Sunday, September 01, 2024

09/01 Links: The Hostage Murders and the New Threat; Sinwar’s Israeli accomplices; Three Israeli police officers killed in terror shooting near Hebron

From Ian:

John Podhoretz: The Hostage Murders and the New Threat
Hamas is the evil here. America is not responsible for the deaths of anyone in Gaza, and anyone who says otherwise is a moral idiot—just like those deranged people who seem determined to blame Bibi Netanyahu for not surrendering to Hamas, as though the hostage deals of the past, like the one that freed Hamas mastermind Yahya Sinwar in 2011, weren’t among the root causes of this horrible conflict.

But we American are morally liable for our role in our backseat-driving in this war, for screaming at the Israelis at the wheel, unnerving them as they were trying to keep their eye on the road ahead.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was 23 years old. There are two babies there, somewhere, in those tunnels that Kamala Harris said Israel should not go into. At her convention, Rachel and Jon spoke. America wept. Then Kamala Harris gave her speech and said Israel had the right to defend herself BUT there was too much killing and we needed a ceasefire and a hostage deal and a two-state solution and for the oceans to turn to lemonade, which is about as likely in the foreseeable future as a two-state solution.

And Hamas saw her, and saw Biden, and was so terrified by what they saw, so fearful of America’s martial response to their evil, that they killed Hersh and the five others whose bodies were found—and who knows who else yet.

This is a dangerous moment. This monstrous act of villainy will not quiet the campuses as the anniversary of October 7 approaches. No, it will embolden the very monsters who have been psychologically torturing Jewish students—and assaulting them in some cases—over the past year. The stories we’ve read in the past two days about the report of Columbia University’s anti-Semitism task force chill the blood. “Hillel Go to Hell,” read a banner at a Baruch College demonstration this week, in case you were wondering if things were going to quiet down.

The threats were real then and they are going to be even more real now, as those who support the destruction of the Jewish state and the crushing of the spirit and the freedom of American Jews make their moves over the next month. Their intention is to take over the anniversary of the massacre and turn it into a tribute, as they plan to do at the University of Maryland.

We don’t need to read Joe Biden issuing statements of outrage about Hersh. We need to see that things are going to be done to protect America’s Jews from the evil that might be visited upon us as we tick down the days until it’s been a year since Jews were plunged into this existential battle designed to destabilize the Jewish state and drive American Jews underground.

Joe Biden was sitting on the beach this afternoon as the Israelis recovered the bodies. He is a spent force, a quartered roasted duck. So what are you going to do about it, Ms. Harris? What are you going to do?
Caroline Glick: Sinwar’s Israeli accomplices
The discourse in Israel isn’t simply removed from reality because it is based on a false presentation of the U.S. position by the security brass. The entire domestic debate is taking place while Hamas isn’t even participating in the negotiations. For the generals, for Gallant and their comrades in the Knesset, the media and on the streets, the only one responsible for anything is Netanyahu.

In other words, Gallant, the generals, the left’s political leaders and the rioters in the streets are all playing the roles Sinwar assigned them.

This reality played out starkly during Thursday night’s Security Cabinet meeting.

From leaks of the supposedly secret deliberations that can be traced directly to Gallant, we learned that Gallant presented his fellow ministers with an ultimatum that might as well have been written by Sinwar. Gallant said that if they don’t agree to withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border (temporarily), the hostages will be killed.

Netanyahu reportedly exploded at Gallant and explained that there is no such thing as a temporary withdrawal from the border zone, because of the actual U.S. position opposing a reinstatement of hostilities. Gallant responded to this dose of reality with a total meltdown. He said that Netanyahu was effectively calling for the hostages to be murdered.

Netanyahu responded by presenting a draft Security Cabinet decision to reject any concessions on Israel’s control over the Gaza-Egypt border in any hostage talks. It passed with one nay vote—Gallant’s.

Then on Saturday night, the news began percolating that the hostages were executed and the IDF retrieved the bodies.

As Tal Gilboa, whose nephew Guy Gilboa-Dalal remains hostage in Gaza, wrote on her X account on Sunday morning, “If the formula is ‘dead hostages = shutting down the country,’ … what would you do if you were Sinwar?”

Gallant responded to the news of their executions by publishing a statement on X demanding that the Security Cabinet reconvene and cancel its decision on the Gaza-Egypt border from Thursday night.

Towards noon on Sunday, Netanyahu issued his first response to the news that that the hostages had been executed. He explained that Hamas stopped carrying out serious negotiations with Israel last December. Sinwar rejected the U.S. ceasefire for hostages deals in May and August—both of which Israel accepted. Netanyahu concluded by noting that the execution of the six hostages makes clear, yet again, that Hamas doesn’t want a deal.

Given past experience, in all likelihood the left’s current calls for mass riots will indeed lead to unrest. But they won’t bring down the government. All the same, as Gilboa inferred, they will place the rest of the hostages in even greater peril.

Israel needs to win this terrible war. It has no choice. Just as the Jibril deal paved the way for 20 years of escalating terror warfare against Israel, and just as Oct. 7 was born with the Shalit deal, so events far more terrible than that one-day holocaust will happen if we dare to play by Sinwar’s rules. It is shocking, and frankly unforgiveable, that Israel’s left, led to his disgrace by Gallant, insists on doing so.
Ruthie Blum: Kamala’s push for Palestinian statehood
The news of the six bodies of murdered hostages found by Israeli troops on Saturday night in the tunnels of Rafah makes such remarks especially repugnant. In the first place, one of the captives held by Hamas terrorists with the help of “innocent” Gazan collaborators—and killed in cold blood in recent days—was American citizen Hersh Golberg-Polin.

The only appropriate response on the part of the Biden-Harris crew to this travesty would be to hang their heads in shame for enabling Iranian proxies, in this case a group of rapist thugs with machetes and mortars, to dance rings around what is supposed to be the world’s greatest super-power. Instead, Secretary of State Antony Blinken eulogized Goldberg-Polin on X by calling him a “hero” and resuming his efforts to secure a “ceasefire”—a euphemism for a Hamas victory over Israel.

Secondly, if the incompetents in D.C. hadn’t been trying to court Hamas-supporting constituents—on the grounds, as Biden said at the Democratic National Convention, that “they have a point”—they might have behaved like the allies of Israel that they’ve been professing to be since Oct. 7. Yes, had they not kept trying to block it from entering Rafah, or withholding weapons shipments as leverage, Goldberg-Polin and many others might well have been rescued by now.

This brings us back to Harris, who made sure, in her inarticulate fashion, to stress that she’ll toe the party line on Gaza: nodding slightly to the Jewish community by purporting to back Israel’s right to be upset about the atrocities of Oct. 7, while attempting to appeal to progressive antisemites.

“We have got to get a deal done,” she told Bash. “We were in Doha [the capital of Qatar, where some of the ceasefire negotiations were held]. We have to get a deal done. This war must end. And we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out. I’ve met with the families of the American hostages. Let’s get the hostages out. Let’s get the ceasefire done.”

Bash interjected, “But no change in policy in terms of arms so forth?”

Harris said a perfunctory “no,” repeating, “I—we—have to get a deal done. Dana, we have to get a deal done. When you look at the significance of this to the families, to the people who are living in that region, a deal is not only the right thing to do to end this war, but will unlock so much of what must happen next.”

Not a mention of Hamas’s refusal to accept any deal that doesn’t guarantee its continued reign, nor of the inconvenient fact that it never agreed to release all the hostages.

“I remain committed, since I’ve been on Oct. 8, to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution,” Harris declared. “Where Israel is secure and in equal measure the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity.”

There you have it.

Harris was admitting that, from the day after Palestinian terrorists committed the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust—before Israeli boots even touched the ground in Gaza, but while rockets continued to be launched from the Strip into the south, and Hezbollah in Lebanon fired missile barrages on the north—Team Biden was promoting a narrative of moral equivalence between perpetrator and victim.

We all must keep this in mind as Israel lays more hostages to rest and buries additional brave soldiers who fell in the battle to bring them home and beat their monstrous captors.


IDF recovers six hostages’ bodies from southern Gaza
Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages from an underground tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza overnight Saturday.

The hostages were identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25.

“A few hours ago, we informed the families that the bodies of their loved ones had been located by Israel Defense Forces troops in a tunnel in Rafah. According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” said IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

All six were kidnapped alive during the Hamas-led assault on the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.

On Oct. 7, Yerushalmi was working as a bartender at the Supernova music festival. She initially hid in a car, motionless alongside the bodies of friends who had been shot and killed. She then went into the bushes where she remained hidden for hours while on the phone with her family, and was taken by Hamas terrorists from there.

Gat was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri while visiting her parents for the Simchat Torah holiday. Hamas terrorists murdered her mother, Kinneret. Her brother Alon, sister-in-law Yarden Roman-Gat and niece Geffen were also captured. Her brother and niece were able to escape while her sister-in-law was released as part of weeklong ceasefire that freed 105 hostages in November.

Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova festival. He tried to escape by car but realized that terrorists were setting up roadblocks and shooting at approaching vehicles. He instead ran to a nearby bomb shelter. Soon, Hamas terrorists converged on the tiny space, murdering most inside and kidnapping those who survived. Before he was taken, Goldberg-Polin’s dominant right arm was blown off at the elbow by a grenade. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, recently called for his release at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Lobanov was kidnapped from the music festival where he worked as head barman. His wife, Michal, was pregnant when he was taken and has since gave birth to the couple’s second child.

Danino was also kidnapped from the site of the festival. He had escaped but went back to help rescue Omer Shem Tov and siblings Itay and Maya Regev. The Regev siblings were released during November’s ceasefire while Omer and Ori remained in captivity.

Sarusi was kidnapped from the festival while his partner, Shahar Gindi, was murdered.


'Nation's heart shattered to pieces': Israeli politicians react to recovery of hostages' bodies
Israeli leaders and politicians reacted on Sunday morning to the IDF's recovery of the bodies of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino from Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

President Isaac Herzog said following the IDF confirmation of the identities early Sunday morning, "The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces."

He apologized "for failing to bring them home safely."

The president vowed that Israel would "continue to fight relentlessly against the criminal, terrorist organization Hamas, which has once again proven there is no end to its willingness to commit murder and crimes against humanity."

"The blood of our brothers cries out to us. Our sisters and brothers are still there, enduring hell. The supreme covenant between the state and its citizens is to ensure their safety. We have the sacred and urgent mission to bring them home," Herzog concluded.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called for the security cabinet to convene immediately and "turn over" the Thursday decision determining the IDF should remain in the Philadelphi Corridor in the Gaza Strip. "It is too late for the hostages killed in cold-blooded murder," he stated, adding, "We must return home the hostages remaining in Hamas captivity."

He further stated Israel would "reckon" with Hamas, "down to the last one."

Opposition head Yair Lapid said in a Sunday statement that the murder of the six hostages could have been prevented.

"Instead of doing a deal, they do politics. Instead of saving lives, they bury hostages. Instead of doing everything to return them home, Netanyahu is doing everything to remain in power," Lapid wrote.
Movie theaters go dark to honor the hostages and their families
The Lev Cinemas chain and the Tel Aviv Cinematheque announced that they would be closing their doors Sunday evening to honor the six hostages who were murdered and whose bodies were returned to Israel on Sunday morning -- Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino.

The Tel Aviv Cinematheque expressed condolences
The Tel Aviv Cinematheque posted a message on its website saying that because of the devastating news of this loss, it would darken its screens Sunday evening to be respectful to the hostages and their families and the continuing loss of life due to the war.

Lev Cinemas chain posted a similar announcement. Preview press screenings were also canceled. As of this writing, other movie theaters around the country have been operating normally.


International outcry at murder of hostages as Biden says Hamas leaders ‘will pay for these crimes’
U.S. President Joe Biden said he was "devastated and outraged" to learn of the deaths of the captives.

“We have now confirmed that one of the hostages killed by these vicious Hamas terrorists was an American citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” he said.

"Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world."

Biden added: "Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.”

Vice President Kamala Harris was unequivocal in her condemnation of the murders, releasing a statement saying: “Hamas is an evil terrorist organisation. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands. I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world.

"From its massacre of 1,200 people to sexual violence, taking of hostages, and these murders, Hamas’ depravity is evident and horrifying.

"The threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel – and American citizens in Israel – must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza. The Palestinian people too have suffered under Hamas’ rule for nearly two decades.”

She said that her husband Douglas Emhoff’s prayers were with Hersh’s parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg “and with everyone who knew and loved Hersh”.

"When I met with Jon and Rachel earlier this year, I told them: ‘You are not alone.’ That remains true as they mourn this terrible loss. Americans and people around the world will pray for Jon, Rachel, and their family and send them love and strength. As is said in the Jewish tradition, may Hersh’s memory be a blessing.

“As Vice President, I have no higher priority than the safety of American citizens, wherever they are in the world. President Biden and I will never waver in our commitment to free the Americans and all those held hostage in Gaza.”

In the meantime, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X/Twitter: “I am completely shocked at the horrific and senseless killing of six hostages in Gaza by Hamas. My thoughts are with their loved ones at this awful time.

“Hamas must release all the hostages now, and a ceasefire deal must be agreed by all sides immediately to end the suffering.”

His comments were echoed by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who called on both Israel and Hamas to accept a hostage deal.

He said: “The UK condemns Hamas’ appalling murder of six innocent hostages in Gaza in the strongest terms. I offer my deepest condolences to those grieving at this awful time.

“Hamas must release all the hostages immediately, and all sides must accept the deal on the table to end this war.”


‘Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,’ Biden vows, after Goldberg-Polin’s body identified
U.S. President Joe Biden stated shortly before midnight on Saturday night that he is “devastated and outraged” after the U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin was identified among six bodies that Israeli forces recovered earlier in the day in a tunnel in Rafah.

Biden vowed that “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,” but then said that the United States “will keep working around the clock” to secure a deal—which would be between the Jewish state and the Hamas terror organization—to release the rest of the hostages.

“Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on Oct. 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’s savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world,” Biden stated. “I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable.”

Goldberg-Polin’s parents have been “relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions,” the president added. “I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express. I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will.”

Biden called Goldberg-Polin’s death “as tragic as it is reprehensible.”

“Our hearts break after receiving the devastating news of the hostages’ bodies being found in Hamas tunnels,” stated Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. “Our thoughts are with the families who have lost their loved ones. The terrorist monsters who murdered innocent hostages deserve nothing less than death.”


Hostage families’ Tikva Forum urges PM to nix Hamas talks
The Tikva Forum of hostage families on Sunday called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end months-long negotiations aimed at achieving an elusive ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The call came after Israeli forces recovered overnight Saturday the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza. They were identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Ori Danino, 25.

According to the IDF spokesperson, they were murdered by their captors as Israeli forces approached.

The forum said the captives’ murder was further evidence of “the bitter enemy we are fighting.”

Hamas “are murderers and rapists of the lowest kind. Human animals. In these difficult moments we support the heroic IDF soldiers who give their lives to rescue the hostages,” added the forum.

The group, an alternative to the larger Hostages and Missing Families Forum, is opposed to the idea of a ceasefire deal at any cost, and believes that only military pressure will lead to their loved ones’ release.

Earlier, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum blamed the six murders on Netanyahu.

“If it weren’t for the saboteurs, the excuses and the spin, the hostages whose deaths we learned of this morning would probably be alive,” the forum tweeted.

“Netanyahu: enough of the excuses. Enough of the spin. Enough of the abandonment. The time has come to bring our hostages home—those living for rehabilitation and the fallen and murdered for burial in their land,” it added.


Israeli labor federation declares one-day general strike
The Histadrut labor federation, which represents some 800,000 Israeli trade unionists, on Sunday declared a general strike set to commence at 6 a.m. on Monday, shutting down large sectors of the economy to pressure the government to reach a hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists-release deal with Hamas.

As part of the one-day strike, Ben-Gurion International Airport will cease take-offs and landings at 8 a.m. Public transportation will also be affected.

Pharmacies, hospitals, defense plants, food plants and special education will apparently continue to function.

The Histadrut’s decision came after its chairman, Arnon Bar–David, met with the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, 331 days after the Palestinian terrorist organization’s Oct. 7 cross-border massacre.

“That Jews are being murdered in the tunnels of Gaza is unacceptable and it must be stopped,” Bar-David told reporters at a press conference.

“A deal must be reached; a deal is more important than anything else. I came to this conclusion after talking with many people in Israeli politics and many officers and officials in the security establishment,” he added.

Following the announcement of the impending shutdown, the Im Tirtzu Zionist movement sent a warning letter to Bar-David, threatening to hold him personally legally liable for damages caused by the “illegal” strike.

The Tikva Forum for Families of Hostages, an alternative to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, in a statement called on all Israeli citizens “not to take part in the wild and dangerous strike of the Histadrut.

“The announcement by Arnon Bar–David and his friends of a general strike in the economy tomorrow, while pointing the blame at the Israeli government instead of at Hamas, is a terrible injustice, giving a reward to Sinwar for the murder of the six hostages and a death sentence for the captives who remain alive,” it said, calling on workers to break the strike.


Guterres slammed over ‘crocodile tears’ for news Hamas killed six hostages
António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general who has long been accused of Jew-hatred and anti-Israel bias, drew widespread criticism on Sunday for what he did not say in a statement about the six hostages, whom Hamas killed and whose names were released the prior night.

“I will never forget my meeting last October with the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and other hostage families,” Guterres wrote. “Today’s tragic news is a devastating reminder of the need for the unconditional release of all hostages and an end to the nightmare of war in Gaza.”

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, wrote that “Hamas just murdered six Israeli and American hostages by shooting them in the head. Why can’t you say so? Why can’t you condemn them?”

“Save your crocodile tears for someone who has an ounce of respect for your leadership,” wrote the Israeli diplomat Yaki Lopez.

“Won’t even say ‘Hamas.’ Won’t condemn the terror group that took Hersh, held him hostage for 330 days and murdered him,” wrote AIPAC. “Says it all.”

Israel Nitzan, a former Israeli diplomat, called the statement “cowardly and morally flawed,” adding, “why can’t Mr. Guterres condemn Hamas for brutally executing innocent hostages?”

“Hamas. The word is Hamas. Hamas did this. Say it,” wrote Matthew Levit, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute and director of its counterterrorism and intelligence program.

“Resign. Your failure to pressure, or even acknowledge Hamas, emboldened them,” wrote Esther Panitch, a Georgia state representative who is Jewish. “They know you are spineless.”

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO at The International Legal Forum and senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, called Guterres “a pathetic and cowardly excuse for a world leader,” who “can’t even bring himself to name Hamas or condemn them.”


Three Israeli police officers killed in terror shooting near Hebron
Three Israeli police officers were killed in a drive-by shooting on Sunday morning near the Tarqumiya checkpoint, some 7.5 miles northwest of Hebron in Judea.

Magen David Adom paramedics treated a male and a female officer at the scene before pronouncing them dead. Another male officer was seriously wounded and evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, where he was later pronounced dead.

They were later named as Ch. Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, 37, from Kiryat Gat, who is survived by his wife and three children; Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch, 53, from Sde Moshe, who is survived by her husband, three children and a granddaughter; and First Sgt. Roni Shakuri, 61, from Sderot, who is survived by his wife, a daughter and a granddaughter.

Shakuri’s daughter, First Sgt. Mor Shakuri, was killed while battling Hamas terrorists attempting to take control of the Sderot police station on Oct. 7.

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday initiated a search for the terrorists, who opened fire from a car at the police vehicle with the three officers inside on Route 35 and then fled on foot. The road was closed to traffic and security forces were preparing to search the nearby Palestinian village of Idna.

Later on Sunday, IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) fighters surrounded a house in Hebron where terrorists were believed to be holed up, the military said in a statement. At least one terrorist linked to Sunday morning’s attack was “neutralized” at the site, the IDF stated.

According to reports, the terrorist who carried out the shooting served as a member of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas‘s “Presidential Guard,” though it was unclear whether he still held the position.

Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the scene of the attack.

“I am certain and convinced that together with the IDF we will find and eliminate the despicable terrorists who harmed three of our good policemen,” Levy said at the scene.


Fatah terror faction claims double car bombing in Judea
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “militia” of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility on Sunday for Friday’s double car bombings in the Gush Etzion region of Judea.

In an announcement posted on Telegram, Fatah’s “military” wing hailed the terrorists who carried out the “heroic Hebron operation,” naming them as Zahdi Nidal Abu Afifa and Muhammad Ihsan Yaqin Marqa.

The statement claimed that Friday’s car bombings were a response to “Zionist massacres in the Gaza Strip, the crimes of the occupation in the occupied West Bank and violations against the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque.

“The fighters of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades continue their heroic operations against the forces of the Zionist enemy within the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,” it said, referring to the Swords of Iron War initiated by Hamas on Oct. 7.

On Saturday, the Hamas terrorist group hailed the previous day’s “double heroic operation” after the car bombers wounded three Israelis. While stopping short of taking responsibility, it called it “a clear message that the resistance will be prolonged and sustained so long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue.”

In the first attack, a bomb was detonated at a gas station near the Gush Etzion Junction, prompting the IDF to dispatch soldiers to the scene. The terrorist opened fire on the troops, who killed him. A soldier was moderately wounded and an officer was lightly hurt in the exchange.

Shortly thereafter, a terrorist rammed his car through the gate to the nearby town of Karmei Tzur. A security guard drove after the terrorist and crashed into his vehicle, before getting out and shooting and killing him. The terrorist’s car exploded, and the guard was lightly injured in the attack.


Terror-linked UNRWA leads Gaza polio vaccination drive
As Israel intensifies its campaign to expose UNRWA’s complicity in terrorist activities, including its staff members’ role in the Oct. 7 attacks, the U.N. agency maintains a significant presence in Gaza and continues to operate in coordination with the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit.

Over the next several days, an extensive inoculation drive will take place in the Strip, with aid organizations planning to administer roughly 1.5 million polio vaccines. The agency tasked with administering these vaccinations is none other than UNRWA, the very organization accused of collaborating with Hamas.

Israel has consented to humanitarian pauses in hostilities across several areas of the Gaza Strip to facilitate the vaccination effort. Health officials in Gaza recently announced the arrival of the first batch of polio vaccines, which are now stored in specialized facilities.

The IDF confirmed that the shipment of polio vaccines, totaling 1.255 million doses, passed through the Kerem Shalom Crossing. The army further noted that the operation was coordinated with the U.N. and the World Health Organization, adding that local and international medical teams will administer the vaccinations in the coming days. Polio vaccines arrive in the Gaza Strip. Credit: Israel Defense Forces.

Rejection and engagement
Government sources said that while there’s no dispute regarding UNRWA’s ties to Hamas, the agency still plays an irreplaceable role in certain sectors within Gaza, particularly in education, where it has extensive infrastructure.

Consequently, UNRWA, which maintains detailed records of children in the Strip, was selected to oversee the vaccinations amid concerns of a polio outbreak. However, military sources indicate that UNRWA’s role in food distribution has diminished, though COGAT continues to engage with the organization. Unit sources report that collaboration with UNRWA has been scaled back following revelations of the organization’s staff involvement with Hamas.

Meanwhile, under the Israeli National Security Council’s oversight and approval, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is spearheading an online campaign aimed at exposing UNRWA’s true nature to the world.

An article published in the respected tech magazine Wired detailed how the Israeli campaign seeks to unmask the agency and highlight its employees’ involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks. The piece also suggested that the organization serves as a civilian front for Hamas.


'We feel alone': Jews wonder if they have a future at McGill University
In 1926, McGill University imposed a ban on Jewish students. Like other elite colleges at the time – including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of Toronto – the school viewed with suspicion the increasingly Jewish inflection of its student body. Raising the admission standards for Jewish applicants, McGill succeeded in dropping enrolment levels of Jews.

Nearly a hundred years later, McGill students and professors now fear the administration’s indifference to antisemitism on campus is having the same effect, quietly pushing Jewish students off campus. Many say that antisemitism is implicitly tolerated despite university leaders touting the school’s diversity and inclusion.

“McGill always had some antisemitism. Always. It has a long history of it, and it’s always been there,” Dr. Gerald Batist, a professor and former chair of its oncology department, told National Post. “I’ve been shocked at two things. One, is the level of antisemitism. But, number two, is the total abandonment by all of my progressive colleagues and friends; erstwhile close friends.”

The university campus became the scene of escalating demonstrations after the Hamas invasion of Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. In early November, a coalition of anti-Israel groups organized a “Day of Shutdown” coinciding with the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Hitler Youth and S.S. forces rampaged across Germany, torching Jewish businesses and synagogues. Kristallnacht is also known as the “Night of Broken Glass,” and the event poster featured demonstrators shattering glass windows.

“We witnessed troubling situations last year that impacted students, faculty, and staff on our city’s campuses. Among these was the deeply concerning encampment at McGill, which raised serious concerns within the Jewish campus community about their safety and well-being,” Federation CJA, which oversees the campus group Hillel, said in a statement. “Universities have a responsibility to ensure all students feel safe on campus.”

Law student Jamie Fabian remembers those early days of campus life post-October 7 with intense anxiety. Although he’d been politically involved earlier in life, and was one of the youngest-ever school commissioners in Quebec, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor said that debates about the Middle East were never front of mind for him. The militancy of anti-Israel activism, however, changed that, he said.

“I was very close to having mental breakdowns,” he told National Post. “When I saw the Kristallnacht protest – the advertisement for it – I was very depressed after and I was not even going to bother going to class.”
NY imam calls to ‘take out’ pro-Israel professor at Columbia
An imam based in the city of Utica in upstate New York on Aug. 20 called on students to “take out” pro-Israel Columbia University business school professor Shai Davidai.

“If you’re able to take out somebody like that and make an example, that might shut up a hundred more,” Imam Tom Facchine said during the webinar titled “Islamic Political Activism” hosted by the Columbia University branch of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Instagram removed the video and permanently banned it from its platform, Columbia’s SJP said, according to The College Fix, which covers higher education and campus news.

Davidai posted the segment to his X account.

“That Shai Davidai guy: How do we get him in trouble? How do we create a situation in which he’s in jeopardy,” Facchine said.

Facchine, 35, was born in New Jersey and educated at Vasser College. He quit Christianity and became an atheist, and then a Marxist, before settling on Islam in 2010, when he converted, according to the New York Post.

The university launched a probe of Facchine’s comments with outside security experts, who concluded that his rhetoric “did not create conditions that require enhanced security measures,” the school’s vice president of public safety Gerald Lewis told Davidai, the Post reported.

“I will not be silenced—I know I’m speaking the truth. It feels like they put a target on my back with the explicit goal to take me down, to get me fired, to make up complaints about me,” Davidai told the paper.
Poll: Most U.S. College Students Reject Disrupting Campus to Protest Israel
Most American college students reject their classmates' flagrant rule breaking and extreme tactics to protest Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, according to a new survey conducted by North Dakota State University's Institute for Global Innovation and Growth.

59% of 2,159 respondents, drawn from 466 colleges and universities, said students do not have a right to occupy administrative buildings.

80% disagreed that it is appropriate to "shout down" speakers whose opinions about the war are contrary to theirs.

73% said they would not disrupt classes to protest, and only 13% have participated in campus demonstrations related to the conflict.
Jewish man 'discriminated' against by Officeworks manager faces down giant's legal team
Officeworks has hired a top legal firm to respond to claims one of its managers discriminated against a Jewish man by refusing him service.

The pro-Palestine worker in Elsternwick, east Melbourne, was filmed on March 4 refusing to laminate an article from the Australian Jewish News.

The customer, who was wearing a yarmulke at the time of the incident, was seeking to laminate a piece titled, 'The indomitable spirit of our people'.

Famous religious leader Rabbi Daniel Rabbin wrote the article, which featured a photo of a group holding Australian and Israeli flags.

The female manager told the man she would not laminate the piece because she was 'pro-Palestine' and 'uncomfortable' with its contents.

It's understood she is refusing to offer the Jewish man a personal apology, the Herald Sun reported on Sunday, further intensifying the mediation process.

Despite calls for the worker to be fired, her employment was not terminated.

Instead, the manager was relocated to another Officeworks store.

In the absence an agreement between the office supplies giant and Jewish man, Officeworks has hired lawyers from Herbert Smith Freehills - a renowned international firm.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal is arranging a hearing date.

The Jewish man believed if the worker regretted her actions, she would have already apologised by now.

'It's seems that by Officeworks continuing to employ the individual, despite her having at least two anti-Semitic incidents within the span of only a few months, that Officeworks condones this kind of unlawful behaviour,' he said.


Columbia University admits pro-Israel ‘chemical attack’ was fart spray
An activist identified on social media as "Layla" who claimed to have been sprayed in the incident said Friday that the university was lying about the incident, assuring that the New York Police Department told her that “law enforcement grade chemicals" had been utilized.

The activist had claimed after the incident that Skunk, an Israeli anti-riot spray, had been used on Pro-Palestinian students. In February, she said she was "still dealing with symptoms, I feel sick all the time" and that "15 students had to go to the hospital."

In April the pro-Israel student who had been suspended for the foul incident filed a lawsuit against the university for disparate and harsh treatment.

So-called "chemical warfare"
The filing claimed that the student had sprayed "novelty, non-toxic ‘fart’ spray named ‘Liquid Ass’ and ‘Wet Farts' into the air at the anti-Israel protest.

The lawsuit challenged claims that students were harmed, arguing there was no medical evaluation evidence.

In the months following the incident, anti-Israel activists had frequently referred to the incident and supposed “chemical warfare” attack in online protest advertisements and activist materials.
Why Can't the Media Cover Israel and Antisemitism Fairly?
Western media hostility toward Israel is hardly new. Coverage of the ongoing fighting between Israel and the Iranian regime's patrons, Hamas, Hizbullah, and Houthi group Allah Ansar, as in previous conflicts, features rampant bias.

Two days after Oct. 7, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt accused mainstream media of being complicit in a world that allowed the "dehumanization of Israelis and sanitized the terrorism of Hamas."

When citing Palestinian casualty figures, outlets like the Associated Press accept Palestinian casualty numbers from the "Gaza Health Ministry," which editors know very well means Hamas.

In stark contrast, when sources from the Israel Defense Forces provide figures of enemy casualties, disclaimers that no evidence accompanied the data are often added.

Jews in the U.S. have endured hundreds of Charlottesvilles on American city streets and university campuses since the Hamas attack.

In numerous instances, demonstrators have physically assaulted Jews.


Rowers take gold, bronze as Israel continues to rack up Paralympic medals
Israeli rowers took home gold and bronze medals in the water on Sunday at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, providing a glimmer of joy for the Jewish state amid a notably difficult day.

Moran Samuel clinched the gold medal in the women’s single sculls, after winning a bronze medal in Rio 2016 and silver at Tokyo 2020, while rowing duo Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin won bronze in the mixed double sculls in their Paralympic debut.

“This whole year has been happiness mixed with sadness, and we started today” with terrible news, she said in an interview with Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster, referencing news of the deaths of six hostages in Gaza whose bodies were recovered overnight and three police officers in a West Bank shooting attack on Sunday.

“This morning when I got here, I told myself, ‘Moran, this is due to, this is because of and this is despite'” the difficult situation facing Israel at home, she said. “It’s a privilege to be here in this bubble at the Paralympic Games, and to finish with a gold medal — and to be able to scream the anthem from deep inside me is a moment I’ll never forget in my life.”

Samuel said that when she crossed the finish line, she burst into tears, “due to everything together, the excitement, and the news of the morning. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to sing the anthem… my heart is with everyone. I hope everyone comes home.”

The athlete, who was a promising basketball player in her youth, suffered a spinal stroke at age 24 that left her in a wheelchair. She first began training in wheelchair basketball before switching to para-rowing due to the lack of a high-level women’s team in Israel.

“There was a moment in my life where I thought my life was over,” Samuel said of her injury and recovery. “And I had to make that switch from ‘my life was over’ to ‘the life that I knew until then was over,’ and there are a lot of people who have to make that switch and it’s not easy.”
Israeli swimmer Ami Dadaon wins silver in 150m individual medley at Paris Paralympics
Israeli swimmer Ami Dadaon wins a silver medal in the men’s 150m individual medley in the SM4 disability category at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, his second medal in Paris so far.

The 23-year-old swimmer won gold in the men’s 100m freestyle on Friday. Dadaon, who was born with cerebral palsy and began swimming as a child as part of his physiotherapy, came home with three medals from the Tokyo Games three years ago — gold in the 50m freestyle, silver in the 150m individual medley, and gold in the 200m freestyle.

Dadaon has additional chances at further medals later in the week, when he swims in the 200m freestyle and the 50m freestyle.

His win marks Israel’s third medal today, after rower Moran Samuel won gold in the women’s singles and duo Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin won bronze in the mixed double sculls. So far, Israel has won six medals at the Paris Paralympics, including a gold in taekwondo.
'A Brilliant Life': An inspirational story of Holocaust survival - review
In A Brilliant Life, Rachelle Unreich approaches writing about the life of her dying mother, Mira Blumenstock, as if it were a mystery to be solved. Unreich, the grateful, untraumatized, and adoring daughter of a Holocaust survivor, uses her gifts as an empathetic, facts-driven journalist to tell the most important story of her life.

On a visit to Los Angeles at age 23, she found herself in a room with other adult children of Holocaust survivors, hearing heartbreaking stories of children brought up by traumatized parents. That was when she first became aware of a stark contrast with her own childhood.

“They all seemed to speak of parents who were too scared to let them ride bicycles, who hoarded food, who looked sad, at best, and panicked, at worst, for most of the time. These parents talked about the Holocaust constantly, or not at all, keeping their secrets in a vault while everyone around them banished decades of history from conversation.”

These experiences were so different from Unreich’s childhood. A native of Melbourne, Australia, she recalls that as a teenager, her friends often commented on her mother’s sunny demeanor. Uncovering her mother’s unpretentious yet extremely happy childhood – until the 1939 Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia – “was like finding the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that finally fit,” Unreich writes about realizing that her mother had been brought up in a house full of song and joy and emotional security. Mira was 12 when the Nazis invaded, and her happy memories became overshadowed by a new grim reality. Jews were not welcome. They were singled out for persecution – losing their jobs, their livelihoods, and their non-Jewish friends.

Mira spent the final eight months of World War II as a prisoner in four concentration camps. She experienced severe exhaustion, malnutrition, physical and emotional abuse, and the notorious Death March – surviving, as her daughter is amazed to note, with her faith in God and in the overall goodness of people still intact.

Unreich was familiar with the interviews that her mother had given to the USC Shoah Foundation, the organization founded by filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and to a similar video project for Holocaust survivors in Melbourne. The daughter went further, meticulously matching precious family photographs of the murdered Blumenstocks and pressing Mira to bring them back to life: a great-grandmother, grandparents, an aunt and uncle, a sister and brother – characters who, in the book, jump off the page.




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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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