Wednesday, October 09, 2024

10/09 Links Pt1: Those Darned Disobedient Israelis; Iran's attack was aggressive, our response will be a deadly surprise; Sinwar resurfaces, seeks guarantees for his life

From Ian:

Israel at war: democracy in action
This idea might come as a surprise to those who get their news about the Middle East solely from the mainstream media. The only Israelis who ever appear on the TV news here, in between the constant coverage of suffering Palestinians, are those protesting against the Israeli government and demanding an end to the war.

The mainstream-media narrative is basically that this is ‘Bibi’s war’, only kept going by Israel’s unpopular prime minister, ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, as a cynical ploy to save his own political skin, postponing his fall from power and possible imprisonment. They want to reduce Israel’s war to the level of just another sordid government scandal. But that could hardly be further from the truth.

It is certainly true that Netanyahu has many opponents at home. Prior to the Hamas massacres of 7 October, Israeli society was politically deeply divided. In the immediate aftermath of the pogrom, Netanyahu was bitterly criticised for leaving Israel open to attack. Those divisions have not gone away, and even Netanyahu has acknowledged that his government will be called to account.

Yet those issues have not undermined the consistently widespread public support for Israel’s counter-attacks against Hamas and Hezbollah. The one thing that most Israelis agree upon, apart from the urgent desire to return all of the hostages taken by Hamas, is the need to defeat Islamist terror. Indeed, in the wake of the recent attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, in response to the indiscriminate shelling of Israeli civilians, Netanyahu and his Likud party have enjoyed a resurgence of support in the opinion polls. Away from party politics, every poll shows strikingly high levels of public support and admiration for the IDF.

Israelis support the war because they appreciate that what’s at stake is the survival of their democratic state. Most are dismissive of the naive talk in the US and Europe of a two-state solution; they know that the Islamists are not really fighting to create a Palestinian state, but to wipe the sovereign Israel off the map – ‘From the river to the sea’ – and to drive the Jews into the Mediterranean.

In one remarkable recent poll by the Jerusalem Centre for Security and Foreign Affairs, 68 per cent of Israelis said they supported a direct attack on Iran if its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, continues launching rockets at Israel. More than two-thirds of respondents opposed the notion of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after 7 October. And 92 per cent thought the Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank – the Western powers’ preferred partner in a future Palestinian state – could not be trusted to prevent a repeat of the 7 October massacres. That is hardly surprising, given that some PA officials openly celebrated the attacks, while the leadership tried to blame Israel for staging the pogrom against its own citizens.

The anti-Israeli crusade in Europe and America has brought together all that is worst within our democracies, from the Western elites’ self-loathing to the merger of old-fashioned Islamic anti-Semitism with the new version of that prejudice spread by woke identity politics. Deserting Israel now means abandoning our own society’s democratic values, and siding with barbarism against civilisation.

By contrast, Israel at war is democracy in action, a beacon for us all. The people of Israel had to fight to establish the Jewish state in 1948 and have been fighting to defend it ever since. As citizens with an historic, hard-fought stake in their society, they have risen to the challenge despite their deep divisions. It is the common cause which the Israeli people have made in this war that has given the IDF the will to fight on, with more military success than many experts expected.

The link between popular engagement with a war and military success has been a feature of history, ever since the poor sailors of Ancient Athens, the ‘birthplace of democracy’, defeated the mighty Persian Empire at the naval Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. The Israelis are showing it once more. Reports suggest that many younger Israelis, of the peace-seeking generation that was dancing at the Nova music festival when Hamas murderers attacked, have since come round to the view that Israel must defeat its mortal enemies to survive.

Behind their empty words of sympathy for the 7 October victims, Western rulers’ retreat from fully supporting Israel in its wars against Hamas and Hezbollah reflects the elites’ loss of faith in fighting for national sovereignty and democracy at home. Those of us who want to stand up for our democratic civilisation, warts and all, should stand foursquare with the Israelis. To paraphrase the scriptural words Netanyahu used in his speech at the United Nations two weeks ago: Israel is a blessing, not a curse, in the war to defend Western democracy.
Seth Mandel: Those Darned Disobedient Israelis
Today’s New York Times carries a long reflection on Biden’s inability to control events in the Middle East over the past year, framing the problem as one of “influence” and its limits. “Even as the United States has continued to arm Israel, the administration has been repeatedly thwarted in reining in Mr. Netanyahu, who has sidestepped or dismissed entreaties from the White House to de-escalate the conflict and leave room for a postwar creation of a Palestinian state,” writes reporter Michael Shear. “And with Israel now poised to carry out retaliatory strikes against Iran, the wider war that Mr. Biden sought to avert is at hand.”

Apparently Biden and Bibi haven’t spoken since Aug. 21. The president feels defeated by his inability to solve two riddles, according to Shear: “How do you pressure an ally facing a threat to its existence? How far should you go if that ally ignores your advice?”

Biden, Shear writes, didn’t fulfill his intent to get all the hostages home. His humanitarian interventions in Gaza flopped. He told Israel not to give in to a rage similar to America’s own after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and yet “decisions by Mr. Netanyahu and his cabinet mirrored those of the post-9/11 American politicians who felt that only war would ensure long-term security.”

But there’s one specific category of failure that, if Biden looks closely enough at, he will discern the root cause of all the others. Shear writes: “Mr. Biden’s message then included a blunt warning to Iran and others in the Middle East not to use the fighting in Gaza as an excuse to attack Israel… In the year since, those warnings have proved ineffective. Iran has twice launched missile attacks directly against Israel, including last week, and Mr. Netanyahu is now weighing options for retaliatory strikes. Hezbollah’s near-constant barrage of attacks from Lebanon over Israel’s northern border has triggered a vast Israeli military response over the past several weeks, including the killing of Hezbollah’s leader.”

Biden’s problem, it turns out, isn’t Israel’s defiance—it’s Iran’s defiance. Israel resisted going into Gaza until Hamas got tired of waiting and invaded Israel instead. Israel didn’t go into Lebanon until Iran made clear that it would be the only way to return displaced Israelis to their homes in the north. Iran-backed attacks have continued also from Iraq and Yemen, as well as from Iran itself.

Nobody has been asking Biden or Harris why the Iranians don’t listen to them, perhaps because, outside of sanctions relief, we aren’t supplying them with foreign aid. But that doesn’t explain why these questions aren’t asked just as pointedly about Qatar. The U.S. is Qatar’s largest foreign investor and largest source of imports. In 2022, Biden designated Qatar a Major Non-NATO Ally, a status that brings with it economic benefits, usually in the areas of trade and loans.

It does not explain why these questions aren’t asked of Egypt, a recipient of U.S. aid that enabled this war in the first place by allowing Hamas to connect Gaza to Egyptian territory via underground tunnels and which has mostly declined to play any number of humanitarian roles in the past year.

Turkey is a recipient of US aid and a member of NATO. Does it take marching orders from Washington? How about the Palestinian Authority? Does the US have no sway over anybody? A major obstacle to getting an answer to the question about US influence is that we only seem to ask it about the one country under assault and surrounded by genocidal enemies: Israel.
WSJ Editorial: The Defeat of Hamas and the Iranian Axis Is the Real Peace Plan
Hamas's massacre last Oct. 7 has taught the West forgotten lessons about deterrence, political will, and the illusions of a liberal, peaceful world. The world should never forget the videos of Hamas's atrocities. The terrorists livestreamed as they slaughtered the defenseless. They killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, 101 of whom remain in captivity. Hamas is proud of this handiwork and would repeat it if it could.

The reply of respectable liberalism has been to urge de-escalation, ceasefires and a two-state solution, and to blame Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu when they don't materialize. It's as if Hamas, Hizbullah and their patron in Iran don't exist.

As long as Iran pursues war, Israel must defend itself aggressively to survive. Hizbullah fired on Israel for 11 months. After a week of Israeli success in response, Mr. Biden called for a ceasefire there too. But if Hizbullah remains entrenched in southern Lebanon, how can there be peace?

Israel's best option is to degrade the Iranian axis's capabilities and deny it safe havens. Israel will have a better chance at a durable ceasefire when its enemies know they will suffer more than Israel does when they attack. The only path to a ceasefire, and a broader Middle East peace, is an Israeli victory over Iran and its terror network. Iran is bent on America's destruction as much as it is on Israel's. The Jewish state is the frontline of the West, and we can't let it lose.


Gallant: Iran's attack was aggressive, our response will be a deadly surprise
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday said that the IDF's counter-strike on Iran for its October 1 massive strike on Israel will put the original attack to shame.

He said, "The Iranian attack was aggressive but inaccurate. In contrast, our attack will be deadly, pinpoint accurate, and most importantly, surprising - they will not know what happened or how it happened. They will just see the results."

Speaking to IDF Intelligence Unit 9900, the defense minister said that much of Israel's air supremacy in the Middle East is due to their intelligence collection work.

He noted the unit's efforts against Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and any other necessary front to help the Air Force see "very precisely and in every place what we want to." Will Israel retaliate?

On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israel is not expected to attack Iran's nuclear program but rather to focus on various kinds of military bases and intelligence sites, following a New York Times report on the issue.

Confronted with the New York Times report, sources did not deny the thrust of the report, which predicted that Israel's retaliation against Iran for its massive October 1 strike on the Jewish state would fall more in the medium range of attack scenarios.

Further, the Post understands that Israel's attack on Iran - which virtually all top Israeli officials have publicly promised - will still be much more substantial than its narrower retaliation on April 19, when Iran's S-300 anti-aircraft missile system was damaged.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have both presented removing the Iranian nuclear threat from hovering over Jerusalem's neck as one of the most significant purposes of their lives and time in public service.
Ben-Dror Yemini: Israel must go crazy and strike Iran
The Iranian axis of evil has attacked Israel from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, and Syria—and a significant part of the world has aligned with the dark and murderous forces. A year in which even the leaders of countries expected to lead the free world, who should oppose the axis of evil, are imposing arms embargoes on Israel.

With or without the U.S., Israel must destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. . . . Because if this regime is not eliminated, if it gains the capability, if it [obtains] nuclear weapons, it will destroy Israel. It will commit genocide on millions. Oil prices will rise? Let them rise. Our lives are more important.

The Middle East needs peace and rehabilitation. They will not come so long as the ayatollahs rule Iran. Tens of millions of Iranians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Yemenis, and Palestinians are the primary victims of the Iranian regime, which brings destruction, hunger, devastation, and bloodshed. It’s not clear if the U.S. can afford to abandon them. It is clear that Israel cannot abandon itself. It is possible that an action by Israel, alone, will exact a high price. But any price today will be lower than the price Israel will pay in the future.


McMaster urges consideration of U.S. strikes on Iran
Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said on Tuesday that the U.S. should consider military strikes against Iran’s key military programs.

The former national security adviser, speaking on Tuesday at an Atlantic Council event moderated by NBC correspondent Courtney Kube, said that the U.S. should consider wiping out drone and missile factories inside Iran. Hearkening back to the mid-1990s, he said the U.S. should give serious consideration to military strikes against Iran’s nuclear program.

“When do the missile facilities, as well as the nuclear facilities — when are those options brought to the president?” McMaster, who served in the Trump administration from 2017-2018, said.

But he noted that any U.S. strikes must pursue clear strategic goals, including restoring deterrence; degrading the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s capabilities to supply, communicate with and coordinate its proxies; and setting back Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.

“The objective can’t be like an emotional, cathartic, ‘I feel better now because we struck Iran,’” McMaster said. “It should be to impose costs on Iran to go far beyond anything that they factored in.”

He acknowledged that there are potential risks to strikes on Iran but added that the U.S.’ failure to enforce its red lines in Syria has shown that inaction also carries costs.

In addition to potential strikes, McMaster said the U.S. should “play offense” against Iran in the financial, diplomatic, informational and law enforcement arenas, to isolate and defund the Iranian regime.

He added that as long as the Islamic regime rules Iran, its oppression of its people and foreign malign activities will likely continue, making it important to support Iranian opposition groups through diplomatic and informational means.

“What the world should hope for is a fundamental change in the nature of the Iranian government,” McMaster said. “Now, we’re not going to do regime change in Iran, that’s up to the Iranian people. But we need a government in Iran, and the Iranian people need a government in Iran, that ceases its permanent hostility to the United States, its Arab neighbors, and Israel and the West broadly.”

McMaster argued that a more aggressive approach to the regime wouldn’t be an act of U.S. aggression but rather “responding to literally hundreds of acts of war against the United States, Israel and Iran’s Arab neighbors.”
Admiral Lord West: We Must Stand Up to Iran Before It Fuels a Global Crisis
Last week we saw what happens when your enemies are emboldened by overcaution. In April Iran launched an attack against Israel with more than 300 ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles. On Oct. 1, Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) came back for more, firing 180 missiles at Israel. The IRGC is a malign influence in the Middle East and around the globe.

For 41 years I served in the British Navy. I watched, during my years of service, as the ayatollahs took control of Iran and first began to terrorize their near-neighbors. They formed Hizbullah in Lebanon, a terrorist group with the express purpose of destroying the State of Israel. They also targeted our forces and allies in the Persian Gulf, even illegally seizing Royal Navy vessels and taking British sailors prisoner.

The IRGC is the world's chief sponsor of terrorism. In the waters around Iran and the Gulf of Aden, crucial for the supply of goods and food to Europe, the IRGC threatens our shipping, either with their own navy or by bankrolling Houthi rebels in Yemen to fire rockets. The IRGC's budget is three times that of the regular Iranian armed forces. Their terrorist armies in the Middle East surround Israel and threaten its very existence. They seek to sow division on the streets of Britain or carry out attacks on Iranian dissidents across the globe.

They support our enemies against allies. We read reports that the Iranians had sent 200 ballistic missiles to Russia's Vladimir Putin, so they could bomb our friends in Ukraine. This comes after years of the IRGC supplying their attack and kamikaze drones to Putin's army.

To allow Russia and China to strengthen their Iranian attack dog, and even ensure the regime can build a nuclear bomb, will only store up far bigger troubles for us to face in the future. It's why we must seek to stop Iran in its tracks now.
Former MI6 Head: Israel is going to 'punish Iran heavily'
“Israel is going to respond in a way which punishes Iran heavily and damn the consequences. That’s going to be their attitude”

Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, says that Israel will try and “destabilise” the Iranian regime.


The West Should Welcome the Weakening of Hizbullah
If Western leaders had their way, Israel's recent audacious operations to degrade Hizbullah would not have happened because the West has been addicted to imposing a ceasefire, both in Gaza and Lebanon, that would neutralize Israel's ability to shackle its enemies and re-establish its deterrence.

A day before Nasrallah's killing, the U.S., UK, and EU issued a joint statement calling the current hostilities "intolerable."

Israel was asked to forego the use of force and put its trust in international guarantees and agreements.

This is a grotesque inversion of reality. Instead of piling pressure on Israel, Western diplomats should have insisted on the unconditional removal of Hizbullah from south Lebanon according to the already agreed diplomatic solution, Security Council Resolution 1701.

Nasrallah should be seen as a mass murdering psychopath intent on spreading an insidious brand of Shi'ite fanaticism across the region.

His sudden demise should be welcomed as an essential step in providing long-term security and stability in the Middle East.
Clifford D May: The problem with American diplomacy
As should be obvious by now, the leaders of these terrorist groups have no interest in “diplomatic solutions.” Their goal is genocide—the annihilation of Israel. They say so clearly and even proudly.

Nevertheless, Secretary of State Antony Blinken keeps telling Israelis: “Progress must be made through diplomacy.”

He appears to forget that, where Hezbollah is concerned, a “diplomatic solution” was put in place in 2006. That’s when the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel was halted by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. It mandated that Israel cease firing at Hezbollah in exchange for Hezbollah removing its forces and missiles from southern Lebanon and, what’s more, disarming.

The Lebanese Armed Forces and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, never enforced 1701. They never even tried.

Instead, they watched with bovine passivity as Hezbollah imported weapons and other munitions from Iran and deployed them in Lebanese homes, schools, hospitals and mosques.

On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza and before Israel responded militarily, Hezbollah began firing missiles at Israel’s northern territories, destroying villages, homes and farms, killing children and displacing tens of thousands of Israelis—essentially shrinking Israel.

Israel struck back hard just last month, destroying Hezbollah’s subterranean command-and-control headquarters in Beirut, where longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was meeting with his high command.

Their deaths set off celebrations in Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other countries long victimized by Hezbollah and Tehran’s other foreign legions. Most mainstream media ignored the cheering crowds, probably because their jubilation contradicted the fashionable narrative of Israel as a pariah.

Days after the strike, Biden said his “aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means.” He called for a ceasefire, which would, of course, give Hezbollah time to regroup, rearm and revive.

A few days earlier, Biden had given his last speech at the United Nations, claiming that his foreign policies have been an enormous success. Not even Hunter Biden could find that credible.

But there’s still time for a course correction. In his U.N. speech, the president also vowed that “Iran will never, ever obtain a nuclear weapon.” Two years ago, he pledged “never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon” and to “use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome.”

His predecessors, Republican and Democratic, have made similar promises.

He could accomplish this mission between now and Jan. 20, when his successor is sworn in.

What a legacy that would leave!

What a lesson that would be for both America’s enemies and friends! What a speech he could give!


Afghan man faces 35 years in prison for allegedly planning terror attack on Election Day
The U.S. Justice Department has charged Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old Afghan citizen who lives in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Tuesday with planning a terror attack on Nov. 5—Election Day—in the name of ISIS.

Tawhedi faces up to 35 years in prison for the terrorism charge and for acquiring two AK-47 rifles, 10 magazines and 500 rounds of ammunition to carry out the attack, per the department. He was arrested along with a juvenile the department called a co-conspirator.

“In his seized communications, Tawhedi allegedly indicated that his attack was planned for Election Day, and in a post-arrest interview, Tawhedi allegedly confirmed the attack was planned for Election Day targeting large gatherings of people, during which he and the juvenile were expected to die as martyrs,” according to the department.

Per the complaint, Tawhedi was photographed reading to two children, including his daughter, and “stated that martyrs will be exempted from the sufferings of the grave, placed in heaven, get married to 72 virgins and receive a crown full of jewels.”

Investigators found pro-ISIS documents on Tawhedi’s iCloud and Google accounts and photos in which he raised his index finger in a gesture symbolizing support for the U.S.-designated terror group.


Saudi Arabia loses bid for a seat on UN's premier human rights body
Saudi Arabia was defeated for a seat in the U.N.’s premier human rights body Wednesday after a campaign by rights groups urging the world body's members to reject its bid.

The 193-member General Assembly elected 18 new members to serve on the 47-nation Human Rights Council, which allocates seats to regional groups to ensure geographical representation.

The Geneva-based council reviews the human rights records of all countries periodically, appoints independent investigators to examine and report on issues like torture and situations in countries like North Korea, Iran and Myanmar, and sends fact-finding missions to investigate rights violations, including in Ukraine.

It was created in 2006 to replace a human rights commission discredited because of some members’ poor rights records. But the new council soon came to face similar criticism, including that countries sought seats to protect themselves and their allies.

This year, the Asia-Pacific group had the only contested slate in the election, with six candidates for five seats. Thailand received 177 votes, Cyprus and Qatar 167 votes, South Korea 161 votes, Marshall Islands 124 votes and Saudi Arabia 117 votes.


UN Watch: Hillel Neuer on Fox News: "Students are embracing terrorism. It's really despicable."
Hillel Neuer appeared on Fox News with Trey Gowdy on October 6th to discuss Israel's counterterrorism operations and the despicable support in the West for atrocities committed by Hamas.




Hizbullah Has Lost Much of Its Power after Its Miscalculations
Hizbullah, the formidable Shia militia in Lebanon that for years posed the most imminent and strategic threat to Israel, is suddenly a shadow of its former self.

Within days, a spectacular series of Israeli intelligence and military maneuvers severely degraded Hizbullah's fighting capacity and dismantled its leadership cadre.

Since Hizbullah was the backbone of Iran's network of militant proxies, Iran's strategy of arming and deploying proxy groups throughout the region is suddenly at risk as well.

Hizbullah's near daily rocket attacks put increasing pressure on Israel, as intended. Only that pressure did not lead Israelis to stop targeting Hamas so much as it chipped away at Israel's fears about the cost of military action to address the military threats posed by Hizbullah.

Israeli society gradually concluded the situation in the north was intolerable, and support grew for the idea that the military should do what it must to enable civilians to return to their homes.

By the summer of 2024, Israeli military and political leaders no longer took Hizbullah threats as a reason not to attack, but rather the reason to do so forcefully.


Two killed in Kiryat Shmona, several hurt in Haifa as Hezbollah rockets batter north
Two people were killed in a rocket attack on the border town of Kiryat Shmona Wednesday, as Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel and military forces aimed heavy air and ground fire at the Lebanese terror group.

The pair of fatalities, which marked the first deadly attack on civilians since fighting between Israel and Lebanon intensified late last month, came on a day that also saw five people injured in a large rocket barrage on Haifa.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops continued to carry out raids, engaging in close combat with Hezbollah forces and carrying out strikes from the air, including against operatives who killed an officer last week, the Israel Defense Forces said. Three soldiers were seriously injured in fighting over the past day, according to the IDF.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the strikes Wednesday, including a volley on Kiryat Shmona early Wednesday afternoon that it claimed had targeted “enemy forces” mustering outside the Galilee Panhandle city.

According to the IDF, some 20 projectiles were fired at the Kiryat Shmona area from Lebanon in the attack, with an unspecified number impacting inside Israel.

The two victims were identified in Hebrew-language media as a civilian couple who had been walking their dogs and were unable to reach a shelter in time. They were later named as Revital Yehud, 45, and Dvir Sharvit, 43.


Sinwar resurfaces, seeks guarantees for his life, reportedly
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar reportedly renewed contacts with mediators in Qatar this week to find out the chances that he could receive immunity in any ceasefire-for-hostages deal, Israel’s Channel 12 news reported on Tuesday.

The response from Qatari mediators to Sinwar was not to focus on himself but on the hostages, who are the pressing issue. Israel has not yet responded to Sinwar’s request, the news site reported.

Similarly, in August, Ynet reported that Sinwar wanted protection against the possibility of an Israeli assassination. “Sinwar insists on guarantees for his safety and life” a senior Egyptian official said.

Two threats from Qatar led to Sinwar’s emergence from a long silence, according to Channel 12.

First, the oil-rich Gulf State warned that it wouldn’t finance the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after the war. Seconly, it threatened to confiscate, or freeze, the bank accounts of top Hamas leaders in Qatar.

On Friday, The New York Times reported that Sinwar is seeking a wider regional war and is not interested in reaching a truce with Jerusalem.

The mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre, who is believed to be hiding in Gaza’s tunnels, doesn’t think that he will survive the war and has hardened his stance over the past weeks.

“Hamas has shown no desire at all to engage in talks in recent weeks, U.S. officials say. They suspect that Mr. Sinwar has grown more resigned as Israeli forces pursue him and talk about closing in on him,” the Times reported.


Undercover Israeli commandos kill terror leader, four others on Nablus street
Undercover Israeli forces opened fire on a car in the West Bank city of Nablus, killing five terror suspects, authorities said Wednesday.

Among those killed in the broad daylight shooting near central Nablus was the long-sought leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade terror group in the nearby Balata refugee camp, according to police. He was named in reports as Issam al-Salaj.

The Israel Police said commandos from the Yamam counter-terror unit had been operating in Nablus when they opened fire on the terror suspects.

“The Yamam forces eliminated five armed terrorists who posed a threat to their lives,” police said.

According to police, the unit had been in Nablus as part of an arrest operation targeting terror suspects, backed by the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet security service and Border Police force.

No Israeli forces were injured, police said.

The Palestinian health ministry said four men were killed in the raid and a fifth person was hospitalized with bullet shrapnel wounds. His condition was not given.


6 injured, 2 critically, in terrorist stabbing spree in Hadera
Six people were stabbed and injured, two of them critically, in a terror attack on Wednesday in Hadera that spanned four different locations in the central city.

Police said the suspect, who appeared to have acted alone, used a moped to get from one location to the next, attacking people at each place.

The terrorist was then cornered by armed residents until police officers arrived and helped subdue him.

The suspect was later identified by Hebrew-language media as an Arab Israeli resident of Umm al-Fahm. The man was reportedly known to police for past criminal activities.

Magen David Adom chief Eli Bin said two of the victims had initially been listed as seriously injured but their conditions deteriorated and were later declared to be critical. Three other victims were in serious condition and the fourth was moderately wounded.

Dr. Jalal Ashkar, director of the Emergency Medicine Department at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, told Channel 12 that four of the victims had undergone surgery.


‘60,000 Dead From Starvation’: American Doctors Quietly Retract Grotesque Gaza Libel
The Gaza death toll is “already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population,” and “everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both—including every national aid worker, every international volunteer, and probably every Israeli hostage.” These are just a couple of the wildly exaggerated and demonstrably false claims made in an open letter signed by 99 American physicians, surgeons, and nurses who purport to have volunteered since the Hamas massacre last year.

Curiously, the authors felt the need to add a caveat when discussing Israeli hostages—“probably sick.” Apparently, while they are absolutely certain that every one of Gaza’s two million residents is on death’s door, the hostages who have been starved, tortured, and held underground for a year? Well, probably.

If one needed a clue as to how flimsy the claims in this letter are, they need only revisit an earlier version of the same letter published in July by many of the same signees. In that original letter, these trustworthy medical professionals warned that more than 60,000 people had died of starvation in the Strip since October 7, 2023.

Claiming that Israel has a “deliberate policy” of starving Gaza that was supposedly “not in dispute,” the signees cited a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) as their evidence. Yet, the IPC had already revised its earlier warning, finding no evidence of famine in Gaza. Naturally, it’s the earlier warning—the one the IPC itself said was wrong—that the authors chose to cite.

But in the latest version, the 60,000 dead from starvation? Well, they’ve vanished. Instead, we now have vague claims of “widespread malnutrition.”

The sources these medical professionals use in both letters to conjure up their wild figures are easy to debunk. For example, they cite The Lancet as an authority, touting it as the “most prestigious medical and public health journal in the world.” They conveniently omit that the staggering figure of 186,000 deaths they reference didn’t come from peer-reviewed data or even a study—it was lifted from an opinion piece published in The Lancet’s “correspondence” section. Hardly the rigorous science you’d expect from such a distinguished source.

In addition to the liberal use of wildly inaccurate figures pulled from wholly dubious sources, the letter is sprinkled with a generous dose of modern-day blood libels, such as the vile lie that Israel is deliberately targeting women and children, describing the “unbearable cruelty” inflicted on them, with women “shredded by [American] bombs” and children “murdered.”

It’s the attached appendix, however, that truly reveals the absurdity of these missives. It’s a mishmash of outdated reports from groups like Save the Children and Human Rights Watch, littered with contradictory statistics and cherry-picked quotes from U.S. politicians.

In the latest letter, we’re told at least 118,000 people have died in Gaza since October 7—yet this is the exact same figure given in the previous letter months ago. And then they admitted it was “impossible to accurately estimate how many Palestinians in Gaza have died since October 7.”

Make it make sense.
Israeli arrested in Beirut, after entering Lebanon as journalist on foreign passport
An Israeli citizen was detained in Beirut on Tuesday, after entering the country as a journalist on a foreign passport, and put under arrest when an Israeli passport was found in his possession.

According to Hebrew reports, citing the Hezbollah-aligned Al-Akhbar newspaper in Lebanon, Joshua Tartakovsky — a 42-year-old Israeli citizen, born in the United States — entered the country at some point in the last two weeks on a British passport, with a group of other journalists.

Israeli officials said they were aware of the incident and dealing with it.

Relevant officials in Israel are aware of Tartakovsky’s arrest, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Wednesday, and the case is being handled by the appropriate officials.

“Unfortunately,” said the official, “this is not the first time that Israeli citizens have entered the territory of enemy countries, even though this is prohibited by law, and constitutes a clear danger to their security.”

The National Security Council also said in a statement, “We would like to sharpen the ban on entering these countries, as the issue appears in messages to the public on the NSC website and has been sharpened even recently around the holidays.”

Tartakovsky was reportedly detained in Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

There, his behavior aroused suspicion, according to Al-Akhbar, and he was taken for interrogation, at which point an Israeli passport was discovered in his possession.

It is illegal for Israelis to enter Lebanon under both Israeli and Lebanese law.

According to posts on social media, Tartakovsky, a graduate of Brown University and the London School of Economics, had been in Beirut before.

He was described by friends as traveling the world, with hard-to-pin-down politics that frequently change. “One day he was an extreme right-winger, the next day an extreme leftist,” one friend told the Ynet news site. “Not one of his friends was surprised when he was arrested in Lebanon.”
Germany’s Bild: Beirut correspondent arrested after live interview with Israeli outlet
Germany’s Bild news site said on Wednesday that several of its journalists were arrested in Beirut and taken for questioning the day after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination and following one correspondent’s live interview with an Israeli broadcaster.

Bild said its correspondent Paul Ronzheimer and his team were taken from their hotel rooms, handcuffed and blindfolded, to an unknown location. It described those who made the arrest as “unknown men,” and added that they were said to have been members of Lebanon’s military intelligence service.

While the outlet didn’t note the reason for the arrests, Hebrew media said that they came a day after Ronzheimer gave a live TV interview to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster. It was possibly the first live broadcast from Beirut on Israeli television since the IDF withdrew from the Lebanese capital in 1982.

Bild said Ronzheimer was released later the same day, after Germany’s embassy in Beirut contacted Lebanese authorities, who intervened. He then continued reporting but decided to leave Lebanon, only after which Bild revealed the ordeal.

“Regardless of the fact that we were arrested, interrogated and imprisoned, it is currently very difficult for many reporters to report on what is happening,” the report quoted Ronzheimer as saying. “I will of course continue to report on this war,” he added.

Ronzheimer said Hezbollah hardly issues permits to journalists anymore, according to the Bild report, adding that Belgian reporters were also beaten and attacked by Hezbollah supporters in Beirut.

The article added that on the morning of his arrest, Hezbollah distributed photos of Ronzheimer via WhatsApp and accused him of violating conditions.


The Free Press: Haviv Rettig Gur: What U.S. Politicians Don't Understand About Israel
Today on The Free Press Live, journalist Haviv Rettig Gur calls in from Israel to reflect on the anniversary of October 7.


At War on Seven Fronts Since October 7th | Jerusalem Minute
In this special Oct. 7 episode of "Jerusalem Minute," JNS CEO and Jerusalem bureau chief Alex Traiman and Middle East correspondent Josh Hasten focus on all seven war fronts that Israel has been fighting since thousands of Hamas terrorists breached the Jewish state's southern border one year ago.

They also review important lessons to learn on the anniversary of Oct. 7; Iran’s attack and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's initial comments; what to expect from Jerusalem's response; Macron’s misstep; and Israel’s war economy.


Hamas in Gaza is ‘no longer a significant threat’ to Israel
Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan Col. Richard Kemp says Hamas in Gaza is “no longer a significant threat to Israel.”

Mr Kemp told Sky News host Andrew Bolt that Hamas is still yet to be “eliminated” in full.

“There’s still a lot of work to do there to get rid of Hamas completely.”




Palestinian man’s visa called into question due to terror links
A Palestinian man granted a visa to Australia has previously hosted political members of listed terror organisation at his Gaza art institute, and had multiple brothers and sons affiliated with the same violent groups.

RAWASI INSTITUTE
The Institute was founded in 2013 to develop Palestinian culture and art and present national “resistance” media, according to Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre. Content posted by Rawasi Palestine during Mr Elhasani’s tenure at the institute includes a video shared in May 2023 on X showing rockets firing in the air with the caption, “O people of Gaza, glorify God … What blessed jihad your jihad is … the Palestinian resistance continues to respond and repel the brutal aggression”.

In May 2022, Rawasi shared a picture of a soldier standing on an Israeli flag with the caption “Jerusalem has one flag raised in it. Flag of Palestine”.

Meanwhile in August 2019, Mr Elhasani’s institute hosted a political meeting of Palestinian factional leaders including, Suheil al-Hindi an elected member of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Nafiz Azzam a member of the Politburo of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Saleh Nasser a member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Hamas and PIJ are listed as terror organisations in Australia, while the PFLP has been designated as a terror group by the United States, Japan, Canada and the European Union.

In a translated Facebook post, Mr Elhasani said he opened the factional meeting by “stressing the need to work to restore national unity, support Palestinian resistance” and “confront the occupation by all possible means to restore rights and liberate the land”.

FAMILY TERROR CONNECTIONS
Mr Elhasani was not a member of any of the organisations present, however he has several deceased brothers and sons who were part of listed terror groups.

His brother, Iyad, was the head of operations division of the PIJ, while another brother, Mohamed, was also a prominent member of the group.

A third brother, Sami Al-Abd al-Hassani was a senior commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is listed as a terror group by the US, EU and other Australian allies.

In May 2023, Lebanese news website Al Mayadeen published an interview with Mr Elhasani after Iyad was reportedly killed by Israeli forces, in which he described his slain brother as a “martyr” who had “always prepared resistance fighters who will continue to confront the enemy until the liberation of the entire land of Palestine”.

A video showing Iyad firing a rocket was posted on X by an Iranian journalist Haidar Al-Karrar commemorating his death in May 2023.

Two of Mr Elhasani’s deceased sons were also involved in the PIJ: Mohammed Fayez Al-Hassani was an operational unit commander, and Remah Fayez Al-Hassani was an operative in the group.

Mohammed, who was executive director of the Rawasi gallery while his father was director-general, was among the members of Mr Elhasani’s family killed in the Israeli air strike in October 2023. Another of Mr Alhasani’s sons named Abdul Rahman, who is not involved in any of the organisations, gave an interview to Al Mayadeen on October 26 last year talking about his dead brother.

He said Mohammed had been “among the first people who travelled in 2012 to Iran, Lebanon and Syria, and trained in firing Kornet (anti-tank missile)”.
‘Betraying its people’: Former British commander slams Labor’s Palestinian visa debacle
Former British commander Richard Kemp says the Australian government is “betraying its people” over Palestine visa debacle.

“Clearly the Australian government in this case is betraying its people,” Mr Kemp said.

“Who do they think is going to get out of Gaza? It takes a lot of money … and the people with money in Gaza are the people connected to Hamas.”




The Israel Guys: Uncovering the TRUTH About the October 7th Attack
Today marks one year since the fateful massacre on October 7th, 2023. One year later, there are still troops working to eradicate Hamas, as well as fighting Israel's enemies on multiple other fronts. As we remember this fateful day, and vow to never let it happen again, we must also consider this question: how did this horrific and barbaric attack happen? Who is to blame? If you think that an Israeli intelligence failure is solely to blame, you would be a far cry from the truth. The reason for the October 7th attack goes back much further than 2023. In fact, it goes back decades, and involves international bodies, many of them historically considered Israel’s allies. Did the world incentivize Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran and Yemen in the years leading up to October 7th, 2023?

Watch this special, investigative film about the October 7th massacre, what happened, who is really to blame, and how we move forward. We must never forget, and never allow such an atrocity to happen again.


The Israel Guys: EMOTIONAL: Israeli First Responder Tells GRIPPING Story of October 7th
On October 7th, 2023, Dov Maisel had to make the hardest decision of his life. Not only was it Simchat Torah, the most joyful holiday of the year, but it was also the day of his son’s bar-mitzvah, a momentous occasion for any 13 year old Jewish boy. As Dov and his family were running from the Bar-Mitzvah ceremony to bomb shelters as rockets began to rain down from Hamas, his phone rang.

As the VP of Operations for United Hatzalah, one of the largest emergency response organizations in Israel, Dov knew he would have a difficult decision to make. In fact, it would be the hardest decision he had ever made in his life. To send the first responders he was responsible for directly into the line of fire along the Gaza border. Their mission? To save lives, no matter who they were.

This raw and emotional story from October 7th is one that will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat. Here is Dov Maisel, director of Operations for United Hatzalah, with the story.


Beyoncé Creative Director Slammed for Alleged Antisemitism ... By NY Congressman
The creative director of Beyoncé's company, Parkwood Entertainment, is catching heat from a congressman ... who thinks an influencer allegedly promoting violence "has no business" shaping culture.

New York Congressman Ritchie Torres took to IG Sunday, posting a screen-cap of an earlier post by Andrew Makadsi depicting a man who reportedly set his arm on fire Saturday at a protest in Washington, D.C. ... Torres accuses Makadsi of glorifying the self-immolation of an anti-Israel activist.

Torres posted on the eve of October 7, which marks a year since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. ritchie torres beyonce insta 1

Ritchie said, "Any cultural influencer who glorifies violence and aestheticizes Antisemitism and AntiZionism has no business influencing any culture, let alone our own." beyonce Andrew Makadsi insta 1

Ritchie brought up Makadsi’s past behavior, noting he had previously been accused of sharing antisemitic statements on social media against Zionism and Israel.

Back in July, a screenshot shared by StopAntisemitism's X account allegedly showed a disturbing IG Story by Makadsi -- which disappeared after 24 hours -- calling for "death to all zi0s and their followers."

Beyoncé has yet to comment on the situation, but many fans have tagged her under Makadsi’s post, expressing their disappointment over the allegations and questioning whether she really wants to be associated with him.
Graffiti at Manny’s investigated as hate crime by SFPD
The San Francisco Police Department is officially investigating an Oct. 6 graffiti incident at Manny’s cafe as a hate crime.

Last Sunday, during a thousands-strong pro-Palestine, pro-Lebanon demonstration on the eve of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli retaliation, a man was caught on video spraypainting the phrases “Zionist out of Frisco,” “arms embargo now,” “Dems fund murder,” and “Manny is a Zionist murderer”in black on the storefront of Manny’s, the political meeting space and cafe at 16th and Valencia. Later, in a seemingly separate incident, a green tag reading“death 2 the enemy” was graffitied on the cafe.

The masked spray painter was confronted by a person outside the establishment, and the man said he was tagging the cafe “because Manny supports Kamala” and “Manny supports bombing Palestine.” Other businesses nearby were also tagged, though not to the same extent.

Manny Yekutiel, the owner of the cafe, is Jewish and a Democrat. His namesake establishment has become a staple for local political town halls and debates since its opening in 2017 and has hosted city politicos and national figures like Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor London Breed, and dozens of others. Mission Local has hosted several events at the cafe.

It is not the first time Manny’s has faced vandalism. In 2021, a person spray painted “Racist pigz,” and “Zionist pigz” outside of the establishment, and in 2018 a group of protesters regularly sat outside the business with signs reading “Boycott Manny’s” and “Free Palestine.” Protesters said they boycotted the business because Yekutiel had celebrated Israel’s independence day, which Palestinians consider the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” which displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

“I’m deeply troubled and saddened to have our community attacked like this. Vandalizing a Jewish owned business on the eve of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is disgusting and has no place in the city of Saint Francis,” read a statement from Yekutiel.


October 7 is a 'celebration' for pro-Palestine protesters
Filmmaker Ami Horowitz went undercover during a pro-Palestine rally on October 7 to interview protesters on why they were marching against Israel.

“The reason why I did this is because I want to show these people stand for what they are,” he told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“The media portrays them as simply people who feel bad for the Gazans.

"Look they did it (the rally) on October 7, they didn't do it on a different day ... they chose October 7 because it is a celebration for them."




J Street chooses Palestinian State over prioritizing the hostages
Why is J Street making the creation of a Palestinian state a higher priority than the hostages in Gaza?

That question was raised on October 7, in Washington, DC by Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui is being held by Hamas. In his remarks at a Jewish gathering, Dekel-Chen revealed the contents of his recent communications with J Street, the controversial American Jewish group that advocates for an independent Palestinian state.

“A few weeks back, I asked them to abandon, at least for now, the two-state solution as a talking point,” Dekel said. “Not because I don’t believe it, simply because it’s a non-starter in terms of where Israeli society is today.”

That seems like a reasonable request. He was urging J Street to stop shouting about the need for a Palestinian state—something most Israelis consider a danger—and start prioritizing the hostages.

So I checked J Street’s web site to see how they have responded to Dekel-Chen’s request. J Street has issued eight press releases in recent weeks. But none of them announced any moratorium on lobbying for creation of a Palestinian state.

To the contrary, the J Street web site is still filled with demands for setting up a Palestinian state in Israel’s back yard—as soon as possible and whether Israelis like it or not.

Dekel-Chen’s revelation is fascinating because a constant mantra of Israel’s critics has been the specious claim that the current Israeli leadership is not making the hostages the top priority. The critics charge that Israeli leaders are more interested in other concerns than abductees in Gaza. And, of course, J Street has been prominent among those critics.

Yet here we have a direct appeal by a hostage’s father to J Street itself, to make the hostages top priority and set aside their Palestinian statehood crusade—and J Street refuses to do it, even temporarily.

Nobody is asking J Street to give their Palestinian statehood passion permanently. All Jonathan Dekel-Chen is asking is for them to very briefly set the issue aside. To focus on the hostages, such as his son. To temporarily prioritize what’s most important.

But they won’t do it. Not even for five minutes.


Immigration Minister Tony Burke under pressure to explain how radical academic celebrating October 7 was allowed into Australia
The Coalition has put two “excellent” questions to Immigration minister Tony Burke after it was revealed he was reviewing the visa status of an American law professor who said October 7 was a day for "considerable celebration".

Professor Khaled Beydoun, who is in Australia on a speaking tour, attended a rally at Lakemba Mosque on Monday, the anniversary of October 7, where he made remarks celebrating the Hamas atrocities against Israel.

The rally took place on the steps of the western Sydney Mosque and attracted a torrent of backlash from both sides of the political aisle as the Jewish community held vigils to mourn the deaths of 1,200 murdered Israelis and the 251 taken hostage last year.

Beydoun, whose work examines critical race theory and Islamophobia, said it was “good news” over the past year there had been a transformation in the level of “global literacy” surrounding the situation in Gaza and Israel.

“Today is not fully a day of mourning, today is also a day that marks considerable celebration, considerable progress and considerable privilege,” Beydoun said.

“I want to talk about some good things because it’s a good day, and we’ve got to mark some of the good news that comes about that we often times neglect.

“One thing that has taken place over the course of this past year that’s been unprecedented, that’s been transformative in many respects, is that the level of global literacy around what is taking place in Palestine has exponentially risen.”

In response, Mr Burke said he asked his department to prepare a brief in order to review Beydoun’s visa status.

Speaking to Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin on Tuesday evening, shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan said Mr Burke had to answer for why it was "taking so long" for Beydoun to be booted from the country.
Serial protester drains Aussie taxpayers out of more than $5million with weekly pro-Palestine rallies
A serial protester has been called out by the NSW Premier after costing taxpayers more than $5million in policing costs by repeatedly organising pro-Palestine rallies.

Josh Lees, a member of the Palestine Action Group and an array of other left-wing causes, has made applications to NSW Police every week for the past year to march through Sydney's CBD to protest Israel's bombing of Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the police presence at these protests had cost taxpayers $5.4million this year alone.

Mr Lees, 41, from Newtown in Sydney's inner west, is regularly seen at the protests in a keffiyeh - a traditional male scarf and headwear - which has become a symbol of support for Palestine during the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

He is also an LGBTQ rights activist and writes for Red Flag, the newsletter of Socialist Alternative, a group that identifies as Australia's largest Marxist organization.

Mr Minns this week said police should have the power to refuse a request for a protest when they are held so repetitively.

'It's my view that police should be able to be in a position to deny a request for a march due to stretched police resourcing,' he said.

'I'm not talking about a union rally against the government over a wage deal, but when you've got someone putting in an application every seven days for 51 weeks to march through Sydney streets.

'This is costing millions of dollars, and I think taxpayers should be in a position to say we would prefer that money spent on roadside breath testing, domestic violence investigations, knife crimes, rather than the huge resources that's going into the city and the community.'

Mr Lees was also blasted by 2GB's Ben Fordham on Wednesday morning, who described him as having 'a finger in as many protest pies as he can handle'.


Government extremism adviser expresses concern at ‘levels of criminality’ at Palestine protests
The government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption has expressed unease about the law being broken on pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Speaking before the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee on Wednesday morning, Lord Walney said: “I have been really concerned with the level of criminality that has been on display on protests and the evident difficulty that police officers have in being able to charge all of that criminality event when it is readily in evidence at times on social media.”

While he did accept that “the police cannot be everywhere”, Walney noted that at last Saturday’s pro-Palestine demonstration in London, “there were banners on display in clear support of a proscribed terrorist organisation, Hezbollah, committed to the violent eradication of Israel, which is in clear contravention of the law, which was not picked up at the time.”

The government’s independent adviser claimed that police tactics may have a role in people not being arrested on the spot: “The police rightly point out that they have a responsibility to maintain public order and that in some circumstances, action that they might otherwise want to take may result in a hostile situation being exacerbated.”

However, Walney added that while he understood the line of that argument, “it does create an issue where some of these clear offences are not being immediately brought to justice in a way we’d like to see.”

Nevertheless, he rejected claims of “two-tier policing” and told the committee: “I don’t believe anyone in the Met or its leadership … either consciously or subconsciously … wishes to treat different protests in different ways.”

The Committee’s Chair, former Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall AM had asked whether, as a Home Office Select Committee report claimed earlier this year, he thought that policing regular pro-Palestine protests amounted to “the greatest period of sustained pressure on the Met since the Olympics in 2012”.
Pro-Palestinian protesters vandalise 10 Allianz offices across country
Dozens of pro-Palestinian activists occupied and vandalised offices of the insurer Allianz overnight, throwing red paint over walls and windows in protest at the firm’s links with Israel.

Surrey Police said three activists had been arrested at the Allianz Insurance building in Guildford.

A man and two women were detained on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage, and were being held in custody. The force said inquiries remained ongoing.

The action began on Monday evening as people around the world commemorated the first anniversary of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Palestine Action said it targeted 10 offices owned by the German financial services firm in protest at the company’s investment in Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons firm. It has said Allianz is one of Elbit Systems’ “principal institutional shareholders”.

In a statement, the group called for Allianz to pull out of Israel, adding: “Without insurance, Elbit couldn’t operate in Britain. Palestine Action will cost more than you gain from enabling genocide.

“Allianz, it’s time to stop insuring and investing in Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems.”

Nine of the occupations ended within hours, but the Guildford office remained occupied on Tuesday morning.

A number of Palestine Action supporters could be seen on the roof of the office’s entrance, spraying the walls with red paint and daubing slogans on the windows that read “drop Elbit” and “free Palestine”.

A police team trained in the removal of protesters at height arrived at Allianz Insurance building by mid-morning, and staff were asked to work from home. Surrey Police later said the three activists had been arrested, bringing an end to the occupation.
Cruz demands action after Israel supporter attacked in NYC: 'Arrest every single person'
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Monday called for an investigation into a group of protesters who attacked a supporter of Israel in New York City.

A clip of the incident shared via X shows a protester striking a tambourine near the head of Democratic Majority for Israel Co-Chair Todd Richman during a pro-Palestine rally. Richman then reaches into his coat and withdraws an Israeli flag, which another person tries to rip from his hands.

“Get the f--- off the flag,” he yells.

Richman then engages in a shouting match with other protesters whose faces are shrouded by keffiyeh scarves. The altercation turns physical as the protesters strike Richman with the tambourine and a Palestinian flagpole. Blood appears to stream from his nose after the attack.

The protesters are also heard calling insults at Richman like “p----” and “motherf-----” as he wipes the blood from his face. Police on the scene then escort him away from the group.

Sen. Cruz condemned the actions of the protesters and demanded an immediate investigation.

"Arrest every single person involved in these attacks and then investigate who is funding them,” he wrote via X.

WARNING: The embedded video below contains graphic language and visuals.

Columbia University Business School professor Shai Davidai also reacted to the gruesome scene.

“What people don't realize is that @toddrichman is the most gentle and humble Jewish man I have ever met,” he wrote. “I am proud to know him. I hope these terrorists' parents see this and be ashamed of their sons and daughters.”

“In broad day light on the streets of Manhattan a Jewish leader @toddrichman is assaulted by ‘protestors,’” former New York City Councilmember David Greenfield added. “This is insane. And unacceptable.”


PreOccupiedTerritory: Man Arguing ‘You Can’t Defeat An Idea’ Spends Life Trying To Defeat Zionism (satire)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 8 – A campus activist who has devoted significant time and effort to convince people of the folly of pursuing the demise of Islamist terrorist movements because those movements represent not merely organizations but ideas, which “you can’t defeat,” also dedicates the bulk of his free time attempting to defeat the idea that Jews belong in their ancestral homeland, exercising sovereignty.

Kamel Shagr, 23, leads the Harvard-MIT chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, though he attends classes at neither institution. Shagr’s outspoken presence at numerous rallies features accusations that Israel commits genocide, practices, Apartheid, and harvests the organs of Palestinians has made him a magnet for local and social media attention, which he exploits to spread the message that fighting Hamas and Hezbollah cannot succeed, because those groups constitute an idea, and you can’t defeat an idea. He also rails against Zionism, but has yet to address the cognitive dissonance inherent in insisting you can’t defeat an idea, while trying to defeat Zionism, an idea.

“Hamas embodies the collective will of the Palestinian people, and you cannot defeat that just by killing some people,” he argued. “We must resist the temptation to solve problems with violence, as the Zionists are trying to do. The way to resist is by all means necessary, no matter how bloody and destructive, because Zionist must be defeated if the Middle East, if the world, is to be a peaceful place again, like it was before Zionism.”

Shagr urged his comrades and “moral, upstanding people” to fight Zionism wherever it may rear its head, such as wherever Jew gather, or wherever Jews walk. “It takes diligent effort, like it took to defeat Nazism.” That idea was defeated, he explained, except for Jews being the new Nazis, which illustrates you can’t defeat an idea, to which he has dedicated his life to defeating.

“They tried to stop Islam, too, but Islam is an idea, and you can’t defeat an idea,” he continued, referring to early opponents of Muhammad, some of whom were Jews, who follow ideas that Shagr boasted were defeated by the armies of Islam.


Caught red-handed Video shows vandals smashing congressman’s NYC office with a hammer and red paint: ‘FREE GAZA’
The hateful anti-Israel vandals who tried to destroy Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s Washington Heights office were caught in surveillance footage exclusively obtained by The Post.

The footage shows two thugs — wearing hoods and surgical masks — beginning Tuesday’s rampage by lifting a roller door that had been protecting the workplace of the lawmaker, who has been targeted before over his support for the Jewish community.

As the 90-second clip continues, one of the masked vandals begins viciously hammering at the glass windows, while the other begins to saturate the area in blood-red spray paint before they both leave abruptly.

Congressman Espaillat said he was shocked to find shattered glass and pools of red paint with the words “FREE GAZA” scrawled in black on the sidewalk.

Still, he knew he would be a target for anti-Israel groups protesting on Oct 7, noting that he’d been named on a flier, Espaillat told The Post on Tuesday.

“Instead of appealing for peace, for a solution to the conflict and justice, they resorted to violence and vandalism which I thought was really sad and unfortunate,” said the congressman, who has spoken up when students have been attacked by anti-Israel groups.

Police and Espaillat confirmed that as many as four suspects had come to destroy the congressman’s office, although the footage only shows two people. It is being investigated as a hate crime.


Anti-Israel activists splash red paint on Spanish writer
Protesters hurled paint at a well-known pro-Israel writer in Spain on Tuesday while she was giving a lecture at a center of higher learning.

Pilar Rahola, a former lawmaker, resumed her talk shortly after the incident near Barcelona. She cleaned herself up, put on a clean sweater and continued the lecture while sitting at a paint-splattered speaker’s podium, people who attended the event wrote on social media.

About 100 people attended the lecture by Rahola, an advocate of Israel’s right to exist and critic of the proliferation of antisemitism on the left, at the Martí l’Humà University Foundation in La Garriga. A crowd gathered outside calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.

A video of the incident shows a young man accusing Rahola of complicity in “genocide” before the paint is hurled at her by someone in the audience.

“They won’t silence me. I will not hide. I will not be intimidated. I’m a free citizen in a free country. Fascism, whether on the right or on the left, will never prevent me from exercising my liberty. Which is what you, the aggressors, are afraid of: Liberty,” Rahola wrote on X.

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain in a statement on Wednesday condemned the incident, calling it “a violent and vandalistic” act against “freedom of expression.”
UK activists deface Picasso painting with photo from Gaza to protest Israel arms sales
Activists on Wednesday briefly pasted a photo of a bloodied mother and child in Gaza over a Picasso painting at a London gallery, calling for an arms embargo on Israel.

The National Gallery said two people had been arrested by police after an incident involving Picasso’s 1901 work “Motherhood” and that no damage had been carried out.

The Youth Demand group said two protesters stuck a photograph of the mother and child on the protective glass cover over Picasso’s work.

A social media video posted by the group showed a security guard taking down the photo. One protester shouted “Free, free Palestine” until they were frogmarched out of the room and detained.

As the protester was on the floor, they said the UK government was “complicit in genocide” in Gaza, and that there was widespread support for stopping weapons sales.

“They say it’s in the Jewish name, but this has nothing to do with us,” the protester shouted.

Youth Demand has previously protested at the Cenotaph war memorial in London and planned to disrupt King Charles III’s speech to open parliament earlier this year.

The National Gallery said in a statement that two people entered the room housing the Picasso. “One was apprehended after initially attempting to attach what appeared to be a piece of paper to an artwork. Some paint was thrown on the floor,” it added.

“Police attended and arrested the pair. The room is currently closed. There has been no damage to any paintings.”




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