tuesday, as quoted by the Post. “We’ve been engaged in intense diplomacy with allies and partners, communicating that message directly to Iran. We communicated that message directly to Israel.”

The Pentagon has also sent warships and fighter jets to the region as a show of force.

“Iran understands clearly that the United States is unwavering in its defense of our interests, our partners and our people. We have moved a significant amount of military assets to the region to underscore that principle,” a senior administration official told Ignatius.
Iran tells airlines to steer clear of Tehran airspace for three hours on Aug. 8
Iranian authorities have advised civilian airlines to avoid its airspace for three hours on Thursday morning due to “military exercises,” an Egyptian official told Cairo’s Al Qahera TV on Wednesday night.

The report came shortly after Egyptian aviation authorities issued an official Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, urging pilots to refrain from overflying Tehran between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. GMT (4 a.m. to 7 a.m., Israel time).

“All Egyptian carriers shall avoid overflying Tehran. … No flight plan will be accepted overflying such territory,” the public NOTAM notice read.

Also on Wednesday night, U.K. aviation authorities issued a NOTAM warning for Lebanese airspace, advising British carriers against flying over Beirut “due to potential risk to aviation from military activity.”

London’s warning for Lebanese airspace, which went into effect immediately, was issued until Nov. 4, according to reports.


Katz: Sinwar pick shows Israel should control Gaza, Judea and Samaria
Hamas’s decision to appoint Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar as its paramount leader proves that Israel should retain full security control west of the Jordan River, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.

“Israel must maintain control over security and foreign affairs to prevent the establishment of another Iranian-Islamist extremist stronghold and enable Palestinians to manage their internal affairs,” Katz tweeted.

An Israeli withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and Gaza would “lead to the creation of another Iranian outpost in the region, which would explode in the face of the world and all regional countries,” he said.

“The solution is Palestinian self-management in Judea and Samaria, allowing them to manage their own lives,” Katz added.

According to Jerusalem’s top diplomat, the international community “must see reality as it is and support Israel, which currently stands at the forefront of the battle against the Iranian and extremist Islamist axis.”

He noted that the Palestinian Authority, which has self-rule in parts of Judea and Samaria, survives only due to incessant Israel Defense Forces raids against Iran-backed terrorist groups.

Katz accused Tehran of supplying the region with large quantities of arms and funding in an attempt to open “another terror front from the east against Israel’s major population centers.”

As the IDF fights Hamas in Gaza, Tehran continues to instigate terrorism in Judea and Samaria by flooding the territory with weapons, The New York Times reported in April, citing U.S., Israeli and Iranian officials.


Saudi Arabia says Haniyeh killing ‘blatant violation’ of Iran’s sovereignty
Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran was a “blatant violation” of Iran’s sovereignty.

The comment by the Saudi deputy foreign minister during an extraordinary meeting of members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was the first by the kingdom, the region’s major power alongside Iran, since the killing of the Palestinian Islamist leader in the Iranian capital on July 31.

The minister, Waleed Al-Khuraiji, added that Saudi Arabia rejects “any violation of the sovereignty of states or interference in the internal affairs of any country.”

The comments echoed earlier remarks by Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara, who chairs the Saudi-based Islamic bloc. He said the “heinous” killing last week of the terror group’s political leader risks tipping the Middle East into “wider conflict.”

A statement issued after the meeting said the OIC “holds Israel, the illegal occupying power, fully responsible for this heinous attack,” which it described as “a serious infringement” of Iran’s sovereignty.

A senior Iranian official said during the same meeting that the Islamic Republic would need to defend itself from Israel, which it blames for Haniyeh’s death last week in Tehran.

Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the high-profile assassination, which came hours after Israel killed Hezbollah terror group commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon, following a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights days earlier.


US says Saudi prince approved Khashoggi killing

FDD: Hamas Selects October 7 Terror Mastermind Yahya Sinwar as New Leader
Sinwar Consolidates Hold Over Hamas
Since the October 7 onslaught 10 months ago, Sinwar has been in hiding in Gaza. A video released by the IDF in February showed an apparently healthy Sinwar strolling through an underground tunnel in Gaza accompanied by several family members — the first time he had been spotted since the massacre in Israel.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Palestinian affairs analyst Ohad Hemo said the appointment of Sinwar had formalized his status as “the most powerful figure” inside Hamas. Calling it a “show of faith” by a terrorist organization “whose leadership is rapidly sinking,” Hemo noted that the selection of Sinwar by Hamas’s 50-man Shura Council — a consultative body with members in Gaza, the West Bank, abroad, and among Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails — had returned “the formal center of Hamas power to Gaza,” given that many of its top leadership have been based abroad, including Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal, a founding member of the Hamas politburo. On August 4, the Saudi-owned news channel Alhadath reported that Sinwar had conveyed a message opposing Mashal’s appointment as Haniyeh’s successor to a meeting in Qatar on the grounds that he wanted someone with closer ties to the Iranian leadership to take the helm.

The 61-year-old Sinwar is a veteran Hamas terrorist who was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences by an Israeli court in 1988 for the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel. However, he was released in 2011 as a part of a deal that involved exchanging more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Classified as a “Specially Designated Terrorist” by the United States in 2015, Sinwar became the leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2017. Michael Koubi, an Israeli interrogator who questioned Sinwar on several occasions, recalled that Sinwar was totally devoted to the terrorist organization. “He told me Hamas is my wife, Hamas is my child. Hamas for me is everything,” Koubi said. Yuval Bitton, a former senior Israel Prison Service official who also encountered Sinwar, recalled that the terrorist leader had been successfully treated by doctors in Israel for a brain tumor. “We saved his life, and this is his thanks,” Bitton said, referring to the October 7 atrocities.

In a speech in Gaza in December 2022, Sinwar hinted at the assault that would unfold the following October, telling the crowd, “We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood. We will come to you with endless rockets, we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers, we will come to you with millions of our people, like the repeating tide.” More than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 kidnapped on October 7 amid atrocities that included mass rape, decapitation, and the mutilation of the dead. The attack marked the bloodiest act of terror in Israel’s history as well as the worst single day of violence targeting Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.


Psychological warfare: IDF jets create sonic boom during Nasrallah speech
A senior IDF official decided yesterday on an operation to disrupt Nasrallah's speech by creating a sonic boom, primarily to send a warning message to him and Hezbollah commanders.

"We can fly anywhere at any time and perform sonic booms daily or conduct other operations," the official said.

Nasrallah himself mentioned this in his speech, saying that "Israel uses breaking the sound barrier to scare the audience."

The IDF admits that this is a psychological war between Hezbollah and Israel.

IDF has advanced capabilities
"There is a paradox here as the gaps widen. Therefore, basic tools are required. We have the capability to operate F-35 or F-15 aircraft while the other side sends simple drones flying over Nahariya," the official added.

The IDF estimated that Hezbollah received and understood the message of the sonic boom over Beirut yesterday.

"They understand they are exposed. It's not pleasant for them when you fly over their heads, over the capital city or the country," the IDF said. "It gives the impression that you are vulnerable and defenseless, which is the message we wanted and succeeded in conveying to them."


Caroline Glick: The Revolution Happening in Israel That You Didn’t Know About
The Jewish state's establishment elites are put on notice as Israelis begin to sober up from the pre-Oct. 7 status quo. Despite media manipulation, the Israeli public is making it clear that they expect nothing short of absolute victory on all battle fronts.

Join JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick as she exposes the truth about what’s preventing a hostage deal with Hamas (NOT Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu!) and exposes the money trail of Israel’s most disruptive left-wing activist group.

Chapters
0:00 Israel’s domestic front
9:00 Public protests Supreme Court
18:00 Hostage talks
28:30 Negotiation leaks exposed
35:30 Who are the “Brothers in Arms"?
46:30 Who’s funding problematic groups?
55:00 Public is waking up
59:00 Elites on notice


They Stand Corrected: Episode 18: A Network’s Bonkers Lie About Militaries
Perhaps the most frustrating kinds of lies in the media are the ones presented as part of a so-called “fact check.” In this episode, Josh digs into something that CNN got exactly wrong in discussing militaries in general, and Israel’s in particular. The network claimed that all military analysts except for one would agree on something false; Josh shows that even CNN’s own military analyst disputes that claim.

Plus, a whole different kind of reality check. Military expert Andrew Fox points out that some analysts often quoted in the news are examining the war in Gaza through the prism of the U.S.-led “war on terrorism,” which failed. He provides an understandable explanation of why he believes Israel is winning -- and that its actions should be “taught in military colleges.”

Also, the actress and activist Debra Messing’s powerful message to the media, especially the Washington Post, following their biased coverage of the slaughter of a group of Israeli Druze children by Hezbollah.
ILTV’s Viewpoint: Yoseph Haddad
ILTV’s Emily Schrader sits down with Arab Israeli activist and CEO of Together Vouch for Each Other, Yoseph Haddad, to discuss the impact of October 7th on the Arab Israeli society and how Israel can win the war of hearts and minds off the battlefield. Watch until the end to see Yoseph give us the run down on the worst anti-Israel voices today.


Highlights of Natasha Hausdorff discussing UK government policy towards Israel on GB News
Nigel Farage MP hosted UKLFI's Natasha Hausdorff along with Andrew Rosindell MP and author Paul Richards to discuss the Labour government's possible suspension of arms licences to Israel and its resumption of funding of UNRWA.


The Israel Guys: Is HAMAS Winning the War with ISRAEL? Full Breakdown
Today, I take an objective look at what has happened in the Middle East since October 7th with Hamas, and the State of Israel. What are the stated goals on both sides, and who are accomplishing their goals the most effectively.

In other words, who is winning.


Unpacked: Who Owns the Gaza Strip? | Unpacked
Since October 7, 2023, Gaza has been at the heart of a brutal war between Israel and Hamas. But this tiny 25-mile strip's troubled history started long before the current hostilities. After Israel captured Gaza during the 1967 Six-Day War, its fate took a turbulent turn, eventually falling under Hamas' control. Now governed by Hamas, Gaza has witnessed immense suffering and resilience in the face of decades of conflict.

Who will control Gaza next? It's uncertain. But understanding the deep, historical roots of this conflict is crucial to solving it.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:40 Israeli position after the 1967 6 Day War
03:19 Israel-Egypt peace treaty
03:51 The question of Palestinian statehood
04:55 The question of Israeli citizenship for Palestinians
05:56 Incentives to leave Gaza and deportations to Jordan
06:48 Economy and freedom of movement in Gaza
08:35 The 1st Intifada
10:10 The Oslo Accords
10:48 Opposition to the Oslo Accords
12:11 The 2nd Intifada
13:13 Jewish communities in Gaza
13:40 The Israeli Disengagement
14:45 Hamas victory in Gaza elections
16:40 Hamas terror attacks on Israel
17:08 Hamas tunnels in Gaza
18:11 October 7, 2023
19:07 Israel's war in Gaza
19:45 The plight of Palestinians and Israelis
20:01 Calls for an Israeli return to Gaza
20:25 What's next for Gaza?


US, UK to skip Nagasaki atomic bomb memorial ceremony after city mayor invites Iran, not Israel
Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, will not participate in Japan's annual Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony on Friday as Israel was not invited to the event, the Japan Times reported on Wednesday morning.

Nagasaki's 79th atomic bomb anniversary event will not include Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen due to security concerns, according to a separate Times report that cited Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki.

Suzuki explained this decision was to ensure the ceremony remained peaceful and focused on remembering the victims. However, some critics believe excluding Israel is a political move that sends the wrong message about standing up against terrorism and supporting global unity, the report added.

The decision to exclude Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen from Nagasaki’s atomic bomb commemoration ceremony while inviting representatives from countries with serious human rights violations raises concerns, the Times added.

Furthermore, the argument that the Japanese police are not capable of ensuring security for the event "is impossible to believe," making the exclusion of Israel seem unjustified, the report further noted.

The list of invited nations included Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, China, Myanmar, and Afghanistan, all of which have notable records of human rights abuses. Most controversially, the Times added, the Iranian ambassador was invited despite Iran’s designation as a primary sponsor of terrorism by the US and its allies.


Pro-Palestinian extremist group vandalizes AIPAC headquarters in Washington
The Washington, D.C., headquarters of AIPAC was vandalized early Monday morning with red spray paint and the words “F*** Israel” scrawled onto the front and side of the building.

Video footage obtained by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department shows three masked suspects defacing the building exterior and destroying property at approximately 12:41 a.m.

The department said in a statement that the investigation is ongoing and is “asking for the community’s help to identify the suspects involved in a Destruction of Property offense in Northwest.”

“We will not be deterred by the illegal actions of fringe, anti-Israel extremists in our efforts to strengthen the US-Israel relationship,” Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesperson, told Jewish Insider.

Palestine Action, a global network of groups that destroys property that has ties to Israel, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the vandalism. “AIPAC is a corrupt foreign organization that plugs and play the morally bankrupt American politician like a game of monopoly while American taxpayers pay for the weapons that are being dropped in Gaza.”

The Anti-Defamation League in a statement called “these actions & accusations of dual loyalty pure antisemitism” and called on the DCPD to “fully investigate” the crime.
Suspect who painted red hands on Paris Holocaust memorial denies racial motives
A Bulgarian man fighting extradition to France for defacing the Paris Holocaust memorial in May denied Wednesday that he had acted out of racial motives, telling AFP it was “just hooliganism.”

France issued European arrest warrants for three Bulgarians after red hands were painted on the Paris Holocaust Memorial’s Wall of the Righteous, which lists 3,900 people honored for protecting Jews during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II.

Two Bulgarians, identified by a Sofia court as 35-year-old Georgi Filipov and 27-year-old Kiril Milushev, were detained in the Bulgarian capital in July. A third suspect was detained in Croatia.

A Sofia court on Wednesday held a hearing on whether Filipov should be extradited to France but postponed a decision until September 26.

“I took part in this but not in the sense that they say in the media, it had nothing to do with chauvinism, racism or anything else of the sort,” Filipov told AFP before the hearing.

“I have nothing against anyone there or the buildings. I had simply drunk a lot of alcohol. This was just hooliganism,” he said.

He told AFP that he had planned to go to Paris “to see the Eiffel Tower.”

“We were a bunch of drunk people. Someone proposed to do something like that and I didn’t refuse, which I regret.”

He insisted he “had no idea whatsoever” what the red hands symbolize, adding that he had no alternative to running away after coming to his “senses the next day.”

On Monday, a regional court ordered the extradition of Milushev to France.
Two police hit with sledgehammer in anti-Israel attack on Bristol factory
Two British Police officers and a security guard were wounded by vandals armed with sledgehammers, axes, whips, and other homemade weapons in an attack on a Bristol area defense firm facility on Tuesday, according to the Avon and Somerset Police, Elbit Systems UK Limited, and Palestine Action.

Two police officers were assaulted with a sledgehammer when they intervened in the vandalism of Elbit UK’s South Gloucestershire Horizon facility. Police said Tuesday that one officer was taken to the hospital for back injuries, and another was treated at the scene by paramedics for an injury to the back of the leg.

Security staff were also attacked with weapons after the vandals rammed through the fence and into a building entrance with a large prison van before dawn, according to police and a video posted by Palestine Action on Instagram.

Over a dozen people exited the vehicle and began to smash equipment, machinery, and building fixtures. According to Elbit UK vehicle training equipment manufactured for the British Armed Forces was targeted. Police said at least one employee was treated for a head injury at the scene.

Police arrived at the Patchway town site and arrested six attackers and seized their weapons, and are working to identify other suspects that fled the scene. Police are reviewing CCTV footage and performing forensic analysis of the van and facility.

“We’ve managed to break into the most secure Elbit facility. You’ve been Pal Actioned. Long live the resistance. Intifada, intifada now,” said Palestine Action “actionists” who had been PAVA sprayed in a video posted by the group to Instagram.

Palestine Action later organized protests at the police stations at which the suspects were held, according to the group’s Instagram stories.

Avon and Somerset Police Superintendent Paul Wigginton said that the willingness to use violence against anyone that got in the way of the vandals was disturbing.

“The criminal damage is bad enough but to attack people with weapons is outrageous,” said Wigginton.

“The officers who responded to what was initially a report of a burglary demonstrated great courage when faced with offenders armed with weapons. The Chief Constable has visited the officer who was taken to hospital and while she continues to receive treatment, thankfully her injuries are not serious. It is a sad fact that officers now expect to face acts of violence as they respond to crimes in action and protect the public. This is completely unacceptable and anyone responsible for such shameful behavior can expect to go to prison.”


Hackney council to remove ‘offensive’ intifada mural
Hackney Council will remove graffiti glorifying intifada that CST has described as “extremely disturbing”.

The mural, which appeared near Springfield Park close to the Stamford Hill Charedi community, home to much of the borough’s Jewish population, featured the word “intifada”, Arabic for rebellion or uprising but which is widely understood by Jews to mean a call for violent resistance against Israel.

It also included the words “exist is to resist” and showed figures with their faces obscured in Keffiyehs, similar to the style of the terrorist group Hamas’s spokesman Abu Obiedah against a backdrop of what appears to be fire and a Palestinian flag.

One of the masked figures also appears to be launching an item from a slingshot.

A spokesperson for Hackney Council told the JC: “Offensive, intimidating or insulting graffiti has no place in Hackney.

"We remove tens of thousands of instances of graffiti or fly-posts every year, informed by the Council’s graffiti policy. Graffiti should be reported at hackney.gov.uk/report-a-problem or on the Fix My Street app.

“The Council’s graffiti team will investigate and remove this instance as soon as possible now that it has been reported to us."

A spokesperson for CST told the JC, “This is an extremely disturbing mural in a densely populated Jewish area.

They continued, “This kind of extremist incitement will undoubtedly frighten and intimidate the community. It should be removed as soon as possible and condemned, and the police should investigate who is responsible for it.”

The content of the mural was also condemned by Rabbi Herschel Gluck, President of Shomrim Stamford Hill. He said, “We condemn any calls to violence and inflaming of communal tensions. Constructive engagement and harmony is the way forward.”

In June, the JC reported that a terrifying message calling for an “attack” on “Zionists” had been put up in a heavily Jewish part of Hackney.

A sticker saying “Zionists F*** Off” featured a woman’s face masked by a keffiyeh along with the statements “solidarity means attack” and “Free Palestine”.


Parents' fury as pro-Palestinian mob interrupt children's science show at Wimbledon theatre with activists leaving young audience terrified as they screamed demands
Parents have been left furious after pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a children's science show at a theatre in Wimbledon.

The New Wimbledon Theatre descended into chaos earlier this afternoon when a group of 'Parents for Palestine' protesters stormed the venue and began chanting in front of an audience of terrified youngsters.

Children soon began 'crying their eyes out' while some were parents forced to cover their ears as the protest went on.

The activists were eventually escorted out of the venue by theatre staff, leaving the audiences filled with children as young as seven and their parents, in shock.

One parent who attended the show, named Rose, told MailOnline how her seven-year-old daughter, who is autistic, was left 'really upset' by the incident and accused the protesters of going to far.

Rose said: 'We're sitting there getting ready for the show and then there's this lady with a mask over her face and then she starts chanting.

'And then after that I see bug banner drops from the top of the theatre and then from that everything is just disrupted.

'There are parents with their children next to me and their kids are crying their eyes out cause it's quite scary.

'Security has come along and ushered some people out but then some other people who have got up on the stage to make sure their voices are getting heard.

'You can do peaceful protest but this isn't the way. Why would you do this at a kids show? The children do not need to know this, this is not an appropriate time.

'It was about 4:25pm - the show was supposed to start at 4:30pm - and that's when they jump out of their seats and start chanting their nonsense.

'We had to wait half an hour for the show to begin. The show did go ahead and it was quite a good show.'

Rose claimed that one parent sitting next to her later called the police and there was subsequently a 'large police presence' outside.


Islamic Human Rights Commission blames ‘Zionist financiers’ for UK riots
The chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has blamed “Zionist financiers abroad” for the far-right riots which have swept across England.

In an open letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper published on Tuesday, Massoud Shadjareh said: “Enabled by their Zionist financiers abroad, far-right elements have weaponised the tragic murder of three young girls in Southport to incite the country into pogroms against Muslims and people of colour.”

According to the latest survey from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 63 per cent of British Jews identify as Zionists.

Shadjareh’s letter to the Home Secretary goes on, “It is now more critical than ever to tackle the racism that drenches our media, social and political discourse. This is the mood music that has emboldened the racists and brought us to the brink of national race wars.”

The IHRC chair is an Iranian regime supporter, who wrote in 2020 that “we are all Hezbollah” and that he “aspired to become like” Soleimani. This is not the first time that Shadjareh or IHRC have blamed Zionists for various events.

In May 2023, Shadjareh blamed the “papers” of “Zionist institutions” for the Charity Commission’s decision to open an inquiry into a mosque that was dubbed the “London office” of Iran’s brutal Revolutionary Guards.

“So who is complaining? Zionist Federation, Zionist institutions, Islamophobic groups, anti-Muslim groups and extreme right. They and their papers are complaining,” Shadjareh said at the time.

In 2018, IHRC published an article which claimed: “Zionists have started to implement an insidious strategy to build ties with the Muslim community in Britain in order to normalise Zionism and the brutal illegal occupation of Palestine.”

IHRC also helps to organise the notorious annual Al Quds Day march in London that the CST branded “a march predicated on anti-Israel hate”.




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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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