Thursday, September 05, 2024

09/05 Links Pt1: Beware False Moral Equivalence Between Israel and Hamas; A Hostage Deal Is a Poison Pill for Israel; Retracted [Sinwar’s plan to ‘smuggle hostages to Iran’]

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The ‘Blame Israel First’ Chorus
Benjamin Netanyahu is not the reason six hostages were executed last week, even if one agrees with various criticisms of individual decisions and policies of his during the course of the war. Even on the subject of the ongoing ceasefire negotiations themselves, there is far more certainty about what’s going on in the private councils of the government than is warranted. Is Netanyahu the main source of obstruction? Based on the timeline and the reporting, no, he does not appear to be. But I don’t know for sure and neither do those insisting he is .

Yet you wouldn’t know that by reading the commentary. In Haaretz, Dahlia Scheindlin—author of several heartfelt and right-minded pieces on the war and the West’s hypocritical silence on the sexual violence perpetrated against Israelis on October 7—described the anti-Bibi protesters as “driven half-mad by the Netanyahu government’s soulless resistance to a deal while Hamas dispenses of the hostages.” In a story next to Scheindlin’s, Yossi Verter accused Netanyahu of having “put an end to the hope beating in the hearts of most Israelis that the hostage deal currently on the table would finally be signed… Instead of considering how to prevent the murder of the remaining hostages, he ranted, puffed his chest and winked as if to say: Wait and see what happens next.” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, head of a progressive Jewish activist organization, slammed any Jewish organizations that are “not clearly calling for the Netanyahu administration to agree to a deal that will end the war.”

“End the war” here appears to mean something tantamount to “surrender.” Otherwise it completely ignores the role of Hamas, which started this war and refuses to end it by returning the hostages and submitting.

Netanyahu’s greenlighting of rescue operations after having already concluded one ceasefire-for-hostages deal has made it pretty clear he is anything but indifferent to the fate of the hostages. And it is risible to suggest that this government isn’t even “considering how to prevent the murder of the remaining hostages.”

These accusations aren’t mere policy criticism, they are the embodiment of blaming Israel first. Hamas kidnapped those innocent Israelis; Hamas starved and tormented them psychologically and maybe physically; and Hamas shot them in cold blood, while brave Israeli soldiers risked their lives to try to save them. Let there be no suggestions of moral equivalence between the two.
Beware False Moral Equivalence Between Israel and Hamas Militants
There is, however, one rule of war that is arguably even more fundamental than protecting civilians from deliberate attack: the obligation to treat humanely any captive or detainee. This obligation is reflected in Common Article 3, a provision that is "common" to, or shared across, each of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions. These treaties—the only treaties that have been nearly universally adopted by the nations of the world—are devoted to protecting victims of war and "ameliorating" the suffering caused by armed conflicts.

Most of the provisions of these treaties apply only to "armed conflicts" between states. But Common Article 3 is the exception. This provision of the treaties binds all organized armed groups engaged in "conflicts not of an international character," meaning conflicts that do not involve hostilities between two or more states. No such article, or obligation, existed prior to 1949. But in the wake of the brutal civil wars that raged before and immediately after World War II—most notably the Spanish Civil War, in which it is estimated that more than 250,000 civilians and detainees were summarily executed—the states that revised the 1929 version of the conventions agreed to this new obligation.

This was a remarkable achievement, as it resulted in the first application of international humanitarian law to the realm of internal armed hostilities like civil wars. States and the armed groups fighting against them were now obligated to respect what the International Court of Justice later called the "minimum yardstick" of humanitarian protection.

Since 1949, Common Article 3 has evolved to reflect the most basic humanitarian obligation of the law of armed conflict. In addition to a general humane treatment obligation applicable to any person, "not taking an active part in hostilities," the article specifically prohibits murder and summary execution. And to reemphasize, this obligation applies to both state armed forces and non-state organized armed groups like Hamas. Murdering people at your complete mercy because they have been captured and detained is therefore rightly condemned as among the most egregious violations of international humanitarian law.

Of course, it is no surprise that Hamas operatives engaged in this barbarism. This is the very nature of every aspect of their terrorist operations, which demonstrate a complete and pervasive disregard for even the most basic rules of war. And the murder of these captives truly symbolizes the depth of their illegality and immorality. Even armed groups that abuse detainees will rarely sink to the level of summary execution. Hamas, however, once again shows the world the bottomless depths of its barbarism.

This tragic incident also reminds us that there is simply no moral equivalency between Israel and its illicit enemies. Indeed, Hersh Goldberg-Polin's murder was only the final manifestation of Hamas' modus operandi. He suffered months of inhumane treatment as a detainee after being gravely wounded when Hamas operatives deliberately and unlawfully attacked him and other civilians huddled together in an effort to avoid the massacre that befell hundreds of civilians at the Nova music festival.

Critics of Israel will no doubt immediately cite the (often inflated and unverified) numbers of civilians killed in Gaza as the result of combat operations in Gaza to justify their efforts at, "equality of condemnation." But as any prosecutor can readily explain, there is no equivalency between those who deliberately kill and those who cause unavoidable killing even when following the law. This is what this comparison truly reflects: one side of the conflict that deliberately attacks and murders civilians, and another side that consistently implements its legal obligation to avoid, whenever feasible, that consequence.

War may be hell, but the hell that Hamas has created for the civilians it slaughtered, the detainees it abuses and murders, and the population of Gaza it has deliberately exposed to the avoidable consequences of war is a hell that even war does not condone. There is no comparison.
Bret Stephens: A Hostage Deal Is a Poison Pill for Israel
The highest justification for fighting a war, besides survival, is to prevent its repetition. Israel has lost hundreds of soldiers to defeat Hamas. Thousands of innocent Palestinians have died and hundreds of thousands have suffered, because Hamas has held every Gazan hostage to its fanatical aims. Hamas was able to initiate and fight this war only because of a secure line of logistical supply from Egypt.

Israel's control of the Philadelphi Corridor largely stops this. To relinquish it now, for any reason, forsakes what Israel has been fighting for, consigns Palestinians to further misery under Hamas, and all but guarantees that a similar war will eventually be fought again. Why do that?

Some argue that Israel can always retake the corridor if Hamas fails to fulfill its end of the bargain or if Israelis feel their security is again at risk. That argument is a fantasy. Once Israel leaves Gaza, international pressure for it not to re-enter for nearly any reason short of another Oct. 7 will be overwhelming.

Some 60 hostages are believed to still be alive. Any decent human being must feel acutely sympathetic to their plight. But sympathy cannot be a replacement for judgment.

Israelis have spent the past 11 months suffering the bitter and predictable consequence of the Shalit deal. In 2006, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas and held in Gaza. He was released five years later in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners. Those released included Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of Oct. 7. The Shalit deal came about on account of intense public pressure to free him.

A good society will be prepared to go to great lengths to rescue or redeem a captive, whether with risky military operations or exorbitant ransoms. Yet there must also be a limit to what any society can afford to pay. The price for one hostage's life or freedom cannot be the life or freedom of another - even if we know the name of the first life but not yet the second. That ought to be morally elementary.


Daniel Greenfield: Israel has the right to win
The Biden administration and NATO leaders did not display this sort of skepticism towards Zelensky’s promises of victory against Russia. When the Ukrainian leader recently promised to present a “victory plan” to the Biden administration, the move was met with applause.

The Biden-Harris administration and the European Union believe that Ukraine has the right to win while Israel only has the right to defend itself. That is the fundamental difference between the treatment of Ukraine and Israel, and the treatment of their two wars.

Ukraine’s demands for bigger and deadlier weapons systems, including tanks and jets, were swiftly met even while the Biden-Harris administration cut off or “slow walked” more basic weapons deliveries to Israel to force it to slow down offensive operations, including in Rafah. Those pressure campaigns allowed Hamas to hold on to and murder captured hostages.

That’s what the “right to win” looks like as opposed to the paltry “right to defend itself.”

Every time Ukraine pushed further or opened a new front in the war, including going into Russia, there was applause, rather than warnings about “escalation.” But every phase of Israel’s military campaign, including the push into Rafah where the hostages and tunnels were, was marked by pressure campaigns and warnings about the danger of “escalation” in the Middle East.

Ukraine attacking a nuclear world power isn’t “escalation,” Israel taking out a Hamas leader is.

The political establishment believes that Ukraine has the right to do more than just throw back invading armies, but believes that Israel’s rights are limited to defending and maintaining its 1948 borders, that it must surrender of all its Six-Day War borders, including half of Jerusalem, to Islamic terrorists and then promise them everything else they ask for to end the fighting.

And when the terrorists attack anyway, Israel will have the “right to defend itself” for a week or two. Then it’ll be time for another “ceasefire,” more negotiations and more surrenders.

Kamala and the political establishment are wrong. Israel does not have a “right to defend itself,” it has a right and a duty to go on the offensive and win. It has a right and a duty to utterly defeat and destroy every single Islamic terrorist organization at war with it. It has a right and a duty to secure whatever territory the terrorists were using for their operations, including the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, through which massive amounts of weapons were delivered to Hamas.

That’s the least of what winning means.

In 1948, 1967 and 1973, Israel undertook to win. In those first three decades, it won and emerged stronger for it. In the next terrible four decades, it lost land, ambition and safety in a failed search for a peace that could never come on any terms other than its own strength.

Defense was traded for offense. Conflicts were to be managed. A weakening deterrence would reduce the scope of any individual exchange of fire. The United States and the Europeans would offer “guarantees” in exchange for a perpetual process of peace negotiations and war.

That was Israel’s “right to defend itself.”

On Oct. 7, Israel hit bottom. The cost of peace at any price was no longer just the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Gaza, rockets falling on major cities or a worldwide campaign of demonization by its “peace partners,” but a new invasion of Israel. Out of that horror rises a single fundamental question: Will Israel remain on the defensive or will it fight to win.

The right to defend itself is Israel’s slow suicide. Survival rests on the right to win.


Netanyahu: Hostage accord not close, and Hamas is to blame
Talks with Hamas on a renewed deal to exchange hostages for terrorists are faltering due to the Islamist group’s rejectionism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated in an interview on Thursday morning.

Commenting in an interview with Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on reported claims by a senior U.S. official that an agreement with Hamas is close, Netanyahu said that these claims were “exactly inaccurate.

“There’s a story, a narrative out there that there’s a deal out there,” the premier said. “In fact, while we agreed in May, in July and in August to a deal, an American proposal, Hamas has consistently said no to every one of them.

“They don’t agree to anything. Not to the Philadelphi Corridor [on Gaza’s border with Egypt], not to the keys of exchanging hostages for jailed terrorists, not to anything,” Netanyahu said.

According to the premier, Hamas only wants Israel Defense Forces troops to withdraw “so they can retake Gaza and do as they vowed to do”—the Oct. 7 massacre—”again the butchering, again and again and again.”

Netanyahu also denied accusations that he is prolonging the war against Hamas for political gain, telling Fox, “I am not interested in my political future. I’m interested in my country’s future

“This war would be over yesterday if Hamas laid down its arms, released all the hostages,” the premier stated. “The obstacle to the end of this war is Hamas; the obstacle to the release of hostages is Hamas.”

One hundred and one hostages—alive and dead—are still held captive in Gaza after more than 300 days. Off-and-on talks have continued for months with the United States, Egypt and Qatar acting as mediators.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has confirmed that Jerusalem accepted President Joe Biden’s May 31 ceasefire-for-hostages outline, as well as last month’s so-called “bridging proposal” presented by the United States.

“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal, that he supports it,” the diplomat told reporters after meetings in Jerusalem on Aug. 19, adding that “it’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”


‘Bring Them Home’ Is Bringing Us to the Brink
Israel these days is waking up to the shattering realization that the rosy tales it told itself for decades were false. That there is no such thing as "the peace process with the Palestinians," if only because a) the scattered family-based tribes who dot Judea and Samaria do not coalesce over any one coherent national consciousness, and b) even if they did, coexistence with the Jews next door has never been and will never be on the menu. That America won't always be a perpetually reliable ally. And that the world remains, as it had always been, at best unmoved by our suffering and, at worst, committed to seeing the Jews as pesky outsiders who must be erased.

Oct. 7 proved, with haunting clarity, just how much Israelis will now have to rethink. To gain real security, Israel can no longer revert back to its strategy of engaging in limited-scale conflicts with Hamas or Hizbullah every few years only to withdraw, attempt something akin to containment, and face increasingly fortified foes on their terms.

To truly deliver a deadly and effective blow to its enemies, Israel will have not only to target its leaders and their enablers, but also reclaim and keep key territories, including the creation of buffer zones. It will have to dismantle the murderous and corrupt Palestinian Authority, and enforce some solution that gives Palestinians some autonomy in their daily lives but nothing remotely resembling an armed sovereign nation. And it will have to radically rethink the way it deals with terrorism, including eliminating incentives for kidnapping and holding Israeli civilians as bargaining chips.

Oct. 7 reminded Israelis, in the most brutal fashion imaginable, that the quasi-normal life they had imagined was now their forever lot was an illusion. Now, they must fight.

In recent days, a post from an unnamed reservist in Gaza has been going viral in Israel. "The Philadelphi Corridor is more important than hostages," wrote the reservist. "It's more important than me and my entire battalion, which has been fighting in Gaza since the beginning of the war." Approximately every 100 meters, he explained, a tunnel passes through the fence, openings used for smuggling massive amounts of contraband. Therefore, "leaving Philadelphi for one day means a death sentence for thousands more Israelis....Our blood is no less red than the blood of the hostages, although we are ready to sacrifice our lives for the sake of defeating the enemy."
Senior Biden admin official provides new details on hostage talks
In a background call with journalists on Wednesday, a senior Biden administration official provided new details about the proposed ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas.

The senior official described for the first time the specific elements of the proposal and what parts of the deal continue to stall negotiations seeking to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages.

“The deal has 18 total paragraphs,” the senior official said. “Fourteen of those paragraphs are finished.”

“You’ll sometimes hear Hamas say they agreed to a deal on July 2. Let me just explain that,” the senior official said. “There’s 18 paragraphs. Fourteen paragraphs are identical. One paragraph has a very technical fix, and the other three paragraphs have to do with the exchange of prisoners to hostages, which even Hamas’s own text of July 2 explicitly says it has to still be negotiated.”

“So basically, 90% of this deal has been agreed,” the senior official said.

Biden administration officials have previously refused to describe the precise contents of the deal amid ongoing negotiations.

“I’m sure you’re all curious as to what that proposal says and what’s in it, and I’m sure you’re also not going to be surprised by the fact that I’m not going to get into that detail,” John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, said on Tuesday during a press call.

The senior administration official who spoke on Wednesday with reporters cited Hamas’s execution of six hostages, media reports that the official said are misleading and the dispute over whether Israel can retain control of the Egypt-Gaza border as the reasons to offer greater clarity about the status of negotiations.
Captive’s father denies report relatives urging unilateral Hamas deal
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of U.S.-Israeli captive Sagui Dekel-Chen, is denying a report in NBC News on Wednesday that families of Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza are urging the White House to cut a unilateral deal with the terrorist group.

Sagui Dekel-Chen was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault in southern Israel. His father told Channel 12 that the report was false.

“I am in continuous contact with the other American families and all levels of the U.S. government. There is nothing behind this report,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen said.

“The report that the American families are demanding a separate U.S.-Hamas is not correct. I do not know where this report has come from. I am inside the room [for these meetings] and anything else is speculation,” he continued.

Citing five people familiar with the discussions, NBC News reported that the relatives urged the administration to consider options for an agreement that do not include Israel, speaking during a meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan shortly after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel in Rafah, including American dual citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
JPost Editorial: Standstill in hostage talks, Israel should accept withdrawal from Philadelph
Gantz presented a map of the entire Middle East and argued that Iran was the real strategic threat. He also argued that the Philadelphi Corridor was a tactical issue for which the IDF had sufficient answers, including an underground barrier to block all tunnels. He also rebuffed Netanyahu’s claim that international pressure would prevent Israel from recapturing the corridor if need be.

Israel is now facing two valid approaches to dealing with the current situation in Gaza. The first sees Israel sticking to its guns and not giving an inch to Hamas in the hopes that, in a weakened state, it will eventually concede on its demand of a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The second approach is agreeing to a phased pullout that would see the release of some of the hostages.

The first approach would make the likelihood of any hostages being released soon very remote unless the IDF locates some of them, as they have done four times during the war. However, as we tragically learned this week, Hamas will likely execute any hostages it deems as being too close to rescue.

The second approach puts Israel in a potentially precarious security situation, one that could conceivably result in a future October 7-like attack or an offensive to recapture Philadelphi.

Given those difficult choices, we believe the country must go with the latter and attempt to save as many of the hostages’ lives now as possible. Despite the potential dangers involved, it’s the right thing to do.

This is what makes us different from everyone else. If there are Israelis or Jews in distress in Gaza or anywhere in the world, Israel is supposed to be there to help them and bring them to safety.

Security is indeed sacrosanct. So is saving lives.
No Technology Can Substitute for an IDF Presence on the Gaza-Egyptian Border
Advocates of a hostage deal that would require the IDF to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor that runs the length of the Gaza-Egyptian border suggest that technological solutions can effectively prevent the border from once again becoming Hamas's military and economic lifeline.

Static defenses are ineffective against a human adversary that observes, learns, adapts, and innovates. The now-iconic image of a lone tractor dismantling the supposedly impregnable security fence near Kibbutz Be'eri, followed by waves of terrorists, serves as a powerful refutation of the claims made by U.S. officials and former Israeli military leaders that technological solutions alone would suffice.

History provides numerous examples to debunk this claim. During the Arab revolt in the late 1930s, the British erected a security fence along the Lebanese-Mandate border to prevent the smuggling of terrorists and arms. British intelligence soon reported that the fence's metal rods were being sold in Beirut markets. In 1973, the Bar-Lev Line failed, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Israeli soldiers.

Static defenses equipped with sophisticated sensors and cameras require consistent maintenance. How will the IDF maintain an advanced fence along the Philadelphi Corridor after withdrawing from Gaza? How will the IDF prevent Hamas from shooting and destroying the sensors and cameras above ground? Moreover, how will new smuggling tunnels that run under the fence be detected?

An Israeli withdrawal from the border, and certainly from Gaza as a whole, would constitute a victory for Hamas, electrifying the Arab world, emboldening Iran's proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, and severely weakening the U.S.-led coalition with Israel and presumed moderate Arab states.

The image of the last Israeli tank crossing the destroyed fence back into Israel would symbolize the first decisive Arab victory in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. For all these reasons, there is no substitute for an IDF presence along the Gaza-Egyptian border.
The Justice Department’s Prosecution of Dead Hamas Leaders Is Just for Show
On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against six senior Hamas leaders—three of whom have been killed by Israel—on charges of terrorism, participation in the murder of Americans, and so forth. Of the three who are alive, Yahya Sinwar is hidden in the tunnels beneath Gaza, Khaled Meshal is in Qatar (or possibly Turkey), and Ali Baraka in Beirut. Neither Lebanon nor Qatar has an extradition treaty with the U.S. Andrew C. McCarthy isn’t impressed:
It is obvious that prosecutors have been working on the Hamas complaint for weeks—presumably since well before [the lead defendant] Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated. It’s telling that the Justice Department chose to proceed by criminal complaint rather than an indictment. . . . To get an indictment, the Justice Department has to present the case to a grand jury—which might ask nettlesome questions, like: “Why are we charging a dead guy?” Because an indictment is a necessary step before a defendant can be tried, it usually conveys a seriousness of purpose, a readiness to proceed with prosecution.

By contrast, a criminal complaint is just a sworn affidavit by a law-enforcement officer (here, as in most federal cases, it’s an FBI agent assigned to the investigation) attesting that there is probable cause to charge various offenses.

In a follow-up article, McCarthy explains that the what the Justice Department is now involved in “is not a criminal case,” but “theater.”


A powerful nation that takes its defense seriously never responds to a foreign military enemy’s mass-murder attacks by filing a lawsuit. This one is even more unserious than that suggests because (a) as the Biden–Harris administration well knows, none of these . . . defendants will ever be arrested and extradited to the United States; . . . (b) if the administration were serious about charging Hamas, it could have done so at any time over the past four years; and (c) astonishingly, this impotent administration pose as counterterrorist tough-guy is timed as a response to Hamas’s cold-blooded murder last week of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a twenty-three-year-old American hostage for whom, through his eleven months of captivity by a terrorist organization designated as such under U.S. law for almost 30 years, the Biden–Harris administration took no meaningful action against Hamas.
FDD: Justice Department Unseals Terrorism Charges Against Hamas Leaders
“These indictments should have been made public more than 10 months ago. The question now is what comes next. Will there be a massive reward issued for Sinwar? Will Qatar, Turkey, and Lebanon be pressured to turn over Mashal and Baraka? Will there be more indictments, including a crackdown on the Hamas networks inside the United States?” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“Under normal circumstances, an allied NATO country like Turkey would not provide a safe haven and material support to an entity like Hamas and its leadership. Instead, it would work with the United States to ensure that the extremist organization has no place on Turkish soil and in the region. However, Turkey has opted to espouse Hamas’s murderous values, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan frequently professes. Turkey will not work to apprehend Mashal or any other Hamas operative that resides in or transits through the country. On its airwaves recently, Turkey’s TRT public broadcaster augmented Mashal’s call for more suicide bombers to strike Israel. The Turkish government sides 100 percent with team Hamas.” — Sinan Ciddi, FDD Non-Resident Senior Fellow

Qatar and Turkey Sponsor Hamas
Qatar sided with Hamas and endorsed its takeover of Gaza in 2007. Since then, Doha has provided political and financial assistance to the Islamist group, pumping at least $1.8 billion into Gaza’s Hamas-run government. Hamas also maintains a political office in Doha, where several of the group’s senior leaders live in luxury. Doha held “Israel alone responsible” for Hamas’s October 7 terrorist atrocities and hosted Haniyeh’s funeral in early August.

Hamas established a presence in Turkey in 2011 with the permission of the Turkish government. Since then, Ankara has provided Hamas with significant funding, materiel, and political support. Erdogan considers Hamas terrorists “freedom fighters” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “butcher” and “war criminal.” In a display of solidarity, Turkish embassies in Israel and the United States lowered their flags to half-mast last month to mourn Haniyeh’s death.

Yahya Sinwar, Khaled Meshal, and Ali Baraka
Yahya Sinwar has served as Hamas’s leader in Gaza since 2017. Israel considers him to be the main mastermind of Hamas’s October 7 assault. Sinwar was serving multiple life terms for the killing of two Israeli soldiers when Israel released him in 2011 as part of a deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas had held captive for five years. Last month, Sinwar replaced Haniyeh as Hamas’s political chief, consolidating his control of the terrorist group.

Khaled Meshal is a founding member of Hamas. He became the group’s external political chief in 2004 and was appointed in 2021 to fill a new role within Hamas, effectively its foreign minister. Israel attempted to assassinate Meshal in Jordan in 1997.

Ali Baraka is the head of Hamas’s National Relations Abroad and previously served as Hamas’s representative in Lebanon. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Baraka in December 2023 in coordination with the United Kingdom.
Pentagon: ‘We have not determined Israel has violated international humanitarian law’
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense dissented from the suggestion that Israel had broken international law, prompted by the decision by the United Kingdom to suspend arms export licenses to Israel for 30 days.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the DOD press secretary at the Pentagon, spoke at a briefing on Tuesday discussing the steps used to ensure compliance with human rights.

“Those processes are ongoing. As of now, we have not determined at this point that Israel has violated international humanitarian law, but those assessments, to include those of the State Department looking at allegations, are still ongoing,” Ryder said.

The press secretary reported that on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had spoken with Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant to express condolences for the six hostages murdered by Hamas.

“The secretary affirmed that Hamas leaders must be held accountable for the murder of these innocent civilians,” Ryder said. “And Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant once again reaffirmed their mutual commitment to swiftly reaching a ceasefire deal to secure the release of all the remaining hostages.”
Caroline Glick: Biden's Actions Against Israel Are 'Unprecedented' w/ Eugene Kontorovich
Over the past seven months, the Biden administration has decided to levy sanctions on 11 “settlers” and an equal number of non-governmental organizations whom they view as “obstacles to peace."

JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick is joined by legal expert Eugene Kontorovich, law professor and director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University, about this unprecedented abuse of power against the Jewish state and what it could mean for the U.S.-Israel relationship going forward.

Glick and Kontorovich also discuss international efforts by the United Nations, International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to delegitimize Israel and what can be done to combat it.

Chapters:
00:00 Unprecedented sanctions
03:11 Abuse of international law
10:51 Violation of constitutional rights
20:27 Implications for the future
31:00 The Biden administration's actions against Israel
33:15 Campaign to delegitimize the Kohelet Policy Forum
41:09 The ICC and ICJ proceedings Against Israel
45:26 The need for pushback against int'l institutions
49:14 The need for legal reform in Israel
58:18 Disillusionment with international institutions


Israel Daily News – War Day 334 | September 4, 2024

Lawfare from the West? Case Studies from the US, UK, and Canada
In this August 26th conversation, Professor Eugene Kontorovich, UK barrister Natasha Hausdorff, and Canadian counsel Joanna Baron discuss legal measures applied to Israeli individuals and entities, as well as domestic entities providing charitable support or weapons to Israel.


Caroline Glick: Biden Thinks Israelis Are Idiots (They Aren't)
A recent poll reveals that despite coordinated efforts by the global left, Israeli citizens are undeterred in their fight for survival. On today’s episode of In-Focus, JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick reveals the complete poll results and examines what lessons can be drawn from them.

Glick also discusses the recent anti-government protests in Tel Aviv; real Israeli public sentiment; the current state of hostage negotiations with Hamas; and U.S. President Joe Biden's failed attempts to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chapters
0:00 Biden blames Netanyahu for executed hostages
5:00 Protests erupt and fizzle
13:00 Public sentiment
23:00 Poll results
30:00 Deal with the devil
50:00 American intervention




Danon calls on UNSC to condemn Hamas at meeting on hostages
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon on Wednesday called on the Security Council to condemn Hamas and demand the immediate release of the hostages the terror group is holding in the Gaza Strip.

He spoke during the Council’s first official deliberation on the hostages since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. The meeting came at the “urgent request” of Danon and days after the murder of six of the hostages, whose bodies were found in a tunnel in Rafah on Saturday.

“Today, Israel mourns the six murdered hostages, but our fight is far from over. There are still 101 hostages who remain the clutches of Hamas, and we will not rest until they are brought home,” said Danon.

“I call on this Council to direct its energy where it is most needed—to support Israel, pressure Hamas and for once issue a clear and unequivocal condemnation of the barbaric terrorist organization that continues to hold innocent lives,” he continued.

He then thanked the Council members “who have demonstrated their moral clarity and their humanity for the hostages,” while emphasizing that words are not enough and that action is needed. He called for the UNSC to adopt a resolution condemning Hamas and its atrocities, designating them as a terrorist organization and demanding the immediate release of the hostages.

“I cannot understand why all of you cannot raise your hand and vote for this language,” Danon said in concluding his 13-minute statement.

Dr. Efrat Baron-Harlev, deputy director of Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikva, briefed the Council on the condition of the children who had been held captive by Hamas, at the request of the Israeli delegation.

The Council agreed to hear the Israeli representative if they also heard from Yuli Novak, CEO of the anti-Zionist human rights NGO B’Tselem, who spoke about the condition of the Palestinians in Gaza.


"Stop Blaming Us," Oct. 7 Survivor Tells UN
Oct. 7 survivor Sabine Taasa, 48, who lost her husband and 17-year-old son during the Hamas attack on the Israeli village of Netiv Haasara, told the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva on Tuesday, "I need you to stop blaming us." Her son's murder was filmed by his killers. "Is that normal? Shooting a child of 17 six times in the head?" she asked.

When Hamas militants entered Taasa's home, they lobbed a grenade at her husband Gil, 46, a firefighter. Gil threw himself on top of it to protect his children. Two of their sons were injured. The youngest, Shay, now nine, had an eye blown out of its socket, permanently blinding that eye. Taasa urged the committee to reflect on what it means to be "not just a child in Gaza, but also a child in Israel living with trauma marking them for life."

"We are not criminals," she said, insisting it was Hamas "who are the terrorists, the devils who kill children, women, men, the elderly....We didn't ask for this war."

On Tuesday, Israel's military announced it had killed Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia, the Hamas commander who led the invasion of Netiv Haasara and who was photographed inside Taasa's home.


UN Official Who Blamed Israel for Oct. 7 Attack Set To Deliver ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’ Speech at Brown
Anti-Israel United Nations official Francesca Albanese, who blamed the Jewish state for Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, is scheduled to speak at Brown University, just weeks after six hostages, including an American, were executed in Gaza. In response, members of the Brown community have circulated a letter urging the college to cancel the speech, citing Albanese’s anti-Semitic history.

Albanese, the U.N.’s special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has long disparaged Israel. She has claimed the Jewish state doesn’t have a right to defend itself against Hamas, liked posts on X endorsing the anti-Semitic trope of the "Jewish billionaire class," and hours after the Oct. 7 attack, said the "violence must be put into context."



Beshara Doumani and Fulvio Domini—Brown professors who signed letters supporting a ceasefire and students’ anti-Semitic boycott, divest, and sanctions movement—will host Albanese for the Sept. 16 event, "Anatomy of a Genocide: A Failure of the International System?" Members of Brown’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter also suggested asking Doumani to review its statement blaming the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

In March, the U.N. published a report similarly titled "Anatomy of a Genocide." In it, Albanese accused Israel of committing genocide and advancing a "settler-colonial project in Palestine." She also wrote that Israel’s leaders and military have "intentionally distorted" international law regarding war conduct to "legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people."

Albanese has repeatedly used her position as a U.N. official to denounce the Jewish state since the Israel-Hamas war began. A month after Oct. 7, Albanese blamed Israel for the terrorist attack. She told the Sydney Monthly Herald that "violence breeds violence" and that Hamas is "entitled to embrace resistance."


Khaled Abu Toameh: Iran's New Plan: Lost Gaza, So Take West Bank
One of the reasons the Palestinian Authority (PA) is reluctant to crack down on the "battalions" is because PA officials are aware that the terrorists enjoy widespread support among the Palestinian public.

The Palestinian Authority eventually fell victim to its own passivity. In 2007, Hamas staged a violent and brutal coup against the PA in Gaza, killing dozens of PA loyalists. According to a Human Rights Watch report: "Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Mohammed Swairki, a cook for [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City."

The Israeli operation aims to prevent Iran and its Palestinian proxies from opening a new front against Israel from the West Bank.

The PA, however, has constantly violated the terms of the Oslo Accords by, among other things, failing to stop armed groups from operating in its territory and from attacking Israelis. The PA has therefore become part of the problem, not the solution.

If anyone is upset with Israel for its counterterrorism operation, they need to be more upset with the PA for not standing up to the armed groups and preventing Iran from establishing a terror base in the West Bank.
Seth Frantzman: Is this a turning point for the West Bank?
The challenge has unfolded systematically over time. Palestinian Islamic Jihad carved out space for itself in Jenin. Other groups, such as the Lion’s Den appeared in Nablus and then local groups calling themselves “brigades” or “battalions” emerged as well. These consist of groups of armed young men, but they have become more sophisticated in their threats.

The terror infrastructure that was constructed in some areas of the West Bank in the last year is fueled by smuggled rifles. The rifles, according to numerous photos published of the young men, are mostly of the M-16 type, meaning they are smuggled to the West Bank and they have been diverted illegally from a country that uses these types of American-made rifles. This is important because unlike Hamas in Gaza, which has access to AK-47s primarily, the West Bank rifle smuggling phenomenon has only recently flooded these groups with weapons, and it is clear that the process has backing from abroad.

Another trend is the increased use of explosives by the groups. This includes improvised explosive devices. To defeat the explosive threats the IDF has resorted to using D-9 bulldozers and other methods. The result of the clashes is clear. The IDF has had to lay siege to urban areas and carve up streets to locate potential bomb threats. The armed groups are replicating what Hamas did in Gaza, hiding behind civilians and forcing civilian areas to pay the price due to the resulting clashes.

The IDF’s decision to launch a multi-day raid into various areas is paying off. Islamic Jihad and Hamas commanders have been eliminated. In the town of Fara’a, home to a small refugee camp, weapons were found in a mosque. However an IDF soldier was also killed in the operation in Jenin.

“Israeli security has increasingly been compromised by escalating violence in the West Bank over the last three years, while the Palestinian Authority has been outmatched by terrorist groups that are undermining its credibility and influence. Urgent action is needed to bring about substantial change in the West Bank before the situation deteriorates beyond the point of no return,” Truzman says.

Now there are concerns that a “smoldering Intifada” is spreading to the southern West Bank. This is important because up until now cities such as Hebron have largely been free from armed groups seeking to take them over. The Palestinian Authority has better control of Bethlehem and Hebrew, up until now. Hebron is a large city that spills out of hillsides around an ancient tomb where the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah of the Bible are believed to be buried, according to religious tradition.

On September 1 a terrorist killed three Israeli police near the Tarqumiya checkpoint, north of Hebron. This is a significant escalation by terrorists. It remains to be seen if the killings represent a turning point, and Israel is able to roll back the threat, or if this is the tip of the iceberg. What is important is that Israel has woken up to the broader challenge. Iran wants to enflame the West Bank and use the war in Gaza to push terror groups to take over more areas. Israel should be concerned that it is fighting for almost a year in Gaza and could wake up with another Hamas threat and growing insurgency in the West Bank. Acting to pre-empt that is essential and the IDF has made a major move in the right direction.


UK’s Jewish Chronicle removes stories by writer accused of fabrications about Gaza war
In a statement posted online Friday night, the Jewish Chronicle announced that it has wrapped up “a thorough investigation” into a freelance writer alleged to have fabricated claims relating to the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.

Elon Perry also faced questions about his biography, including his claims to have served as a commando soldier during Operation Entebbe and that he was a professor at Tel Aviv University for 15 years.

“While we understand he did serve in the Israel Defense Forces, we were not satisfied with some of his claims,” said the Jewish Chronicle, without further elaborating. “We have therefore removed his stories from our website and ended any association with Mr Perry.”

“The Jewish Chronicle maintains the highest journalistic standards in a highly contested information landscape and we deeply regret the chain of events that led to this point. We apologize to our loyal readers and have reviewed our internal processes so that this will not be repeated.”

The British newspaper launched the investigation after publishing an article by Perry this month in which he alleged a document had been uncovered in the Gaza Strip proving that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning to smuggle himself and some of the remaining Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7, out of Gaza via the Philadelphi Corridor and from there to Iran.
Sinwar’s secret plan to ‘smuggle hostages to Iran’
During a 15-minute press conference for the foreign media in Jerusalem last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu astounded the audience by claiming that Hamas was planning to smuggle hostages out of Gaza using the much-disputed Philadelphi corridor.

"If we leave the Philadelphi corridor, it will be impossible to prevent Hamas not only from smuggling weapons, but also from smuggling hostages,” he said.

What was the background to this claim? Intelligence sources have told the JC that Sinwar’s plan was to smuggle himself and the remaining Hamas leaders along with Israeli hostages through the Philadelphi corridor to Sinai and from there to Iran.

This was reportedly revealed during the interrogation of a captured senior Hamas official, as well as by information obtained from documents seized on Thursday, August 29, the day the six bodies of the murdered hostages were retrieved.

Hamas has been insisting for months on taking control of the corridor while Israel has strongly resisted. This is why no deal or compromise has been agreed in the last eight months, despite the efforts of the US, Egypt and Qatar.

Sinwar has most likely come to realise that the war was over as far as his organisation was concerned and that his chances of achieving military success were nil, despite his success in international propaganda.

Sinwar sees only one way out – to save his own life by abandoning the battlefield and fleeing Gaza. He has not insisted on the withdrawal of IDF forces from the Netzerim crossing, as there is no possibility of smuggling or escaping from Gaza through this crossing.

To Sinwar, the Philadelphi corridor has turned out to be the only option available to fulfill his plan, which is defined by Israeli security officials as cowardly. However, the Israelis are not even considering withdrawing from the Philadelphi, something that Netanyahu calls taboo – even at the price of no deal or further dead hostages.


‘Jenin terror cell planned Oct.7-style massacre in Samaria’
A Palestinian terror squad based in Jenin planned to infiltrate Israeli communities in Samaria and carry out an Oct. 7-style massacre, according to an indictment published by Channel 14 on Wednesday.

The charges filed against Osama Bani Fadl, who stands accused of murdering Israelis Shay Silas Nigrekar and his son Aviad Nir on Aug. 19, 2023, in Huwara, reveal that he fled to Jenin after the shooting, joining a terror cell there, Channel 14 News reported.

Fadl was arrested in November during an Israeli counterterrorism raid in the Jenin camp. Israeli security forces said at the time that the armed suspect was located in a hideout used by local terrorist operatives.

The indictment accuses Fadl and other members of the terrorist squad of making preparations for a mass slaughter targeting Jewish residents of Samaria, including by infiltrating Israeli towns using vehicles.

The terror cell reportedly also planned attacks inside the town of Ma’ale Efraim in the Jordan Valley, and a drive-by shooting and car bombing at the gas station outside Eli in the Binyamin region of Samaria, a location that was targeted twice by Palestinian terrorists over the past 14 months.

In response to the news, attorney Haim Blecher of the Honenu legal aid group, who represents the Nigrekar family, told Channel 14 News that his clients demand prosecutors seek the death penalty against Fadl.
Palestinians tried to infiltrate Jerusalem disguised as Jews bearing yellow ribbon for hostages
Five Palestinians were detained earlier this week attempting to illegally enter Jerusalem from the Judean Desert disguised as Jewish commuters, the Israel Police said on Wednesday.

The driver of the suspects' vehicle, which had a yellow ribbon on its mirror to signify solidarity with the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, and an air freshener with an Israeli flag, was stopped for inspection by Border Police officers at the az-Za'ayyem crossing near Ma'ale Adumim.

During questioning, it became evident that the driver and three passengers were Judea and Samaria residents without permits to enter Jerusalem. They were carrying Israeli flags, a yarmulke and a wig.

In the trunk, the officers discovered a fifth Palestinian, along with Palestinian Authority licence plates.

"It became clear that the vehicle's original Palestinian licence plates were replaced with stolen Israeli licence plates from a car that was taken off the road," police said.

An indictment was filed against four of the suspects for attempting to illegally cross or reside over the Green Line. In addition, the driver was arrested, and a court extended her detention until 8 August.
Fatah terror leader’s son among 6 killed by IDF drone in Samaria
The son of imprisoned Fatah terror leader Zakaria Zubeidi was among the six people killed in an Israeli drone strike in Tubas in northeastern Samaria on Wednesday night, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Israel’s military confirmed that Mohammed Zubeidi was part of an armed terrorist cell targeted in the strike. The IDF said that a total of seven terrorists were eliminated from the air and on the ground on Wednesday night, accusing them of being “involved in terrorist acts and shooting attacks against the security forces.”

The IDF described Zubeidi as “a major terrorist from the Jenin area who took part in a shooting attack in the Seam area (the pre-1967 line delimiting Judea and Samaria) and in many terrorist operations against IDF forces in the Judea and Samaria area.

“During Israel Defense Forces counterterrorism activity in the area of Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley, IAF aircraft conducted three targeted strikes on armed terrorists that posed a threat to Israeli forces,” the IDF said in a statement on early Thursday.

The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry named five of the Palestinians it said had been killed in the strike as Ahmed Abu Dawas, 24, Mohammed Abu Juma, 30, Qusay Abd al-Razeq, 26, Mohammed Abu Zagha, 23 and Mohammed Zubeidi, 21.

The Palestinian Red Crescent then reported an additional fatality, an unnamed individual, age 17.

Mohammed Zubeidi was the son of Zakaria Zubeidi, the Jenin chief of Fatah’s armed terror wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, during the Second Intifada. P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas is the chairman of Fatah and the PLO.

Zakaria Zubeidi escaped from Israel’s Gilboa Prison in September 2021 along with six other high-security prisoners. They were captured within two weeks following an intensive manhunt.


Hezbollah hit Israel’s north 1,300 times in August, in most intense month since Oct. 7
August was the most intense month in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group so far, with more than 1,300 attacks on the Jewish state recorded, authorities said on Thursday.

According to the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), Hezbollah terrorists fired no fewer than 1,307 rockets, missiles and drones last month, up 20% from July.

The figure included the some 320 missiles and drones fired as part of Hezbollah’s Aug. 25 attack, which the terrorist organization said came in retaliation for Israel’s targeted killing of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

The Shin Bet recorded 855 attacks in June, 1,000 in May, 744 in April, 746 in March, and 534 in February. The August figure marked an increase of 400% compared to January, when 334 projectiles were launched across Israel’s northern border.

Between the start of the Hezbollah attacks on Oct. 8 and Dec. 31, a total of 2,000 attacks were recorded.

Hezbollah has attacked the Jewish state nearly every day since Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones at Israel, killing more than 40 people and causing widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.

Shortly before midnight in Israel on Wednesday night, the Israeli Air Force said that it hit more than 10 Hezbollah “military infrastructures and launchers” at three sites in Southern Lebanon.

The launchers “posed a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel,” the IAF said.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah fired 65 rockets from Lebanon into Israel.
‘1,000 killed from friendly fire is the price of war,’ agree Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials
The IDF spokesman in Arabic on Wednesday revealed a document featuring minutes from an August 2022 meeting between Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials in Gaza, held following Operation Breaking Dawn, which targeted the Iran-loyalist PIJ in Gaza.

The Hamas official was identified as Ahmed and the commander of the Islamic Jihad’s military department was Akram al-Ajouri.

During the meeting, a controversy erupted over the failed rocket launches by the Islamic Jihad that killed Gazan civilians. In the context of the meeting, Ajouri criticized the accusations of Hamas and was quoted as saying: “Even if a thousand are killed by friendly fire, this is the price of war.”

During the exchange Ajouri criticizes Hamas for their investment in ‘defensive Jihad’ at the expense of ‘offensive Jihad,’ and denounced what he deemed Hamas’s “embarrassment of PIJ with the Egyptians,” claiming that Hamas blames the PIJ for every rocket fired upon its launch even without evidence.

Ajouri also accused Hamas of taking part in a media campaign against the PIJ, especially in the context of the rocket misfires. To this the Hamas representative responded: “we are not part of a campaign against you – but it is the population of Gaza, where there are two million Facebook accounts, and everyone pretends to be an expert. Your rockets fell on the homes of the people in broad daylight, and has happened again and again, so the people were mad at you. You must understand that we do not control the popular view in Gaza.”

Ahmed said that 1,000 killed by friendly fire is understandable if it is a result of unplanned mishaps, yet the problem of PIJ’s rockets did not start today and Gazans were killed by them in 2014, 2019 and 2021, and also in the 2022 round. He added that Hamas contacted PIJ on this issue already in 2019, to which Ajouri responded “By Allah, your words are true. We take our designs from the [Iranian Revolutionary] Guards, and we try to apply them in Gaza, but there are problems with the application which are being taken care of.”

The document confirms Hamas’s and Islamic Jihad’s view of the residents of Gaza and their exploitation of them, as the two movements realize the danger these rockets pose to the lives of the residents and consider them a “war tax” directly or indirectly.


Controlling the Gaza War Narrative
How is it that Gaza, with 36 hospitals built with EU donations, thousands of UN relief workers on the scene for decades, and some of the highest per capita healthcare spending in the Arab world, failed to vaccinate its children?

Some are calling for an unconditional ceasefire, seemingly unconcerned that such a deal might leave dozens of hostages to die in the hands of Jew-hating terrorists. They somehow think that there's a peace agreement in the offing with Hamas, which has publicly committed to murdering every Jew in Israel. They claim it's Israel's duty to prematurely suspend their justified dismantling of the Hamas death machine, which has attacked Israel for almost 20 years.

If it were any other country, Israel's response would either be ignored or praised for its calibrated consideration of civilians while putting their own fighters at risk. If Hamas were any other political entity in the world, it would be broadly condemned for attacking without provocation.

For Hamas, this isn't really a war, it's a publicity stunt, a massive re-running of Yasir Arafat's original playbook: The more Jewish children you kill, the more world attention and sympathy you get. If Hamas didn't burn Jewish children alive on Oct. 7, the world would not be paying much attention to them. And, it's working out amazingly well for Hamas. They're getting massive amounts of positive media coverage, while world opinion is solidly against Israel.

Except, according to New York Magazine, a mere 14% of Americans under 50 say they are following the war extremely or very closely, and that under-30 voters listed "Israel/Palestine" 15th among the 16 "major issues."

So if Americans aren't following the story, and don't care much about the issue, why are we hearing about it so often? Because it's a money-maker for news corporations. Dead kids in Gaza are great clickbait, even if the images are fake. Disinformation campaigns that make Jews look like amoral, bloodthirsty killers are good for the bottom line, even if they cause a massive uptick in antisemitic violence in the U.S.

The result is that the views of a small group of well-funded anti-Israel loudmouths are controlling the narrative. Somehow, when there are no Jews involved, many far more serious crises around the world just don't rate coverage.


Editor's Notes: As hostages are murdered, sorry is no longer enough
Rachel’s words haunt me: “I’m sorry. If there was something we could have done to save you and we didn’t think of it, I beg your forgiveness.” Her plea was personal, directed at her son, but I think there’s a lesson in there for all of us. Did we do enough? Did we stand up when it mattered? Did we use every tool at our disposal to fight for those still in captivity?

Personally, I feel I could have done more. I didn’t march in the streets or join the protests calling for the hostages’ release. I prayed, yes. Every week in my synagogue, we offer a special prayer for the hostages, passing out pieces of paper with their names, asking for divine intervention. But is that enough? In my heart, I know it’s not.

We at the Post published countless stories on the hostages.

We interviewed those who were released, shared their heart-wrenching accounts of captivity, and highlighted the suffering of those still left behind.

We devoted front pages to this crisis, shouting into the wind, hoping the world would listen. But as Rachel reminded us, “The hope that perhaps a deal was near was so authentic it was crunchy. It tasted CLOSE. But it was not to be.”

The truth is, no matter how many stories we publish, no matter how many interviews we conduct, we cannot change the fact that Hersh is gone and that six more lives have been lost. And with every new headline, every report of another rocket, another act of violence, it becomes harder to keep up. But that doesn’t mean we should stop trying.

Entering a time of repentance
As we enter the month of Elul, the time for reflection and repentance, it feels fitting to ask: How can we do better? How can we ensure that Hersh’s death – and the deaths of so many others – doesn’t become just another tragic statistic? This is the time for soul-searching, both on an individual level and as a nation.

In her eulogy, Rachel described her son as “energetic, kind, patient, curious, funny, irreverent, pensive.” Hersh was, by all accounts, the kind of young man any parent would be proud of. He loved traveling, soccer, and electronic music. He was just like so many other 23-year-olds, full of life, with the world at his feet. Now, he will forever be young, forever frozen in time, a memory that his family will carry with them always.

But his story doesn’t have to end there. It’s up to us – those of us still living, still free – to ensure that his legacy, and the legacy of all those who have suffered, isn’t forgotten. We must ask ourselves what more we can do to bring about the freedom we so desperately seek – not just for the hostages still in Gaza but for Israel as a whole.

As Rachel so poignantly said, “I pray that your death will be a turning point in this horrible situation in which we are all entangled.” We owe it to Hersh and his family to make sure that prayer isn’t in vain. As we head into Rosh Hashanah, let’s not just say sorry for our mistakes.

Let’s take action. Let’s be better Jews, better Israelis, and better advocates for those who need us most.

Because if we don’t, who will?
The Only People Starving in Gaza Were the Jewish Hostages
Last month I wrote ‘UN Blocks Food Aid to Gaza to Fake a Famine’ which broke down some of the ways that a famine was faked. Even the false claims of a famine have been falling off from the usual sources. And there are no shortage of videos and photos of open restaurants and Arab Muslims in Gaza throwing away U.S. aid.

That’s not to say there weren’t people starving in Gaza. Those people were the Jewish hostages.

Eden Yerushalmi, a young woman who was one of the six hostages murdered by Hamas, weighed only 36 kilograms or 79 pounds at the time of her death. Other surviving hostages have described severe hunger in the past.

While the U.S., Israel and other countries filled Gaza with food, the hostages were the ones starving.

Hamas supporters on college campuses and in public areas held fake ‘fasts’ and ‘hunger strikes’.

Meanwhile, the terrorists they were covering for were starving their hostages.

The thing to remember about Islam and the Left, is that the things they accuse you of are the things that they either are doing to you or want to do to you.

The more they scream about famine in Gaza, the more they’re admitting that they’re the ones starving people to death.


Hamas to publish video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at 11 p.m., terror org. announces
Hamas published a video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin on their official Telegram Thursday evening, as the terrorist organization continues to engage in psychological warfare.

In the video, Hersh called on President Biden's administration to do all possible to bring an end to the war.

The Hamas announcement read, "Al-Qassam Brigades announcement: Tonight at 11 p.m., the murdered Hersh Goldberg-Polin will speak. #Time_Is_Running_Out #Government_Of_Lies," the terror organization said in an earlier announcement.

This message follows the recent videos published by Hamas on Telegram of Eden Yerushalmi, Alex Lobanov, and Carmel Gat, three of the six hostages murdered in a Hamas tunnel by the terrorist group. Hersh is the fourth hostage video released of the six.

The videos of Ori Danino and Almog Sarusi are expected to be released in the upcoming days, according to Hamas.


Call Me Back #262: Bibi’s message vs Bibi the messenger – with Nadav Eyal and Amit Segal
Hosted by Dan Senor
In recent days, there has been intensifying debate inside Israel over whether the security concerns raised by Prime Minister Netanyahu (regarding the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border) are legitimate or just sand being thrown in the gears of the hostage negotiations?

Are there actual substantive objections to the concerns the Prime Minister is raising, or are the concerns really just with Netanyahu himself? Is the problem the message? Or the messenger?

We are joined by Amit Segal. He is the chief political correspondent and analyst for Channel 12 News, and for Yediot Ahronot, the country’s largest circulation newspaper.

NADAV EYAL who is a columnist Yediiot. Eyal is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.

Amit and Nadav often debate in Hebrew on Israeli television…this is the first time they are debating like this in English, and they wound up debating a number of other – more raw – issues that cut to some of the divisions in Israeli society today over the war. I learned a lot from both of them.
The Commentary Magazine Podcast: One Jewish State
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
Today we’re joined by former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman to discuss his plan for Israel’s future as articulated in in his new book One Jewish State. Then we get into the state of the race: Trump sounds pretty good, Kamala’s policies sound incoherent, and both Walz and Vance are just plain bad.


'Shameful': Douglas Murray slams an ‘absent’ America after Joe Biden takes a holiday
US President Joe Biden has come under fire for his “shameful” ignorance of Israel during his beach holiday.

Bestselling author Douglas Murray told Sky News host Rita Panahi it is "absolutely preposterous” that President Biden put pressure on the Prime Minister of Israel.

“Joe Biden has spent recent weeks, on the beach, literally on the beach, away on the beach with Doctor Jill,” Mr Murray said.

“When he says that Prime Minister Netanyahu isn’t doing enough, I’d love to know exactly what Joe Biden thinks his own work performance schedule has been of late.

“This, I think, is a glimpse into what happens in the world when America is absent, and I think it is shameful."


Eylon Levy: ‘Outright bias’ from the left wing media on Israel-Hamas war
Sky News host Sharri Markson says there has not been “outrage” over the more than 100 hostages still captured by Hamas in Gaza.

Ms Markson said all we hear is “constant calls” for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“There’s outright bias from most of the left wing media.”


The Israel Guys: A New level of stupidity with the Hamas/Israel negotiations Has Been Reached
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier here in Israel, a US official just came out with a statement that is absolutely insane.

Hamas is also now blaming Netanyahu for the failure of the latest round of ceasefire talks.

Yeah this is pretty wild. Justin discusses all of this on today’s show.




Ryanair cancels all flights to Israel for foreseeable future
Ryanair has announced the cancellation of flights to and from Israel until further notice.

The Irish low-cost airline was scheduled to resume flights to Israel in October, but the announcement has put travel plans into fresh turmoil.

The airline, which connects several European countries to Tel Aviv and Eilat, said on Thursday that it has cancelled all flights to and from Israel until October 27, after the Jewish holidays.

The announcement comes a month after Ryanair said it would resume flights at the end of September.

Ryanair blamed “operating restrictions” for the decision – but the JC has been unable to confirm what these restrictions are.

In a statement, the company said the “regrettable” cancellations were made because of “operating restrictions which are beyond our control.

“Affected passengers will be notified of their options via email and SMS, and passengers are advised to download the Ryanair app to check for the latest flight updates,” the airline said.

After cancelling flights soon after October 7, the airline resumed flying to Tel Aviv on June 3, with dozens of weekly departures and arrivals.
JetBlue displays map of Israel identifying most of country as 'Palestinian Territories'
Jetblue Airlines uses a map on its flights, showing Israel as 'Palestinian Territories' with the Golan Heights no longer included within the border. After passengers complained, the company has yet to apologize and hasn't changed the map.

Following recent political activism on flights worldwide, passengers wonder if this was a mistake or a new perspective on Israel's borders. JetBlue responded that the map service was provided by a third party and are now trying to understand where the map originated.

In their response, the company chose to blame the external service provider instead of apologizing or explaining the choice to present Israel's borders differently. But social media users did not remain indifferent to the affair. "Why not take a basic geography lesson first, instead of dealing with unknown service providers?" one critic asked. Another user suggested Jetblue check an actual map before posting content.

Some joked and compared JetBlue's mistake to the map from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's presentation on Wednesday, which did not include the West Bank. One of them wrote: "To be fair to JetBlue - even the prime minister of Israel himself is not entirely sure what the borders of his country are."

The map is still being displayed on flights, and JetBlue has not clarified whether it will change it or leave it on display.

This is not the company's first such controversy. In April, it officially announced that it would change its procedures following an incident in which a Jewish passenger from Florida complained about a Free Palestine pin on a flight attendant's uniform, which resulted in his being ousted from his flight.




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