Tuesday, September 03, 2024

09/03 Links Pt1: The deaths of these hostages shame the Western conscience; Hamas's Inhumanity Is Laid Bare Once Again; Hersh Goldberg-Polin and ‘The Hope’

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: The deaths of these hostages shame the Western conscience
Now this is resistance. Unprepared, unarmed, these six young people did what they could to resist the anti-Semitic savagery of the invading army from Gaza. They repelled its grenades, rescued some of its intended targets, tended to the victims of its racist sadism. They didn’t ask for war, they didn’t expect war, they didn’t deserve war. But when it came, brutishly intruding on their kibbutzim and parties, they took action that helped to minimise the Jewish people’s suffering. It is a testament to Western radicals’ swirling moral disarray and their detachment from civilisational values that they referred to the racist invaders of Israel as the ‘resistance’, and the Jewish heroes who fought back as ‘colonisers’.

But this goes beyond foolish ‘left’ apologism for Hamas. It goes beyond excuse-making for terror. There is a case to be made that the self-styled progressive conscience of the West has not been complacent in the face of Hamas’s barbarism, but complicit. Many in the West played an active role in justifying the kidnapping of people like Goldberg-Polin, Lobanov, Gat, Sarusi, Yerushalmi and Danino. They actively bolstered the kidnappers’ claims to be resistance fighters, and they actively prevented the raising of awareness of the kidnap victims, particularly through the destruction of posters featuring their faces. They were more than bystanders to a pogrom – they were unpaid PR men for the pogromists.

Consider the feral mobs of anti-Semites that clawed kidnap posters off public buildings and lampposts. The six dead of Rafah will have been on some of those posters. Indeed, in April, in Melbourne, Australia, a huge ‘Bring Them Home’ mural featuring the face of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, among others, was graffitied by anti-Israel agitators. They daubed ‘FREE PALESTINE’ in massive letters over his face and the faces of the other stolen Jews.

This rash, racist allergy to any awareness-raising of the Israeli hostages was pure spin for Hamas. In destroying the posters, or daubing them with shit, or scribbling ‘coloniser’ on them, Western Israelophobes were slavishly amplifying Hamas’s insistence that these people are not innocent. That they deserve persecution. That you absolutely should not sympathise with, and in fact you should hate, the likes of those six young men and women who were held and brutalised and murdered in Rafah. That people in the West, in virtually every major city, assisted in Hamas’s dehumanisation of the Jews in its captivity should chill us to the bone.

Or consider the frenzied ‘radical’ hostility to any effort by Israel to rescue its seized citizens. It is just three months since the social-media craze of ‘All Eyes on Rafah’. Nearly 50million people, including celebs, shared that slogan on Instagram, the aim being to condemn Israel for even thinking about sending troops into Rafah. We now know that that is where the six hostages, and others, were being held in rank, repulsive conditions. We now know Hamas was using Rafah as a base for attacking Israel. ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ was no progressive cry – it was an act of woke appeasement. ‘Leave Rafah to Hamas’, was the sick undertone of this reckless trend. Not content with defiling images of the six young Israelis interned in Rafah, the virtuous of the West then raged against military action that might have led to their rescue. They made themselves the defenders of Hamas’s wicked dominion over Rafah.

Kamala Harris has questions to answer here. She’s issued a welcome, angry statement on the slaughter of the six hostages, describing it as ‘an outrage’. And yet for months she sternly instructed Israel not to launch a ‘major military operation’ in Rafah. There will be ‘consequences’, she warned. It is now known that in Rafah, an American citizen was being held captive. Now killed. Is this the first time in history an American leader warned of ‘consequences’ over the rescue of an American rather than over the kidnap of an American? As National Review summarises it, ‘Kamala Harris warned Israel of “consequences” if it invaded Rafah, where Hamas just murdered an American hostage’.

Here’s the only question that matters right now: are Jewish lives worth fighting for? Some of us think they are. Others, from the top of politics to the frenzied anti-Semites on the streets, seem to think otherwise. It is tempting to see the West’s moral disorder over Israel-Hamas as a consequence of that old problem, ‘the sleep of reason’, the sleep of our conscience. But in truth, the West’s conscience has been wide awake, and excitable, and noisy, and it has sided not with kidnapped Jews, but with their kidnappers. Let us hope the memory of the six slain will be a blessing – and let us hope their deaths will be a lesson for a West that seems utterly morally lost.
Hamas's Inhumanity Is Laid Bare Once Again
The international narrative continues to be overwhelmingly anti-Israel, even as IDF special forces extricate the bodies of innocent Israeli hostages dragged from their homes on Oct. 7.

They were kept in tunnels for months on end, tortured and starved, only to be killed as help arrived.

The sheer mercilessness of their captors does not appear to exercise the same people around the world so eager to join pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Where are the mass protests against the inhumanity of Hamas?

Hamas is happy to sacrifice as many Palestinians as it can to turn international opinion.

That it has partly succeeded in doing so is a blot on the people unable to make a moral distinction between those who perpetrated this violence and those responding to it.
Bassam Tawil: Israel: Ceasefire Deal Will Prevent Hostages from Coming Home, Anti-Government Protests Only Embolden Hamas
Hamas leaders, who are closely observing the protests, are likely to harden their stance in the hope that the Israeli government will give in to the demonstrators' demands, including an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has the Israeli public pressuring their government to allow Hamas to "live to fight another day": to rearm, regroup and continue attacking Israelis – as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowed.

Hamas leaders are banking on the Biden administration to compel the Israeli government to give in to the terror group's demands.... It has long been the dream of Hamas and many Palestinians to see the US turn its back on Israel.

Hamas's primary goal is to remain in power and return to the pre-October 7 era, when it built a large terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hamas knows it will not be able to accomplish its aims without a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an official end of the war.

That is why Hamas is insisting that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel's presence there obstructs Hamas's efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels, as it has been doing for the past two decades.

Hamas is reportedly demanding US and international guarantees that Israel will not target the terror group anytime in the future. Until then, Hamas will continue to hold on to many of the hostages as an "insurance policy."

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 atrocities, will not release all the hostages at once. He will continue to physically surround himself with many of them to ensure that Israel does not kill him. Sinwar does not care how many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip perish, as long as he is permitted to stay alive.

Even if Hamas were to initially release 10 or 20 hostages as part of any agreement, who could ensure that the remaining captives would be released? Are we supposed to take Hamas's word for it? Are we supposed to believe that the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris would be able to force Hamas to comply with the terms of any agreement?


Einat Wilf: Only one moral end: Hamas surrenders, releases all hostages unconditionally
Our enemy is dedicated, by all means necessary, to teaching a final lesson to those Jews who dared imagine themselves equal, sovereign, and masters of their fate in their own state on their ancestral land. We are up against an enemy that not only invaded our country and our homes to gleefully murder and mutilate the most peace-loving people in their beds, but went on to kidnap hundreds of them to ensure they face no consequences for what they did on Oct. 7.

Buoyed by global pressure to provide it with ongoing supplies even as it conducts a total war, Hamas remains in firm control of Gaza and its people. It has secured a position as a legitimate negotiating partner. At the same time, all the pressure is placed on Israel to yield to its demands - with no consequences for its actions.

There is only one moral position for any government or international organization to pursue: unconditional release of the hostages and unconditional surrender of Hamas. Until then, the war should be waged with no illusions about the enemy we face.


Bari Weiss: Dark Tunnels and Moral Beacons
Six innocent Israelis were murdered by Hamas terrorists who stole them nearly a year ago. The chaos Hamas ushered in on Oct. 7 with the mass rape, abduction, torture, and slaughter that marked the start of Iran's multifront war against Israel exposed a moral confusion in the West.

We read headlines describing these six Israelis as having "died" in Gaza. We are told that those defending their murderous captors "have a point." The foundational principle of our civilization is that every human life has dignity. It is this very principle that Hamas and its barbaric ilk are trying to turn on its head.

Many will rightly point out that Americans should be especially outraged because one of those murdered, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was an American citizen. But it's not just that one of Iran's terror proxies murdered an American citizen. It's that he and all of those murdered by Hamas are on the front lines of a wider war that America is already part of - whether we like it or not.

In other words: This is not only about Israel. It is about the reality that those who burn Israeli flags burn them alongside American ones. Hersh, and those executed beside him, were killed by Iran, a country now in league with China and Russia, that calls for death to America in the same breath it calls for the destruction of Israel.

Statements of sorrow from the leaders of the Free World are insufficient. The message to terrorists and those who support them should be that the defenders of civilization will defeat them. No matter the cost.
Matti Friedman: Among the Mourners of Zion and Jerusalem
Here in Israel, we’ve had to learn a lot since this war began. We learned that we’d be forced to navigate the most fraught moment in our history with a government that is the most extreme and least competent ever to lead this country—a dangerous lack of faith that erupted after today’s news in the form of many tens of thousands of protesters in the streets, furious at the failure to get our people home. We’ve learned that we’re nearly encircled by Iranian proxies. We’ve learned that the terrorist organization that seized Hersh—Hamas—in fact operates openly in the territory of two American allies, Turkey and Qatar. We’ve learned that Egypt, which has a border with Gaza and a peace agreement with Israel, has been allowing in the weapons that Hamas uses against us.

We’ve learned that Hamas is not universally shunned as a terror group, but actually enjoys broad support, including in the West, including among some of the most educated citizens. We’ve seen that much of the Western press is capable of turning a story about a war launched by Muslim fundamentalists into a story about the injustice of the Israeli response, and indeed about the injustice of our country’s existence. Some reports on these murdered civilians said they merely “had died,” or “were found dead,” and the tenor of coverage seemed notably less outraged than it was at the assassination in July of the leader of Hamas.

Hersh was an American citizen, born in California—and in California and elsewhere, we learned that other Americans would tear down his poster and those with the faces of other Israeli hostages. We’ve seen the support of the American administration wane as the war wears on, including an explicit demand by the White House to stay out of the southern Gaza city of Rafah—the city where Hersh and the five other hostages were just found by our soldiers, but too late.

The events that have unfolded since the day Hersh disappeared are bewildering. But today, here in his neighborhood in Jerusalem, for a moment they regained a kind of terrible simplicity, reduced to one beautiful human face.

This morning it felt like an invisible blanket had settled on the streets. It’s the first day of class, always a happy occasion. But outside the local elementary school, many of the other parents I saw had red eyes and couldn’t speak. Around here, even little kids know Hersh, and the grown-ups had just been trying to explain why nothing anyone did was enough to bring him back.
Seth Mandel: Hersh Goldberg-Polin and ‘The Hope’
Were we wrong to hope?

It’s a question that is going through many pained minds right now as the Jewish world grieves for the six hostages executed by barbarians in the bowels of Hamas’s dungeon colony.

One of those hostages in particular became a symbol of optimism in a dark time. The last few times we’ve seen or heard about Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the American-Israeli captive taken on October 7 along with more than 200 others, they have been moments of hope. In late April, Hamas released a propaganda video of Hersh that was evil in its intent and no doubt torturous for Hersh to record, but it told us, and his parents, that he was alive.

In August, his indefatigable parents, Rachel and Jon, gave a moving primetime speech at the Democratic National Convention a month after the parents of another hostage did the same at the Republican National Convention. The show of support for their son, and everything he represented about the hostages and their families since October, was a salve.

Hersh’s prominence had two implications for his own captivity. The first was that he was more valuable to Yahya Sinwar alive than dead. The second was the flipside of this coin: He would probably stay in captivity longer than most hostages. In this dichotomy he represented the Jewish people: Israel’s national anthem is “HaTikvah,” (The Hope), and one section of the song translates roughly as: “Our hope is not yet lost/ It is a two-thousand-year-old hope/ To be a free people in our land/ The land of Zion and Jerusalem.”

To me, those lines have always meant that we should not be discouraged by the fact that we’d been waiting 2,000 years, but rather that the extreme time span had actually strengthened the hope. Our hope is not lost—after all, it’s been 2,000 years; what’s a few more?

Hope is in our DNA. For 2,000 years it’s been passed down from generation to generation. We are born and bred to hope. And look—we made it, we fulfilled our longing by reestablishing sovereignty in our homeland.

In that sense, the question—were we wrong to hope for Hersh’s return?—is irrelevant. We can’t not hope.
‘Go now on your journey, sweet boy’: mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin speaks of her agony
Thousands lined the streets to pay their respects to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six murdered hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza at the weekend, as he was laid to rest in Jerusalem on Monday.

During his funeral, his parents and the Israeli president apologised for not being able to save the 23-year-old American Israeli hostage, who had become a symbol of hope during his nearly year-long Gaza captivity.

Born in America and raised in Israel, Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped from the Nova festival on October 7. He sheltered in a bus stop during the attack and part of his arm was blown off by a grenade.

Since his capture, Goldberg-Polin's parents have spoken to world leaders about their son. On Thursday, they stood at the Gaza border and addressed Hersh via a loudspeaker.

His body was found with those of the other five hostages in a Hamas tunnel two days ago.

As they eulogised their son, Goldberg-Polin's parents, sisters and friends broke down in tears.

Mother Rachel Goldberg-Polin said it had been a privilege to have Hersh as a son: “I have had a lot of time to think about my sweet boy Hersh over the past 332 days, and one thing I keep thinking about is how out of all the mothers in all the entire world, God chose to give Hersh to me.

“What must I have done in a past life to deserve such a beautiful gift?” she said.

“I want to thank God right now in front of all of you for giving me this magnificent present of my Hersh. For 23 years I was privileged to have the honour of being Hersh’s mama, thank you. I just wish it had been for longer.”

She said she had been in “torment and worry every single minute of every single day” since her son had been kidnapped. The pain, she said, “closed my throat and made my soul throb with third-degree burns”.

“Amidst the inexplicable agony, terror, anguish, desperation and fear, we became absolutely certain that you were coming home to us alive,” she said.

“Now I no longer have to worry about you, you are no longer in danger,”

She referred to her son’s best friend, Aner Shapira, who was killed on October 7 when he threw grenades out of the shelter to save those inside: “You are with beautiful Aner. I hope he will show you around. You will meet my grandparents who adore you.”


Ensure these are the last hostages kidnapped or killed by Hamas
By delaying necessary operations like the IDF’s entry into Rafah, by giving Hamas time to move the hostages or kill them as just happened, by sending so much aid directly into the hands of Hamas, US policy has prolonged the war by months and made a ceasefire deal much harder to reach.

Hamas does not feel that it is desperate and needs to stop the fighting at all costs. It feels that it is in a position of strength to dictate terms not only to Israel, but to the US, to the greatest superpower in human history.

Perhaps worst of all, this encouragement of Hamas instead of pressuring it because of short-term thinking about what is politically expedient or will end the fighting today will lead to the taking of more hostages in the future.

At the recent Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden said that the rabid anti-Israel protesters “have a point.” It is this mindset that ensures his statement that Hamas leaders will pay for their crimes will not be backed up with any action and that his policy will effectively be the opposite.

The anti-Israel protest movement loves to burn American flags. They love to praise the leaders of genocidal terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. They chant genocidal slogans like “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They target Jews, Jewish schools, and synagogues. The goal of Hamas supporters is the same as Hamas, the destruction of the vast majority of world Jewry and the collapse of Western civilization. They do not “have a point” because the only point they try to make is that Israel, the Jews, and the US are evil and need to be destroyed by any means necessary.

If Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau are serious about the statements they issued right after they learned of the execution of the six hostages, they will change focus and shift policy. Rather than pander to the antisemites of the world and the “death to America” crowd, rather than attempt to secure the vote of those who want to see America and Canada destroyed and the Jewish people annihilated, they would put real pressure on Hamas to surrender and support Israel’s efforts to destroy the terrorist organization. Rather than continue attempting to freeze the conflict so that it can start all over again in a few years, they would go back support ensuring that the atrocities of October 7 never happen again as they did so briefly in late 2023.

That would require real leadership, a moral backbone, and a willingness to stand up to evil. Biden in particular has lacked these qualities in 2024. But perhaps now that he no longer has to worry about running for reelection, he can do in the fall what he should have done in spring and summer, pressure Hamas and support Israel.

There are still over 100 hostages languishing in Gaza, including children as young as one. Make them the priority, not setting aid records or ending the fighting at all costs, and the fighting will end faster. Make defeating Hamas the priority, and the next massacre and war will be prevented instead of guaranteed.

Above all, make it the priority that these be the last hostages Hamas and those like it ever take and ever kill.
NYPost Editorial: Hamas vows to kill hostages at ‘risk’ of rescue, and Biden ups his pressure on Israel
Hamas has now basically admitted it killed those six hostages rather than risk their liberation — indeed, all but boasted of it.

Meanwhile, the Harris-Biden administration seems to be taking the tragedy as license to push Israel into a cease-fire deal that could let the terrorists re-supply.

Asked by a reporter Monday if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done enough to secure a hostage deal, Biden gave a flat “No” while claiming “we’re very close” to proposing another hostage deal this week, and “Hope springs eternal.”

Hamas refused to accept the last cease-fire offer, even as Netanyahu was signaling (some) willingness to bend on the crucial question of the Philadephi corridor: Who is to control the Gaza-Egyptian border during any ceasefire?

Cairo, it turns out, had let the area be riddled with smuggling tunnels on its watch, so Bibi is reluctant to let the IDF cede control even temporarily now — lest Hamas take the opportunity to re-arm and/or get its top leaders out of Dodge.

We doubt Biden or Kamala Harris is willing to send in US forces to do the job, so slamming Bibi as the prez did is tantamount to saying that Israel must give Hamas a lifeline to get the remaining hostages freed.

Maybe that’s what Israel should do, but Washington pushing Jerusalem to bend is pretty rank — especially when Biden’s motive is fundamentally selfish: He wants a ceasefire in place to cement his own legacy, and to boost Harris’ chances in November.

And this is after Harris-Biden pushed Israel to hold off on operations that could’ve freed hostages weeks or months ago.

Especially when Hamas now brags it’ll kill hostages rather than let them be rescued.

Israel faces its own divisions on these questions; an American leader determined to be a true ally wouldn’t be stirring the pot purely to serve his own domestic political aims.

But, plainly, that’s not how Biden or Harris rolls.


Youngkin orders Virginia flags at half-staff for Hersh Goldberg-Polin
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered flags at half-staff “in memory and honor of Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” the Republican’s office stated on Sunday.

A spokesman for the governor told JNS that the order applies to all flags in the state on Tuesday.

Virginia flags Hersh Goldberg-PolinVirginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered flags at half-staff on Sept. 3, 2024 to honor former Richmond resident Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Source: Virginia secretary of commonwealth.

“After 330 agonizing days since the brutal terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,200 dead and hundreds more held hostage, Johnathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg woke up to unimaginable news that no parent should ever receive,” Youngkin stated on Sunday.

“Suzanne and I are angered and heartbroken by the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a senseless murder at the hands of terrorists,” he added. “Today, Virginians, Americans, and the world join the Goldberg-Polin family and the Keneseth Beth Israel Synagogue in prayer.”

Beth Israel is an Orthodox synagogue in Richmond which traces its origins back to 1856, per its website. Goldberg-Polin lived in Richmond and had “strong” ties to the city, the governor said.
‘Stranger Things’ Star Brett Gelman, Scooter Braun, Cindy Crawford Among Hundreds at LA Gathering to Honor Israeli Hostages Murdered by Hamas
Hundreds of Americans gathered at Los Angeles’ Nova exhibit over the past 48-hours to pay their respects to six of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists last year and brutally murdered Sunday in Gaza.

Five of the six hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Eden Yerushalmi — were forcibly snatched from the Israeli music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Wrap reports Rabbi Joel Nickerson led the Sunday night memorial that featured Scooter Braun and Noa Tishby as guest speakers as attendees joined them to honor the deceased.

Cindy Crawford, Eve Barlow, WME agent Brad Slater and “Stranger Things” star Brett Gelman were among those in attendance.

“The six hostages were murdered by Hamas terrorists with several close-range gunshots,” Israeli health ministry spokesperson Shira Solomon told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday.
Gal Gadot: There are still more than 200 Israelis in Hamas captivity
Israel's most famous actress, Gal Gadot, asked to remind the world that even though 13 Israeli hostages were freed on Friday by Hamas, there are still more than 200 Israelis in captivity.

"Today is a beacon of light, of hope," Gadot wrote on Instagram. "There are still over 200 hostages being held captive by Hamas. All of the remaining hostages must come home safely and quickly. We are all waiting for them, sending love and strength."

Gadot, known as the lead actress in the Wonder Woman series, has been very vocal about her support for Israel since the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023.

The soldier-turned-actress was also one of a host of celebrities posting on social media to mourn those killed in the terror attacks on Israelis carried out by Hamas on October 7th.

Sharing her grief
Gadot shared her grief and outrage with her 109 million Instagram followers in an Instagram story and a post that included a news photo from BBC News and a screenshot of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s post about the events.

"At least 200 Israelis have been murdered and dozens of women, children and elders held as hostages in Gaza, by Hamas," wrote Gadot.

Later, she posted a white Star of David on a blue background with the words, “I stand with Israel,” an image that has been widely shared on social media.


Gwyneth Paltrow to hostage families: ‘I send you my heart’
American actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow on Monday sent a message of support to the families of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from southern Gaza over the weekend.

In a story on her official Instagram account, she wrote, “To the families of each hostage whose life was stolen, I have thought of you every day for 11 months, but today I send you my heart.”

Ever since Hamas’s horrific Oct. 7 attack, Paltrow has consistently used her platform to raise awareness about the hostages’ plight. In October, she joined other celebrities in calling for their immediate release, sharing the hashtag “#NoHostageLeftBehind” and signing an open letter to President Joe Biden on the matter.

In a separate Instagram story, she highlighted the ongoing plight of female hostages, asking, “There are still 17 women being held by Hamas. Where are the feminists?” She accompanied this message with the hashtag “#rapeisnotresistance,” drawing attention to the reports of sexual violence against the hostages and raising awareness of victim Shani Louk’s story.


Palestinian Hostage-Taking: The Biggest Violation of International Law and Morality This Century
The 250 hostages taken from Israel by Palestinians from Gaza on Oct. 7, in operations which included mass murder and rape, and involved extreme violence towards and humiliation of those kidnapped, included old people, sick people, women and children.

Contrary to all law, they were denied any rights as prisoners. They were often held without light, sanitation, and without enough food. Those who were Jews were treated even worse than those who were not.

Some were beaten, some molested. Some died of wounds or illness. Some were killed in captivity. Eleven months later, all this is still going on.

It must be the biggest continuous, organized non-state violation of international law and morality this century.

Strange how muted are the protests of Western governments and international organizations against these atrocities.
My 55 Days as a Hamas Hostage
Amit Soussana, 40, a lawyer, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7 and returned to Israel as part of November's hostage swap. She tells the story of her captivity.

As four men grabbed me to bring me to Gaza, I fought them. One punched me in the eye, split my lip, severely beat me up, lifted my shirt, touched my breast, and choked me constantly. I kept on fighting them, the fight of my life. They got really mad, handcuffed me, tied my legs, and started dragging me on the ground, face down at first.

In Gaza, one of the guards, Mohammad, came to me early in the morning and told me to shower. Then suddenly I saw him standing in the shower with the gun. He touched me; I didn't let him. I just closed my legs, tensed all my muscles, thinking, "This son of a bitch won't get what he wants." He touched my chest and kept hitting me because I wouldn't give in. Then he took me to the children's room. There I was, while he was doing what he was doing. I, who had never experienced anything like this in my life.

One day, one of the terrorists put a shirt over my head, bound me with iron handcuffs behind my back and made me kneel on the floor. He began hitting me on the head with a gun. Then other terrorists moved two armchairs, brought two sticks, and simply hung me upside down between the armchairs. I had masking tape over my face. They hit me for about 45 minutes. One with a wooden stick and the others with their hands and guns.
Meet the Seven American Hostages Still Held By Hamas
The American families whose sons, fathers, husbands, and mother have been held hostage by Hamas since the October 7 terrorist attack wear silver dog tags engraved with their one and only wish in two languages. The English inscription pleads, “Bring them home;” the Hebrew inscription reads, “My heart is in Gaza.”

Meet the seven American hostages. Whether raised in Israel or spending a gap year before college — their lives were interrupted – and in some tragic cases, lost – when thousands of Hamas terrorists breached the border between Israel and Gaza intent on terrifying and destroying the Jewish state.

1. Edan Alexander
Edan AlexanderEdan Alexander’s sister Mika describes him as her best friend. Growing up in Tenafly, New Jersey, whenever any of their favorite artists put out a new album, Edan would grab the car keys and take his sister for a drive so they could analyze every song.

A happy-go-lucky guy, a champion swimmer for his high school team, and a big fan of the New York Knicks, Edan spent most of his young life in Tenafly. But he was born in Israel just a few months before his parents moved to the U.S. He spoke Hebrew at home and visited Israel often to see both sets of grandparents. He even celebrated his bar mitzvah there.

His mother, Yael, was surprised when Edan announced his senior year in high school that he wanted to postpone college and try Garin Tzabar, a program founded in 1991 for young Jewish adults who want to explore serving as lone soldiers in Israel’s Defense Forces.

Edan and 16 other American high school graduates, including a classmate in Tenafly, moved to a kibbutz and did four months of training before committing to serve in the IDF. He returned for a visit home in August and expected to return again in April for his brother Roy’s bar mitzvah.

He was on patrol at a kibbutz on the morning of October 7 and called his mother after the Hamas attacks began.

“I told him at the end of the call: ‘Listen to me, Edan. I'm here. I'm with you. I love you. Just protect yourself. Just be safe,’” Yael recalled on AJC’s podcast, People of the Pod. “And that's it, we hang up. I didn't know I'm not gonna hear from him again.”

2. Itay Chen Z”L
Itay ChenItay Chen, 19, is the youngest American hostage in Hamas captivity. After months of holding out hope that their son would return, Chen’s parents, Ruby and Hagit Chen, learned that he died on October 7 defending civilians living in an agricultural area near the Gaza border. His body is still being held by Hamas.

Born in the U.S., Itay grew up in Israel, in the city of Netanya, just north of Tel Aviv, but the family frequently visited his father’s hometown of New York. He was a Boy Scout who played basketball and, like many teenagers, loved his PlayStation.

The fun-loving middle child, he was also the “life of the party” and the “connector” of their family, his father said. The only reason he was on duty that day was because he had switched weekends with another soldier so he could attend his brother’s Bar Mitzvah the following week.


Seth Mandel: The West’s Crass Response to the Hostage Executions
Today’s announcement that a few dozen export licenses to Israel will be suspended will not be the death of Israel but the timing represents a shockingly crass bit of anti-diplomacy from an increasingly amateurish and morally bankrupt gang of politicians who must be the source of endless laughs in Beijing and Moscow and Tehran—the latter of whom is a direct beneficiary of Starmer and Lammy’s new Israel policy.

As was the case after October 7, it is important to watch how people respond to recent events. President Biden’s response wasn’t terribly encouraging either. He chose today to call out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not giving in to every new Hamas demand that crops up months after Netanyahu already agreed to the ceasefire deal. The president’s stompy behavior is a signal to Hamas to keep upping the ante, which will make a deal more difficult to reach, because American policy is apparently geared more toward the collapse of the Israeli government than the collapse of Hamas.

But Biden’s terse statement was more than we got out of Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran from the press today with headphones on.

Here’s a question for this class of Western leaders: Have they done anything since Saturday that would encourage Hamas to change its behavior? The answer is pretty clearly no. Have they done anything that would encourage Hamas to keep doing exactly what it is doing? The answer is pretty clearly yes.

The Biden-Harris-Starmer-Lammy squad is approaching a terrifying level of unseriousness at best and depravity at worst. Israelis may be the ones paying the price at the moment, but everyone—friend and foe alike—is watching this farce and planning accordingly.
Brendan O'Neill: David Lammy’s shameful appeasement of Hamas
What’s driving the creeping desertion of Israel? We know it’s not an outbreak of hippyish peacenik conscience among government officials. After all, Britain will still hawk arms round the world, including to truly tyrannical regimes. Last year it was reported that UK arms sales had reached a record annual high of £8.5 billion, and that 54 per cent of the arms went to nations categorised as ‘not free’ by Freedom House. They included Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Yes, Qatar, the state that happily hosts the leaders of Hamas. So Britain is trimming arms sales to the Jewish nation while selling billions of pounds’ worth of lethal hardware to the repressive regime in which Hamas’s mass murderers of Jews live in obscene luxury. And our old war heroes turn in their graves.

It seems to me that our government, horrendously, has elevated virtue-signalling over the truly virtuous task of standing by an ally that is under assault by an army of racist terrorists. Lammy and the rest seem more keen on placating Israelophobic elements here at home – in Labour, on the left, in Islamist circles – than they are in backing a friend that was attacked by an enemy not only of Israel and the Jews but also of civilisation itself. It’s a species of appeasement. We might call it Islamo-appeasement. The adoption of a tougher stance against the world’s prime victim of Islamist violence – Israel – in an effort to pacify the noisy haters of Israel in both dinner-party circles and dangerous circles in the UK itself. It is suicidally short-termist. If the Foreign Office cannot see that it is directly and wholly in Britain’s interests to support the fight against radical Islamists who hate us too, then it is even more morally lost than I thought.

Preventing the export of some military parts to Israel won’t have much consequence, people say. They are beyond wrong. The consequences of Lammy’s announcement will be vast and dire. It will communicate to our allies that we might well abandon them in their hour of need. It will reduce Britain to an unreliable partner in global affairs. And it will embolden the sworn foes of Israel. Hamas will be thrilled by what the Foreign Office has done. It will giddily cite it as Western approval for the Hamas lie that Israel’s war in Gaza is a criminal enterprise. Hamas’s sponsors in Iran will be thrilled, too. Finally, the theocrats will crow, the Western alliance is fraying and the screws on the Jewish State are tightening. And they won’t be wrong.

This partial embargo is bad for us all. For it suggests that Britain under Labour has no appreciation of what’s at stake in the Israel-Hamas War. No understanding of the mortal threat to Jewish life and civilisational values posed by a hateful army like Hamas. No sensitivity to the menace posed by Islamism to the entire Western world and the Enlightenment values we once held dear. This government of cowards and charlatans has just put a smile on the faces of Islamofascists everywhere. For shame.
Netanyahu says ‘shameful’ UK arms embargo strengthens Hamas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called the British government’s partial suspension of arms sales to Israel a “shameful decision” that won’t stop the Jewish state’s determination to defeat Hamas.

“Days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, the UK government suspended thirty arms licenses to Israel,” the premier posted on X.

“This shameful decision will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that savagely murdered 1,200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens,” he continued.

“Hamas is still holding over 100 hostages, including 5 British citizens. Instead of standing with Israel, a fellow democracy defending itself against barbarism, Britain’s misguided decision will only embolden Hamas,” wrote Netanyahu.

“Israel is pursuing a just war with just means, taking unprecedented measures to keep civilians out of harm’s way and comporting fully with international law. Just as Britain’s heroic stand against the Nazis is seen today as having been vital in defending our common civilization, so too will history judge Israel’s stand against Hamas and Iran’s axis of terror.”

Netanyahu concluded: “With or without British arms, Israel will win this war and secure our common future.”


Jake Wallis Simons: Suspension of Military Aid to Israel Is an Embarrassing Mistake
Over the last three years, Britain sold 3.1 billion pounds worth of weapons to Qatar, the world's foremost sponsor of Sunni jihadism and the principal benefactor of Hamas. It sold 1.9 billion pounds worth to Saudi Arabia, which has been engaged in a bloody war in Yemen that has not been fought entirely according to democratic norms. Turkey, which has crushed the Kurds once again with less concern for human rights than one might hope, received 799 million pounds in British arms.

By contrast, Israel, the Middle East's sole democracy and the only power to respect the rights of women and minorities, which is locked in an existential struggle against the forces of jihadism that menace us all, bought 83 million pounds of British arms, 1% of its total weapons purchases.

Yet it is the Jewish state that attracted the criticism of Foreign Secretary David Lammy amid misinformation that it has been prosecuting the war in Gaza to excess. In fact, Israel has been fighting a cleaner war in Gaza than has ever been waged anywhere in the world.

Arguably, the Israeli-British security partnership has benefited us more. Britain's Watchkeeper surveillance UAVs, based on Israel's Hermes 450 drone, have saved countless British lives in Afghanistan. British troops have trained with Israel's cutting-edge Rhino mobile command and control center. In 2015, Israeli intelligence helped the Metropolitan police discover a bomb factory in northwest London, complete with three tons of ammonium nitrate. This suspension of 30 arms export licenses will surely prove an ill-judged blip, to be rectified when wiser heads prevail.


Hamas Documents Show Tunnel Battle Strategy
Hamas's handbook for underground combat describes, in meticulous detail, how to navigate in darkness, move stealthily beneath Gaza, and fire automatic weapons in confined spaces for maximum lethality.

Israeli officials spent years searching for and dismantling tunnels that Hamas could use to sneak into Israel to launch an attack. But assessing the underground network inside Gaza was not a priority, a senior Israeli official said, because an invasion and full-scale war there seemed unlikely. All the while, Hamas was girding for just such a confrontation. Were it not for the tunnels, experts say, Hamas would have stood little chance against the far superior Israeli military.

Hamas prepared for subterranean battles that have not materialized. Hamas has primarily ambushed soldiers near tunnel entrances, using the tunnels to launch aboveground hit-and-run attacks, hide from Israeli forces, and detonate explosives using remote triggers and hidden cameras. While these maneuvers have slowed Israel's assault, its military has still decimated Hamas's ranks, routed them from strongholds, and forced them to abandon huge swaths of the tunnel network in which they invested so heavily.
Seth Frantzman: Hamas is demanding the Philadelphi Corridor for a reason
Hamas knows that an internal debate exists in Israel about holding on to the Philadelphi corridor. It exploits this and uses language that is designed to sow internal discord. For instance, it accuses Israel’s leadership of seeing the corridor as “more important than Israeli captives.” The fact is that it is Hamas that sees this area as more important. It is Hamas that took hostages. It is Hamas that used the border area to become stronger and launch a genocidal attack on Israel. It is Hamas that murdered the hostages.

In Israel, the debate is whether having military units on the corridor route is essential. Some think Israel can return to the area. Others think that monitoring can be done remotely. History shows that generally, this is not the case. After 2005, there was also supposed to be a mechanism to monitor the border. The EU was supposed to have a role. Hamas was able to seize control in 2007 and clamp down on any monitoring. Once Israel left Gaza in 2005, it didn’t want to come back. This is how things have worked in the past, and it’s likely this would be how things happen in the future.

Hamas is arguing that Israel’s demands to control the corridor are new. The fact is that Hamas worked hard to prevent an Israeli operation in Rafah. Back in February and March, it used contacts, likely via Doha, to spread stories about how it needed Israel to pause fighting over Ramadan. Then in March and April, it sought to prevent an operation in Rafah by claiming civilians could not evacuate Rafah.

The US pushed for a maritime humanitarian corridor. Once Hamas had stalled long enough it attacked IDF soldiers in Kerem Shalom. The IDF began the operation in Rafah in early May, having left Khan Younis in April.

This enabled Hamas to shift its forces from Rafah to Khan Younis. Hamas basically already played for time to prevent a Rafah operation. It gained some six months in this respect. Then Hamas demanded that any talks in Doha or Cairo meant that it could keep the corridor. It made sure to cement this in talks that took place up through July. Then Hamas claimed to have accepted this proposal, and claimed Israel was now putting Philadelphi into the mix. However, it is Hamas that has always exploited this area and it is clear from the start that Hamas has wanted to hold onto southern Gaza.

Hamas is now spreading propaganda via media in Iran and Doha that is designed to make it seem that it is Israel that is being stubborn on the issue of the border with Egypt. But the reality is that this is Hamas policy. Hamas insists on control of an area in Gaza that its forces lost control of. The Rafah brigade of Hamas has been defeated. It now wants Israel to return this area for free to Hamas without the State receiving anything.

It then wants Israel to pay for this ground twice if Israel has to return to stop smuggling. This shows the arrogance and privilege of Hamas and its interlocutors who reside in Doha. The Hamas officials in Doha are being told to insist on control of Philadelphi. The IRNA report makes this clear in a roundabout way. It says, “Netanyahu is also facing mounting criticism from Israeli officials and the public over his refusal to accept a truce deal.

He has recently set a new condition for a deal, saying that Israel should maintain its control of Philadelphi corridor, which is a 14-kilometer area along the Gaza-Egypt border.” The reality is that this is Hamas policy to insist on the corridor.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with his Bulgarian counterpart, Ivan Kondov. In the call, he said, “Iran supports any deal, which is accepted by the Palestinians and Hamas for establishing a ceasefire in Gaza and paving the way for sending humanitarian aid to [the territory],” IRNA reported. This is important because it shows how the Iranian diplomatic offensive is unfolding.

Iran is pushing into Europe and Central Asia with diplomatic initiatives and it is keeping Gaza at the forefront. It’s important to note that while Israel has internal discussions, Hamas and the Iranians are maneuvering in the region.
Can Israel afford to withdraw from Philadelphi Corridor?
Egyptian opposition to Israel's presence
The Philadelphi Corridor Egypt's total lack of control over the Sinai Peninsula. Hamas is just one terrorist organization in Gaza that takes advantage of the illegal economy in the peninsula, which generates an estimated $300 million a year. During 2023-2024, it is true that Cairo invested about 6.5 billion Egyptian pounds (about $210 million) in North Sinai alone, with the local Ministry of Finance financing about 44.6% of this, but Sinai remains the "soft underbelly" of Egypt. However, this does not prevent the al-Sisi regime from vehemently opposing the Israeli presence along the corridor, which serves Egypt's security as well.

Dr. Ofir Winter is a Senior Researcher at INSS and a lecturer at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University says, "In recent years, a system of understandings was created between Egypt and Hamas, which Cairo began to exploit to its advantage. Egypt became the entity with its hand on the faucet of Gaza. It controlled the passage of goods and people to and from the Strip, which became an economic business and a lever of political power. It is also possible that the smuggling above and below the border allowed various parties in North Sinai to reap profits, which created a peace that was convenient for the authorities in Cairo after long years of terror in the Sinai peninsula."

Dr. Zelkovitz explains that Egypt is committed, at least outwardly, to show solidarity with the Palestinians and to recognize the sovereignty of the Gaza Strip. "Since this is the case, we see Egyptian opposition to the possession of the territory by the IDF. Beyond that, Egypt is very embarrassed by the revelations of the smuggling network and the tunnels that cross the border. These revelations harm both its credibility, and its ability to keep the sovereignty of holding the border and the agreements between it and Israel."

Dr. Winter mentions that according to the "borders agreement' between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2005, the PA was supposed to control the north side of the Rafah crossing. However, two years after that agreement, the Hamas coup took place. "Egypt fears that an Israeli presence along the Philadelphi Corridor will change from being temporary to permanent, and does not wish to legitimize it," explains Dr. Winter. "It sees the PA as the legitimate representative of the Palestinians, but in recent years has had to face the reality that Hamas is sovereign in the Strip. In addition, for Egypt, temporary security arrangements, such as allowing IDF positions along the corridor until an underground barrier is erected on the Egyptian side of the border may become a permanent reality if the ceasefire collapses. This Israeli demand is also not acceptable to Hamas, which pushes away the ceasefire that Egypt is interested in."
US says Israel agreed to withdraw from parts of Philadelphi route, mum on details
The White House says that an Israel-approved framework for a hostage deal meant to close gaps between the sides includes an IDF withdrawal from heavily populated areas along the Philadelphi Corridor, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel must keep its forces deployed on the Gaza-Egypt border stretch and would do so for the foreseeable future.

“The deal itself, including the bridging proposal that we started working with… includes the removal of Israeli Defense Forces from all densely populated areas… in phase one… and that includes those areas along and adjacent to that corridor,” says White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby in a briefing with reporters. “That’s the proposal that Israel had agreed to.”

Kirby declines to clarify when asked whether this means that the US supports allowing Israeli troops to remain in less densely populated areas along the Philadelphi Corridor. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

While reiterating the deal’s requirement for Israel to at least partially withdraw from Philadelphi, the White House spokesperson acknowledges that Jerusalem is publicly stressing that it “would need some security along that corridor.”

“I’m not going to get into a debate with the prime minister over what he said over the weekend,” Kirby says.


IDF eliminates Nukhba terrorist who oversaw Netiv Ha’asara massacre
Israeli forces in Gaza have killed the Hamas terrorist who led the Oct. 7 assault on the northwest Negev moshav of Netiv Ha’asara, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said on Tuesday.

Israeli fighter jets struck a Hamas compound near the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, killing eight terrorists from Hamas’s Daraj Tuffah Battalion, according to the joint statement. Among those killed was Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia, a member of the terror group’s Nukhba force who led the invasion of Netiv Ha’asara, located directly adjacent to the Gaza fence.

Another terrorist killed in the strike was “responsible for several combat specialties in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion, including engineering, sniping and anti-tank operations, and was responsible for supplying the explosives used to blow up the security fence in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion’s area during the Oct. 7 massacre,” according to the IDF.

On Oct. 7, Wadia, who was active in Hamas’ parachute array, infiltrated the moshav using a paraglider and oversaw the massacre of 21 residents and the kidnapping of one to Gaza.

One of those murdered in the moshav that day was Gil Taasa, 46, a senior firefighter in the Ashkelon fire station. On the morning of Oct. 7, Taasa was at home with his two youngest sons, Koren, 12 and Shay, 8. After he ran out of ammunition, the terrorists threw a grenade into the shelter where they were hiding. Taasa leapt on the grenade to save his sons, who were wounded but survived.

Wadia was captured on video opening the door of the family’s refrigerator and sipping a Coke in front of the bleeding children before leaving the home. Koren and Shay then ran next door to their mother’s home and hid in the safe room for hours before being evacuated.

Taasa’s oldest son, Or, 17, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at Zikim Beach, where he had gone early in the morning to surf with friends.

“My sons are happy and that’s the most important thing,” said Gil’s widow, Sabin Tassa, after receiving the news of Wadia’s death, according to Channel 12. “My son Koren told me he wanted to see a picture of [Wadia] dead. I personally will close the circle only after I know that all Hamas members and [Hamas leader in Gaza Yayha] Sinwar have been eliminated,” she added.


Samaria car bomb intended for Israeli school bus, security officials say
A car bomb neutralized on Monday near the entrance to the Jewish community of Ateret in the Binyamin region of Samaria was intended to detonate while a school bus was passing by, security officials believe.

According to the Kan News broadcaster, the bomb, which was planted inside a gas cylinder, contained more than 100 pounds of explosive material.

In addition, an initial probe of the incident shows that the bomb contained a camera facing the road, allowing the terrorists to detonate the explosive device remotely when a bus passed by, Kan reported.

Channel 12 News said the vigilance of a local Israeli resident prevented a “major disaster,” with Israeli security forces neutralizing the heavy bomb before school busses entered the town on Monday morning.



The Commentary Magazine Podcast: EMERGENCY PODCAST: After the Hostage Slaughter
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
Dan Senor joins us to take the temperature of the Israeli body politic in the wake of the heartbreaking and disgusting news involving the slaughter of six hostages in Rafah, including the American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. What will Israelis demand of their government? What can Israel do? And will the compliant media allow Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to skate lightly over this nightmare while Donald Trump seeks to fan the flames?
The Commentary Magazine Podcast: Philadelphi Unfreedom
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
What exactly is it the protestors in Israel and the media in the United States and Joe Biden actually want out of Israel? It appears they want the country to give up the strategic high ground it holds near Gaza in pursuit of a “deal” no one really believes can be struck.
Call Me Back #261: The execution of six hostages – with Haviv Rettig Gur & Wendy Singer
Hosted by Dan Senor
Over the past 24 hours we learned the devastating news about Hamas’s slaughtering of 6 hostages. The families of two of these hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Carmel Gat had been guests on this podcast over the past few months.

The news of these executions followed news in Israel last Thursday of a heated debate within the security cabinet over a clause that the prime minister had introduced – to be voted on – into the negotiations over any final deal. Some critics are arguing that the introduction of that clause was part of a pattern that doomed the negotiations. Last night, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to protest – among other things – these moves by Israel’s Government. Others inside Israel are arguing that the principles that the Prime Minister is establishing in these negotiations are necessary conditions for Israel to defeat Hamas and prevent another October 7th-like war being launched (at least from Gaza).

This is the debate happening inside Israel right now. To better understand each of these positions we had a conversation on Sunday morning with Haviv Rettig Gur from the Time of Israel from Jersuaelm.

But before we listen to the conversation with Haviv, we want to play for you a conversation I had late at night Israel time on Sunday night, with Wendy Singer, a Jersusalemite who is part of the Goldberg-Polins’ community in Baka, their neighborhood in Jerusalem. In the days ahead, we’ll hear from others connected to those six hostages murdered.

Wendy Singer is an advisor to several Israeli high-tech start-ups, including Re-Milk — https://www.remilk.com/ Wendy was the executive director of Start-Up Nation Central since its founding in 2013 — https://startupnationcentral.org/ Previously, she was the director of AIPAC’s Israel office for 16 years and served in AIPAC’s Washington office before immigrating to Israel in 1994. Earlier in her career, Wendy was a foreign policy advisor in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Haviv Rettig Gur is the political analyst at The Times of Israel. He was a long time reporter for the Times of Israel. Haviv was also a combat medic in the IDF where he served in the reserves.
Caroline Glick: After Hostages Executed, Left Blames Bibi
Instead of laying blame for Hamas's execution of six Israeli hostages where it belongs, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has decided to point fingers at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But why would Gallant blame Netanyahu—and more importantly, why does the premier continue to keep his defense minister on board?

On today’s episode of "In-Focus," JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick discusses the motivations behind Gallant’s actions and how they connect to the larger effort to topple Netanyahu.

She also reveals the details of Hamas’s terms for Israel’s capitulation; the inner workings of the Jewish state's establishment; and developments in the continued war against Palestinian terror.

Chapters
0:00 Terror wave continues
10:10 Hostages found
14:00 Establishment left creates chaos
20:00 Terms of capitulation
25:00 Gallant goes to Washington
36:00 Breaking down the internal subversion
45:00 Why hasn’t Gallant been fired?


"Do You Hold ALL Palestinians Culpable?" Douglas Murray on Israel-Hamas, Riots & More
The war between Israel's IDF and Hamas continues to rage, with tragic news that the bodies of six Israeli hostages, one of whom was an American citizen, have been recovered. These captives were apparently not abandoned or killed in the fighting, but coldly executed. British author and conservative political commentator Douglas Murray, who has spent time reporting in the region, joins Piers Morgan on Uncensored to analyse the latest developments.

Douglas is steadfast in his belief that Hamas is the central cause of the conflict, stating that the aim of Hamas is not a ceasefire, but the destruction of Israel; but Piers holds his feet to the fire. Piers makes the point that many Palestinians aren't supporters of Hamas but are dying anyway. Douglas concedes that he doesn't blame all Palestinians, but says that 'they elected Hamas'.

00:00 - Tease
00:43 - Introduction
01:27 - Israel and anti-racist riots
04:53 - "Hamas does what it wants and what it wants is genocidal"
05:29 - The Philadelphi Corridor
10:33 - Netanyahu and his unwillingness to compromise on a ceasefire
15:32 - "Do you hold all Palestinians culpable?"
19:30 - Aggressive expansion of settlements
24:43 - Is Netanyahu propagating this war for self-serving purposes?
26:58 - "How does this end?"
30:23 - Southport attack and the UK racist riots
43:28 - UK Immigration
47:13 - US election


Mike Baker: Ukraine's New Missiles & Israel's West Bank Offensive
In this episode of The PDB Situation Report:
• Ukraine unveils two new domestically produced weapons, including a drone missile and a ballistic missile, both showing promising results. We'll get into the details with intelligence analyst and weapons expert Ryan McBeth.
• Israel launches its largest operation in the West Bank since the October 7th attacks, targeting key figures in Palestinian Islamic Jihad. IDF Brigadier General Doron Gavish shares his insights on the mission and its implications.




Former UK spy chief Sir Richard Dearlove warns Albanese government of terror risks linked to Gaza visa intake
Britain’s former top spy chief has urged the Albanese government to halt its Gaza visa program, warning it’s risking importing a terrorism problem.

The world-famous former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, says if he were in charge of national security in Australia his strong advice would be to stop any Gazans arriving from the terrorist-controlled hotspot, at least until stronger vetting is possible.

He also warned there was a danger Iranian intelligence would infiltrate the Palestinian cohort arriving in Australia with sleeper agents.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Sir Richard said there was a “danger” that “amongst some of those people coming into Australia there would be not just Hamas sympathisers but the possibility of Hamas activists as well”.

Sir Richard said while he admired ASIO, he agreed with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton that a total suspension was sensible.

“If I were responsible, my advice would be the same and to pause it,” he told Sky News.

“I would have thought that they need to be extremely careful in allowing these people in without some sort of security screening, without some investigation as to who's coming in, what, where they are, what they're doing, what their connections are.”

Warning of terrorism risks, Sir Richard said: “If you can’t trace and you can’t vet these people before they come in, I personally would have advised to wait until one is in a stronger position to do that.”

“It just seems to me like very basic issue, and I would have thought, given the terrorist problems that you've had in Australia, which have been notable over the last 10 to 15 years, that people should be very, very careful about this, otherwise you're going to import a problem which would be difficult,” he said.




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