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Sunday, October 20, 2024

10/20 Links: Sinwar Planned Israel's Annihilation; Amnesty comms director behind official BDS campaign; Ireland has become a hostile environment for Jews

From Ian:

Supporting Palestinians Has Turned into Normalizing Terrorism
The West opposes violence to achieve political aims. The international community always drew a clear line between advocating for a Palestinian state and supporting Palestinian terrorism.

But Palestinians never rejected terrorism, and therefore, they never achieved a state.

The Palestinian Authority, a governing body created with world support when it pledged to oppose and actively stop terrorism from its people, has instead actively supported and incentivized Palestinian terrorism with its "pay to slay" program of stipends for Palestinian terrorists.

It has yet to condemn the Oct. 7 terror attacks, and many of its leading officials publicly praised them.

While most Palestinian supporters in the West won't directly say they support Palestinian terrorism, they use words that effectively mean the same thing to Palestinian ears.

In demonstrations around the world, Hizbullah and Hamas flags are proudly raised, and chants for the death of Jews and supporting resistance by any means are regularly heard on the streets of Western cities.
Bassam Tawil: The Biden-Harris Administration Owes Israel's Netanyahu An Apology
"Again and again we see that Israel absolutely made the right call in not heeding the Biden administration and the rest of the world's insistence that the IDF not invade Rafah." — Lahav Harkov, Israeli journalist, X, October 17, 2024.

"Pretty rich after a year of undermining Netanyahu, saying he MUST go to a ceasefire, MUST deescalate, trying to stop Israel from going into Rafah WHERE SINWAR WAS KILLED, and Kamala boycotting his joint address to Congress - now Biden & Harris have the nerve to congratulate him for setting the path to peace. I'm sure the phone call sounds something like 'You were right Bibi [Netanyahu], we apologize,'" — US Rep. Mike Waltz, X, October 18, 2024

Israel's killing Sinwar and destroying Hamas's military infrastructure in Rafah sadly show how steadfastly the Biden-Harris administration was trying to prevent Israel from achieving victory over the Iran-backed Islamist murderers and rapists responsible for the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.

Netanyahu deserves credit for ignoring the warnings and threats by Biden and his senior officials. Thanks to Netanyahu, Hamas has been significantly debilitated and Sinwar has been eliminated, making the Middle East a safer place. It now remains to be seen whether the Biden-Harris administration will reconsider its failed foreign policies and apologize to the Israeli prime minister for attempting to undermine his efforts to combat terrorism and bring more security and stability not only to Israel, but the entire Middle East as well.
Israel Fights Alone, Carrying by Itself a Catatonically Suicidal West
Little Israel is showing the world how to win again – and saving civilization and a free way of life into the bargain .... let Israel keep winning!

The problem with the JCPOA was, of course, its "sunset clauses." They assured Iran that it could legitimately have as many nuclear weapons as it can produce in just a few short years.

The West has left Israel to fight a war that should never have been Israel's alone. The Western nations, through diplomatic miscalculations, the need for votes, cowardice and a fear of conflict, have essentially outsourced their responsibilities for maintaining global peace to Israel, watching from the sidelines as the conflict ramps up.

If the West is too fearful or reluctant to engage directly in the fight against injustice, terror, and tyranny, the very least it can do is stand with Israel and stop trying to sabotage it at every turn. Support should not be limited to words but include political, diplomatic and military backing. By failing to support Israel fully, the West is empowering exactly those countries working to revise the world order -- from one of freedom to one of tyranny -- by displacing the West.

It is a grotesque reflection on the international community, particularly the Biden-Harris administration and the European Union, not to be offering unequivocal support. Israel's struggle is not just for its own survival but for the security and peace of the Free World. The West, through its passivity, is failing not only Israel, it is hollowing out its own survival.


David Collier: Caught: Amnesty comms director behind official BDS campaign
The BDS toolkit
The document is explicit in its support for BDS – and opens with an explanation that this boycott is in line with the BNC’s ‘escalating campaign’.

This makes it absolutely clear that this campaign is a BDS campaign – which perhaps is not surprising, given that this is the same toolkit that was posted by the BNC on its official account.

The toolkit provides information and resources to people wanting to engage in the Boycott Chevron campaign. It gives ideas about what people can do, provides links to follow – and even provides graphics to download.

In the links section, there are links to the BDS call to boycott Chevron and we are introduced to the official Boycott Chevron campaign page.

If we search the history of the website, we learn that the domain was created on the 13 March 2024.

This date is important, as the toolkit was also created on 13 March 2024 – exactly the same day as the domain was purchased:

Which means that whoever created the toolkit, did not do so as an afterthought – or as part of a personal mission – but instead, must have played a leading role in the BDS advertised ‘Boycott Chevron’ campaign.

Luckily for us – the campaign toolkit is hosted on Google Docs, which means we can search for the document’s owner.

The Amnesty International BDS host
Looking at the details of the Google hosted document, we learn that the email of the owner of the toolkit is ‘Vanessalouiseserna@gmail.com’.

And that email address, leads us straight to Vanessa Serna, who just happens to be the US based Director of Digital Marketing and Communications at Amnesty International.

This is clear evidence that despite Amnesty’s protests – key figures are working behind the scenes to support the extremist BDS movement – and promote the destruction of the Jewish state.

Busted.


Ireland has become a hostile environment for Jews
Is Ireland the most anti-Semitic country in Europe? Most Irish people would vehemently disagree. But if you asked: ‘is Ireland the most anti-Israeli country in Europe?’ then many people here would actually take the question as a compliment. Hating Israel is not just acceptable in Ireland, it has become virtually mandatory.

The latest evidence for this took place at a county council meeting in Dublin on 7 October, the anniversary of the Hamas pogrom. A Fine Gael councillor, Punam Rane, engaged in one of the oldest tropes in the book when she claimed that: ‘The entire US economy is ruled by the Jews, by Israel.’

Taoiseach Simon Harris condemned her remarks and promised that the disciplinary process against her would be swift. More than week later, there has been no sanctions against her and she has kept her job. It hardly needs saying that if such claims had been made about any other group Rane would have been immediately expelled from her party.

Unfortunately, this pattern of behaviour is now common in Ireland, and it seems to have sanction from the very top.

In May, less than a year after the October 7th attack, Ireland decided to reward Hamas by recognising an independent Palestinian state. In response the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, recalled the Israeli ambassador to Jerusalem and sarcastically told the Irish that: ‘Ireland, if your goal is to reward terrorism by declaring support for a Palestinian state, then you’ve achieved it. Hamas thanks you for your service.’

Then there are the increasingly bizarre claims made by Ireland’s octogenarian president, Michael D Higgins.

Last month, while speaking at a UN press conference in New York, Higgins accused the Israeli embassy in Dublin of leaking a letter of congratulations he wrote to the new Iranian leader, Masoud Pezeshkian. Much to the amusement of his critics, it soon emerged that the source of the ‘leak’ was the Iranian government, who had simply posted the letter on their social media channels.

Did that embarrassment prompt Higgins to keep his counsel? Unfortunately not. Earlier this month he said it was ‘outrageous’ that the IDF were ‘threatening’ Irish peace-keeping forces who are based in southern Lebanon as part of the Unifil (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) mission.

Higgins failed to mention that in the last year alone, Unifil forces have stood idly by while Hezbollah launched more than 10,000 rockets into northern Israel, in direct contravention of Article 1701, which was meant to ensure the demilitarisation of the area and the removal of all Hezbollah forces.

Unsurprisingly, just like the mysterious leak, it soon emerged that this threat was false too. Contradicting Higgins’s claims, Andrea Tenenti, Unifil’s spokesman confirmed that, ‘We have not received threats’ from the IDF. In reality, the biggest threat to Irish peacekeepers is Hezbollah. It is militants linked to the group who are suspected of murdering an Irish soldier, Sean Rooney, in an ambush in southern Lebanon two years ago.
US investigating leak of classified intel on Israel’s Iran attack plans
U.S. officials are investigating the leak of secret documents related to Israel’s preparations to respond to Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack. The documents were published on a pro-Iranian Telegram channel.

U.S. officials have confirmed the authenticity of the documents and apologized to Israel for the leak, according to Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan News. However, Axios reported that the Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the matter.

The documents, dated Oct. 15 and Oct. 16, respectively, are marked top secret and for viewing by the “Five Eyes” only, namely the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Kan News reported.

Axios reported that the documents include an Visual Intelligence report by the Department of Defense National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency that had been passed around U.S. intelligence agencies earlier last week.

The documents detailed the transfer of munitions to Israeli Air Force bases and other preparations for a likely attack on Iran, including a large training exercise last week and movements by Israeli drone units.

The documents were posted by pro-Iranian Telegram channel “Middle East Spectator.” The channel released a statement saying it had no connection with the original leaker. “Furthermore, we assumed the documents were floating around elsewhere on Telegram, making them part of the public domain,” it said.

Axios noted that the leak may be an attempt to “disrupt” Israel’s attack plans and revealed close spying by U.S. intelligence on Israel, including the use of satellites.


Oct. 7 Cyberattack Briefly Disabled Warning System in Israel
The U.S. Justice Department has accused two Sudanese brothers of cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure as well as preventing lifesaving alerts from reaching Israelis on Oct. 7.

On Oct. 7, Ahmed Omer, a Sudanese man, mounted a long-distance cyberassault on the online early warning systems used in Israel to alert citizens to danger, briefly disabling them.

Ahmed and his brother, Alaa, were indicted last week for running a group called Anonymous Sudan, which for a year launched as many as 35,000 cyberassaults that disrupted websites belonging to government agencies, including the FBI and Justice Department, and to news agencies, such as the Washington Post, CNN, and the Jerusalem Post.

Hospitals were attacked including Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. Attacks also occurred in Denmark, France and Sweden.

The brothers have been arrested and are in custody in an unspecified country. They have been interrogated by the FBI.
Berlin cops nab Libyan suspected of targeting Israeli embassy
German police on Saturday arrested a Libyan man for allegedly plotting an attack on the country’s Israeli embassy.

Police raided an apartment in Bernau, just north of Berlin, apprehending the 28-year-old suspect, the report said.

A tip from a foreign intelligence service led to the operation, according to the Bild newspaper. The suspect was not previously on any watchlist in Germany, the report said. There were indications the man intended to target the Israeli embassy in Berlin, and he had possible links to Islamic State, according to a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office.

Der Spiegel identified the suspect as Omar A. He is expected to appear before a judge on Sunday.

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, thanked German authorities for protecting the embassy, commenting on social media that “Muslim anti-Semitism drives global terrorism,” and emphasizing that embassy staff are particularly vulnerable.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agencies upped their alert level following recent attacks on Israeli embassies in Copenhagen and Stockholm, amid the ongoing conflict sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in Israel. In September, Munich police officers fatally shot a gunman with extremist ties who had opened fire at the Israeli consulate.


Andrew Fox: Information War Overdrive
The key narratives are two-fold:
- Sinwar died a hero fighting on the frontline;
- Israel has just condemned the remaining hostages.

Plainly, these narratives are nonsense. Sinwar was forced out of one tunnel and died trying to get to another. The IDF disrupted the tunnel system to force him above ground, then closed a noose around him. He ran into the cordon and died wounded and defeated. Here are the scenes being lionised by the propaganda merchants:

All I see here is a wounded and beaten man throwing a stick in frustration, knowing the immediate inevitability of his own death at the hands of the hated Yahud. Quite some distance from the heroism claimed by Iran:

There is an argument that the IDF should not have released these images and videos as it gives fuel to the fire of the “hero” narrative—I disagree. Sinwar’s death was always going to lead to his lionisation as a martyr, and at least having the videos shows the lie to the myth.

The hostages narrative also makes no sense. There is credible and logical reporting that the 6 hostages murdered in the tunnels in August were Sinwar’s “bodyguard” hostages, who were executed as the IDF closed in. Their degraded physical condition was in danger of slowing down Sinwar’s party as they made their escape. There has been no indication since the November 2023 ceasefire that Hamas have ever been willing to make a deal on the hostages. There is a possible argument that Hamas may exact retribution for Sinwar’s death by harming the remaining hostages, but that strikes me as further testimony (as if any were needed) to the fact that Hamas are animals and therefore this war is just, rather than representing a criticism of the IDF’s prosecution of Sinwar as a target.

We will see the strategic fallout from Sinwar’s death over the coming days and weeks. My guess is that it will go one of two ways: it will either make no difference at all, or we will see small movement on the Hamas side. Either way, my best guess right now is that it will not be decisive. One thing is guaranteed, however, and that is that we will see an uptick in Palestinian propaganda and resultant international condemnation of Israel.

That is an easy prediction, as we are seeing it already. Increased IDF operational tempo in Gaza City, and specifically in the Jabalia refugee camp/terror nest has already caused that uptick. As ever, when the IDF increase operational tempo, the Palestinian side has no military response. They counterattack in the only way they can: online. Already we are seeing false accusations of mass slaughter and atrocities, and once again, because Israel has largely vacated the social media space, the IDF are getting hammered for it (this week I wrote an article for Spiked about the unreliability of footage coming from Gaza).

My final, again fairly easy, prediction is that the social media storm will have little impact on IDF operations. Israel has made it very clear that they are fighting to the finish, world opinion be damned.
Andrew Fox: We need to be far more sceptical of Hamas’s propaganda
The IDF’s explanation for the fire was that it targeted a Hamas command centre in the hospital car park with a precise strike. This caused a fire, ‘most likely from secondary explosions’, possibly from munitions.

Of course, you won’t see any of these secondary explosions in Jafarawi’s edited video. But they were clearly visible and audible in some of the footage shared on social media. Unfortunately, these videos were mass reported to X for supposedly breaching its terms, and the algorithm has now removed many of them.

It is a matter of record that Hamas uses hospitals in Gaza for military purposes. We have witness testimony, videos of hostages in Gazan hospitals on 7 October and videos of rocket-propelled grenades being fired by Hamas militants from hospitals. In March, the IDF’s second raid on the Al-Shifa hospital uncovered hundreds of Hamas operatives. It is not outlandish to suggest this could also be the case for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

None of this changes the fact that a man was burnt alive. But this was not the deliberate massacre of children by fire that many portrayed it as. We know that Hamas’s propagandists tried to cover up the truth about secondary explosions. And we know that it uses hospitals to hide among civilians. Hamas has a track record of putting innocent people in harm’s way.

All this begs the question of why Western critics of Israel are not condemning Hamas for this incident. It is a war crime for combatants to use hospitals for military purposes. It is not a war crime to strike those combatants, no matter how unpleasant the damage, as long as a proper targeting process was followed that duly considered possible collateral harm.

We do not yet know if the IDF’s strike was proportionate or not. But that has not stopped the Twitterati from once again condemning Israel, taking the opportunity to demand that Israel cease fire and lose the war, based on only the emotional horror engendered by edited footage on social media.

This reliance on emotions is the single greatest problem with the discourse around this conflict. Appalling things happen in war. But we cannot assess proportionality or legality based on our feelings of horror alone.

This incident teaches us a lesson: we cannot trust a single video coming out of Gaza. Almost everything we see is manipulated propaganda.
Brendan O'Neill: No, Israel Isn't Deliberately Killing Children in Gaza
Children in Gaza are dying in this ghastly war Hamas started with its pogrom against the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023. Yet there's something new and strange in the discussion of child suffering in Gaza. In this war, the agony of the guiltless ones is not seen as the accidental byproduct of the fierce fighting. No, it's seen as intentional, calculated, an actual war aim of the Jewish nation.

This is the first war I can remember where there's been such a feverish urge to prove that kids are not just dying but are being murdered. Podcasts bristle with chatter about Israel's bloodlust for innocent life. A high-ranking UNICEF official described Israel's war as a "war on children." Even pre-Oct. 7, Israel was talked about as a nation that positively relishes child death.

We need to talk about the unusualness of all this. Even the hippies who chanted "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" - referring to Lyndon B. Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War - did not think the president was sending troops for the express purpose of bumping off Vietnamese kids. But apparently Israel kills kids not in error but by design. What is driving this obsession? What motors this double standard whereby "we" kill kids by mistake but "they" do it on purpose? To my mind, the echoes of past libels against Jews are deafening now. The targeting of the Jewish nation as an infanticidal nation grossly mimics the old blood libel of medieval Christians singling out the Jewish people as a child-sacrificing people.

Is it antisemitic to say the Jewish State, unique among the family of nations, hunts kids down so that it might spill their blood and exterminate their kind? It kind of is. Is it antisemitic to feverishly obsess over Israel, to brand it as uniquely murderous, and to judge it by a different standard to every other state? Honestly, yes.
Nobody Knows the Number of Palestinian Casualties in Gaza
There is a temptation to use the HAMAS numbers for Palestinian casualties in Gaza because we have no others. The State Department has openly said this is the reason it and others in the U.S. government have quoted these figures,21 while simultaneously admitting “we don’t have any way of verifying those figures” and being unable to “say [they are] accurate with any degree of certainty”. Claiming to know more than you do, and disseminating this fake knowledge, is the definition of disinformation: it is an appalling habit in inter-personal relations and when practiced at a governmental level it can have disastrous consequences. Another of the State Department’s defences for relying on the HAMAS figures was that “the U.N. relies on them”, but that only restates the problem: the U.N. should not be relying on them, and it is a scandal that they do.

The explanation given by the HAMAS “health ministry” itself of its methodology should have stopped anybody searching in good-faith for information about fatalities in Gaza using the MOH/U.N. data no later than January 2024. As set out in detail above, studies in the months since have shown that HAMAS’s data does not suffer from one or two defects in the collection process that could be corrected going forward and allowed for in the meantime to give us a rough estimate of the Palestinian death toll in Gaza. The problem is that the data does not reflect patterns that would be expected of a real dataset: it makes no statistical sense, neither in its particulars nor its trendlines, and it is perfectly obvious why that is. HAMAS’s casualty figures are not designed to make factual sense: their purpose is political warfare and that is what determines their formulation--and uncritical dissemination by the United Nations.

The ”pro-Palestinian” activists using the HAMAS casualty figures are trying to short-cut a political argument, but this is needless, as well as disreputable. The scientistic habit of generating and accepting “facts” that support moral-political positions, and rejecting information deemed unfavourable to the cause, should be set aside. An argument that can only be upheld by falsehoods is not a strong one. More to the point, it is not as if the casualty stats are the determinant of activist views. Just be honest and make the political argument for a ceasefire or the immorality of Israel’s rules-of-engagement—positions that would have been held regardless of the statements from HAMAS’s MOH.

Activists’ selectivity, distortion, and invention of facts is to be expected by the nature of what they do. The more serious problem is with those self-presenting as committed to objectivity, above all journalists, whose ostensible job is the discovery of the truth. There is very little excuse for such people to be using the HAMAS MOH figures at this late date. Even the most incurious among them must have an inkling that the figures are terrorist propaganda by now. It might be unsatisfying to say we simply do not know the Palestinian death toll in Gaza, but reality stands whether we like it or not, and we should judge harshly—and suspect the motives—of anyone who claims to know what they cannot.


Harris says heckler, who calls Israel genocidal, talking about ‘real’ things
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, appeared to suggest at a campaign event in Milwaukee that the Jewish state is guilty of committing genocide.

After a heckler interrupted the vice president at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee event on Thursday and called Israel genocidal, Harris said, “I’m speaking right now.”

“I know what you’re speaking of. I want the ceasefire. I want the war to end, and I respect your right to speak, but I am speaking right now,” Harris added, per the New York Post.

After saying “what about the genocide” and yelling “19,000 children are dead, and you won’t call it a genocide,” the keffiyeh-clad man was removed.

“Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real,” Harris said. “That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice.”

“The vice president has never previously suggested that Israel’s defensive war in Gaza amounts to a genocide of Palestinian people,” per the Post.

“Kamala Harris caters to the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas lunatics. Absolutely shameful,” wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “She’s dangerously unprepared to be president.”

“It’s ‘real’ that Israel is committing genocide? No. That’s a lie, and people like Kamala who repeat it are liars,” wrote Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

“Let’s be clear: it is not ‘real’ that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It’s a flat-out lie,” the Republican Jewish Coalition wrote. “Kamala Harris’s spreading of outrageous anti-Israel lies puts Jewish lives at risk. Absolutely shameful.”

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote that “it’s not real. It’s a blood libel, and Harris once again shows everyone with half a brain where she really stands.”


Harris genocide accusation ‘shocking,’ says former Israeli ambassador
Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on Sunday called for the White House to state unequivocally that Jerusalem is not committing genocide in Gaza, after Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to equivocate on the issue.

The Democratic nominee for president appeared to suggest at a campaign event in Milwaukee that the Jewish state was committing genocide, in an incident involving an anti-Israel heckler.

Writing on X, Oren said her remarks set “a very dangerous precedent.”

“I felt deep shock when I watched the video in which Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed a serious accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Oren tweeted.

“This is the first time the White House has been linked to a defamation that threatens the legitimacy and security of the State of Israel. I demand that the U.S. administration issue an immediate and unequivocal denial and make it clear in no uncertain terms that there is no place for such baseless accusations, which harm not only Israel but also the relationship between the two countries.”

After a heckler interrupted the vice president at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee event on Thursday and called Israel genocidal, Harris said, “I know what you’re speaking of. I want the ceasefire. I want the war to end, and I respect your right to speak, but I am speaking right now,” according to the New York Post.


Jewish support for Democrats lowest since Reagan era: poll
Jewish support for the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee is on track to be the lowest since the Ronald Reagan era — while the number of those backing Donald Trump is on the rise, according to a new poll from the Manhattan Institute.

If the election were held today, Kamala Harris would win the support of just 67% of Jewish voters, while former President Trump would take 31% of Jewish votes, the survey found. More than four out of five described themselves as “enthusiastic” about their choice.

Though Jewish voters on the whole remain overwhelmingly supportive of Democrats, that support has dipped noticeably over the years.

In 1992, 80% of Jewish voters supported Bill Clinton over George Bush Sr., though things have been trending slowly downward since. In 2020, Biden won the support of 68% of Jewish voters, while Trump had 30%. In 2016 Hillary Clinton won 71% of Jewish voters and Trump got 24%.

The poll follows others which show Jewish support for Democrats is cracking — a trend which has accelerated since Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas.

While Jews tended to favor Democrats on most issues, there was strong partisan agreement on Israel, with 86% saying they supported the Jewish state — and 62% of Jews saying they were concerned about antisemitism in the Democratic party.

“Security, Israel, and antisemitism” are Harris’s weakest issue relative to former President Donald Trump among Jewish voters, according to the poll.
NY Democrat House candidate Laura Gillen has close ties to anti-Israel Muslim activist
A Long Island Democrat looking to unseat Republican Congressman Anthony D’Esposito has close ties to an anti-Israel Muslim activist who once accused Israel of building a pier with Palestinian corpses.

Laura Gillen — who in 2017 became the first Democrat elected as Hempstead town supervisor in more than a century but has since lost a bid to get back into elected office — has been chummy with Malik Nadeem Abid since he served on her transition team in her historic local win.

The contest for New York’s fourth district is widely viewed as a toss-up and a must-win for Democrats looking to take back the House of Representatives next year.

Abid participated in a reading of the Quran while Gillen looked on during her 2018 inauguration and has donated $1,000 to Gillen’s campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission records.

In 2018 Gillen presented Abid with a citation for “Resolution of Pakistan Day.”

The former New York chapter president of the American Muslim Voice Foundation, Abid has falsely accused Israel of “genocide” and defenders of the Jewish state of holding “satanic belief[s]”.

Abid in March 2024 baselessly said an Israeli pier was “built on the dead bodies of innocent Palestinians.”

“Stealing the rubble of their homes to build pier & a port. The rubble may have remains of thousands of Palestinians still missing,” he claimed.

In a May posting he insisted the Islamic State terrorist network was an invention of “intelligence agencies.”

Critics said the association between Gillen, who was raised devoutly Catholic, and Abid was disturbing.
Anti-Israel Group 'Abandon Harris' Expands into Battlegrounds Wisconsin and Georgia 'To Ensure Kamala Harris Loses the Swing States'
The anti-Israel organization "Abandon Harris" expanded its movement into Wisconsin and Georgia in order "to ensure that Kamala Harris loses the swing states," the Washington Times reported.

In a bid to divert votes from Harris in response to her stance on the Israel-Hamas war, the group is promoting Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has pledged to end all military support to Israel. "Abandon Harris," which began in Michigan, expanded its campaigns to Wisconsin and Georgia this week as Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump remain in a tight battle in the key swing states.

"Abandon Harris"—formerly "Abandon Biden"—demands a "permanent and unconditional ceasefire" and "a full arms embargo against the state of Israel," according to the group’s website.

"We have become familiar with the way in which the president and vice president double-talk to our community by making vague allusions of ending the genocidal war while permitting the state of Israel to continue their attacks on innocent people on the verge of disintegration," Hassan Abdel Salam, a spokesman for the group, told the Washington Times.

Salam told the Times that Harris teases talks of a ceasefire in Gaza only to court Arab-American voters.

"The vice president engages in ‘cease-fire teasing’—a common practice that began with [President Biden]—by claiming that a cease-fire is on the horizon while children, women, and men are in flames, burning before our eyes," he said.

The "Abandon Harris" group’s expansion into the two swing states comes as Harris struggles to regain the support of Arab-American voters, who historically supported Democrats before the start of the Israel-Hamas war.


Tammy Baldwin Aide Hosted Anti-Cop Podcast That Featured an Anti-Semitic Black Nationalist
A longtime aide to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) was the host of a radical anti-cop podcast where guests praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, accused Jews of exploiting the black civil rights movement, and called police "slave catchers" who should be "abolished."

Tiffany Henry—an anti-police activist who has served as Baldwin’s Milwaukee office director since 2017—repeatedly boasted about her influence on Baldwin’s policies on the Revolution Ready Radio show, in between calling to "defund" law enforcement and slamming Wisconsin as a "police state."

"By day, I work for Senator Tammy Baldwin," Henry said in one episode in 2021. "So this [police reform legislation] is something that is near and dear to my heart, and pushing internally. [Baldwin is] very supportive of it, continuing to push it, and will vote ‘yes’ for it when it comes time for it."

In another episode, Henry took credit for pushing Baldwin to ask the Department of Justice to investigate the Wauwatosa Police Department for civil rights violations. The department had previously arrested Henry while she was participating in anti-police protests in 2020.

A spokesman for Baldwin told the Washington Free Beacon the senator "did not send the letter because of Tiffany Henry, she did it on behalf of three Wisconsin families."

Records show that Baldwin did send a letter to the DOJ in July 2021 requesting a "federal civil rights investigation of the Wauwatosa Police Department’s practices" and whether the police "targeted individuals because of their race." There is no indication the DOJ ever pursued an investigation.

The news raises questions about Henry’s influence on Baldwin’s law enforcement policies. The Democratic senator, who is facing a tough reelection race against Republican businessman Eric Hovde, has sought to distance herself from the "defund the police" movement. Last month, Baldwin ran an advertisement that featured Wisconsin sheriffs defending her border policies.

Henry’s podcast, Revolution Ready Radio, aired over a dozen episodes in 2021, some of which are still available on YouTube. The Baldwin aide hosted radical guests, including online influencer Umar Johnson, an anti-Semitic black nationalist who has spread conspiracy theories about gay people and Jews. During his appearance on Revolution Ready Radio, Johnson criticized desegregation and accused Jews and Latinos of exploiting black people through civil rights activism.
They Praised Hamas and Defended 9/11. Now They’re Headlining Taxpayer-Funded Group’s ‘Arab Health’ Summit.
A nonprofit in Dearborn, Mich., that has received $24 million in taxpayer funds under the Biden-Harris administration will host dozens of physicians, government officials, and activists at an "Arab health summit" next week to address "health amidst conflict and crisis" in the Middle East. The conference will feature multiple anti-Israel speakers, some of whom have defended the 9/11 terrorist attacks and cheered the "brave" Hamas fighters who attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert and British-Palestinian plastic surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah will headline the annual conference for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), scheduled for Oct. 21-23 at Dearborn’s Henry Hotel.

ACCESS touts the urgency of the conference given the "escalating conflicts and aggression" in the Middle East. But the involvement of Gilbert, Abu-Sittah, and other anti-Israel speakers suggests that blaming the Jewish state for the ongoing conflict will be at the top of the agenda for the conference.

Gilbert has defended the 9/11 terrorist attacks, stating that the "oppressed also have a moral right to attack the USA with any weapon they can come up with." He called Hamas fighters "brave" after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and praised the terrorist group for fighting Israelis "man to man." Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, raped Israeli women, and took hundreds of civilians hostage.

Abu-Sittah, the rector of the University of Glasgow, praised Hamas leader Ahmad Jarrar, who masterminded the drive-by murder of Israeli rabbi Raziel Shevack. Abu-Sittah called Jarrar a "hero" for fighting the "Zionist regime" after he was killed by IDF forces in 2018. A year later, Abu-Sittah attended the funeral of a prominent leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Both Gilbert and Abu-Sittah worked in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack. The White House has said Hamas used the facility as a military base.


Ted Cruz threatens to defund U.N. if Palestinians succeed with Israel expulsion effort
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is circulating a letter among colleagues on Capitol Hill warning of a swift and harsh U.S. reaction if the Palestinian Authority were to successfully suspend or expel Israel from the United Nations.

Cruz, who has been tracking the matter since being briefed by U.N. and Israeli officials earlier this month, is collecting signatures for the letter, obtained by Jewish Insider before it is sent to U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Secretary of State Tony Blinken next week.

The memo lays out what “the consequences of such an action are likely to be, especially for America’s relationships with the UN and the Palestinians,” and urges the ambassador to “use all available resources to deter the PLO from taking that action.”

The letter, which comes days after JI reported on a Palestinian Authority initiative to expel Israel from the United Nations General Assembly that was making headway, serves as a blueprint for how Republicans would respond if Israel were suspended or expelled from the body.

“The effort to diplomatically isolate Israel is aimed at ultimately destroying the Jewish state, which is both obscene and antithetical to American national security interests. If Israel is suspended from the U.N. General Assembly, we will move to limit American participation and funding across the U.N., including U.N. Programmes, Funds, and Other Entities and Bodies, as well as its Specialized Agencies and Related Organizations, both those in which the PLO participates and generally,” Cruz writes in the letter.

The Texas senator warns that such a campaign being successful would place the Palestinians in violation of the Oslo Accords, noting in the letter that, “Those agreements committed the Palestinians not to internationalize their conflict with Israel outside the contours of bilateral negotiations, which the United States has traditionally mediated.”

“The proposal by President Abbas to suspend Israel from the U.N. General Assembly would straightforwardly violate and fundamentally abrogate those commitments, in turn requiring a comprehensive reevaluation of the U.S.-Palestinian relationship,” Cruz said.

“We would pursue such a reevaluation, which will minimally include downgrading cooperation with the PA, ending assistance to the West Bank and Gaza, terminating all Palestinian-related offices across the U.S. government including the Palestinian-facing consulate and the Office of Palestinian Affairs, and broadly curtailing diplomatic, economic, and security engagements between American and Palestinian officials.”
Sexual misconduct claims made against ICC chief prosecutor
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, is facing accusations of misconduct related to harassment claims involving a female colleague, The Mail on Sunday reported on Sunday. This revelation comes amid controversy surrounding Khan's recent request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.

ccording to The Mail on Sunday investigation, in the two weeks preceding Khan's announcement, he was subject to internal scrutiny at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands. Sources claim that a female official at the court made allegations about Khan's conduct to a colleague, who then informed senior managers. The woman was reportedly so distressed that she was in tears.

The Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM), responsible for investigating misconduct allegations at the court, questioned the alleged victim. However, she chose not to file a formal complaint. The IOM decided against launching an investigation and instead recommended undisclosed measures "to safeguard everyone's rights."

Khan, 54, vehemently denied any wrongdoing and suggested a deliberate smear campaign. He stated, "I absolutely can confirm there is no truth to suggestions of misconduct." He added that he and the court were being subjected "to a wide range of attacks and threats."

Paivi Kaukoranta, president of the Assembly of States Parties overseeing the court, confirmed awareness of the allegations. She stated, "Following the conversation with the alleged victim, the IOM was not in a position to proceed with an investigation at that stage." Kaukoranta emphasized the court's zero-tolerance policy towards prohibited conduct, including harassment and discrimination.

The controversy surrounding Khan intensified after his May 20 announcement requesting arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, along with Hamas leaders Yahiya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh. This move sparked widespread condemnation.


Sinwar Planned Israel's Annihilation
According to Hamas documents, Yahya Sinwar's plan included overrunning 221 southern Israeli communities and enlisting Iran and Hizbullah to conquer the Galilee and topple Tel Aviv's skyline. The Oct. 7 atrocities were merely a fraction of what was planned. Sinwar and Hamas's meticulously crafted strategy aimed at Israel's complete annihilation within two years.

Sinwar saw the world in stark binary terms: Dar al-Islam, the areas under Islamic control, and Dar al-Harb, regions yet to be conquered. Sinwar's Hamas believed it had a divine mandate to wage war, expanding Dar al-Islam's frontiers "to the utmost limits." Israel's very existence was seen as an intolerable affront. It also represented a perversion of the natural order, where Jews dared to govern Muslims instead of being subservient under Islamic law.

The Hamas charter unequivocally commits to the conquest of all Palestine as its ultimate objective. Their rallying cry of "from the river to the sea" is a clarion call for a world without Israel. The Oct. 7 atrocities represented merely the opening salvo in Sinwar's diabolical masterplan. He declared on Nov. 30, 2023, that the massacre was a "dress rehearsal" for the final, more devastating act to come.

Sinwar's toxic ideology indoctrinated a significant portion of Gaza's population. Many Gazans actively participated in the Oct. 7 massacre and subsequent looting. The majority of Gaza's residents chose Sinwar and Hamas as their leaders, with hundreds of thousands entangled in Hamas's intricate web of terror. Gaza was transformed into a land singularly focused on the slaughter of Jews and, ultimately, the obliteration of Israel.


Gaza after Sinwar's Death
A senior Israeli source told Israel Hayom that they expect Yahya Sinwar's brother, Muhammad, to assume control of Hamas in Gaza, including managing the Israeli hostage situation.

However, they expressed pessimism regarding the chances of reaching a deal with Muhammad Sinwar, saying, "He is no less a radical than his brother and is an arch-terrorist like him."

Israel understands that dismantling Hamas's civilian control over Gaza, and its control of incoming supplies from the world, is key to achieving its war objectives.

A new proposal being considered involves private American companies being responsible for bringing aid through Israeli border crossings and distributing it to civilian centers in Gaza.

The IDF would be responsible for security, but soldiers would not be involved in the actual food distribution.

The senior official stated that Sinwar's elimination would not bring an end to the war.

"The objectives have not yet been achieved. Hamas still has military strength in the Strip, civilian control, and there are 101 hostages that need to be brought home."
At the site of Sinwar’s elimination, IDF commander says incident was ‘not a fluke’
Standing outside the building where the leader of Hamas and the architect of the October 7 onslaught met his end days earlier, Col. Sivan Bloch stressed on Sunday that the elimination of Yahya Sinwar by a patrol under his command, in what has been widely reported as a chance encounter, was “not a stroke of luck.”

Bloch, who commands the Israel Defense Force’s 828th Brigade, known as Bislamach — or the School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders during peacetime — had recently begun operations in Rafah after the military announced it had defeated Hamas’s organized fighting force there. The Bislamach Brigade was tasked with continuing mop-up operations in Rafah, including locating and demolishing leftover Hamas infrastructure, eliminating members of the terror group, and searching for signs of hostages.

On Wednesday, as the troops operated in Rafah’s northwestern Tel Sultan neighborhood, a vigilant soldier stationed in an ambush spotted suspicious movement several hundred meters away. The incident was almost given an all-clear after nothing was initially found, but trackers with the brigade searched the area and found fresh footprints on the ground, Bloch told reporters here on Sunday morning.

The trackers and other troops followed the footprints to a house in the area, where they heard voices, later revealed to have been those of Sinwar and his guards, among them the commander of Hamas’s Tel Sultan Battalion, Mahmoud Hamdan.

“The squad got stressed out by the soldiers who engaged them, and fled,” Bloch said, pointing to another nearby building where at least four of the suspects, including Sinwar, ran to. “This is where the first engagement was.”

According to Bloch, after his soldiers and officers, including the commander of his 450th Battalion, opened fire on the cell of terror operatives, they fled again. The house where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by troops, in southern Gaza’s Rafah, October 20, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

“From this engagement, they fled; they didn’t fight or anything. The battalion commander and the soldiers managed to hit some of them. And from here, they dispersed. Sinwar ran to the house behind me, another terrorist fled to that house, and two others in that direction,” the brigade commander recalled at the scene. Moments later, the soldiers exchanged fire with some of the gunmen, who fled in different directions. One soldier was wounded in the exchanges.


Goodbye to the ghoul of Gaza, Yahya Sinwar | Israel Undiplomatic w/ Mark Regev & Ruthie Blum
So what changes now that Hamas’s chief villain, Yahya Sinwar, has been eliminated? Hosts Mark Regev and Ruthie Blum are here to explain (and celebrate) all the implications and hopes for better leverage in Israel’s hostage negotiations. And let’s not forget yesterday’s attempted assassination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…does it bring us any closer to Israel’s anticipated attack on Iran? Tune in to find out!

Chapters
00:00 The Significance of Yahya Sinwar's Elimination
07:47 Strategic Implications of Sinwar's Death
19:49 Iran's Role and Future Actions
28:01 A Vision for the Future




Jews who unplug on holidays grateful to hear haphazardly about Sinwar
One congregation of Modern Orthodox Jews, who unplug and refrain from all sorts of biblically- and rabbinically-defined “work” on holidays, found out that Israel had killed Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar in an unusual way.

“Yesterday morning, during Sukkot, I went to a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Riverdale, which I proudly represent. None of the congregants had heard the news about Sinwar’s death until I announced it,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media on Friday, the second day of the holiday.

“Announcing the news of Sinwar’s death to an audience that felt an approaching sense of closure is a moment I will never forget,” the pro-Israel congressman wrote.

Orthodox Jews, who also found out about Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack via word-of-mouth on the Shemini Atzeret chag nearly a year earlier, told JNS that it is refreshing to avoid their phones and computers on Shabbat and holidays.

“Shabbat and chag are all about disconnecting from the weekday world,” the Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who runs an eponymous research group and is president of Democratic Majority for Israel, told JNS.

“In D.C., there are folks who don’t disconnect completely. I learned about Sinwar’s death that morning from a gentleman who sits near me in shul, who in turn had been told on his way to shul by a neighbor, who happens to be an Army colonel,” Mellman said. “Another guy, who sits near me, leaves the radio on in a small room in his house, so he could confirm the news.”

Mellman learned about Oct. 7 when he picked up the newspaper in front of his house. “By the time I got to shul, everyone knew,” he said. “In a media soaked world, it’s hard to be behind. But that regular disconnect keeps me sane.”

Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, a Jewish educator, told JNS that “nowadays, even within frum communities, news trickles in.”

“There’s certainly no worry you’re going to miss anything of significance,” he said. “If anything, it’s honestly refreshing to discover the news unmediated by your phone.”


'I cheered when they came and told me': Gazans celebrate elimination of Yahya Sinwar
IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee shared a recording on his X/Twitter account on Friday of a conversation between two Gaza residents that reveals their joy following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Sinwar was killed by the IDF in Tel Sultan in Rafah on Wednesday in an unplanned operation, sources close to the matter confirmed to The Jerusalem Post Thursday evening, several hours after rumors arose that he had been killed.

“How are you? Well, Sinwar is dead and gone,” a man says in the recording, to which a woman replies, “May he go to hell! I swear I cheered when they came and told me.”

The man continues, “May God have mercy on him; what do you want from him?” She responds, “He’s the one who destroyed everything. May God not have mercy on him, not on him, and not on Haniyeh. I hope they never see God’s mercy.”

Later in the conversation, the man asks, “What’s new with you?” She responds, “We’re fine, thank God. They started handing out sweets here,” and adds, “They’ve started distributing sweets and coffee. May God have no mercy for what happened in Gaza, may God have no mercy.”

What do Gazans think about Hamas?
An opinion poll published in mid-September by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), a think tank based in Ramallah and funded by Western donors, showed for the first time the majority of Gazans opposed the decision to attack Israel on October 7.

The poll, conducted in early September, found that 57% of people surveyed in the Gaza Strip said the decision to launch the offensive was incorrect, while just 39% said it was correct – down sharply from the previous poll in June.


Sinwar’s wife seen holding $32,000 Hermรจs bag
The Israel Defense Forces released footage on Saturday showing the wife of recently deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar making her way through a tunnel carrying a $32,000 Hermรจs Birkin bag.

She is seen walking behind her husband and children the day before the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, in which 1,200 were slaughtered and 251 taken hostage.

The footage was posted to X by Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media division of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

“While the people of Gaza do not have enough money for a tent or basic necessities, we see many examples of Yahya Sinwar and his wife’s special love for money,” Adraee posted in Arabic.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari on Saturday said of the footage: “For hours, they go up and down, stocking up on food, a television, and other products for a long stay. He [Sinwar] only cared for his personal survival.”

According to the post, Sinwar’s wife was carrying a Hermรจs Birkin 40 Black Togo Gold Hardware.

It has “tonal stitching, two straps with front toggle closure, clochette with lock and two keys and double rolled handles.

“The interior is lined in black chevre with one zip pocket with an Hermรจs engraved zipper pull and an open pocket on the opposite side,” according to website Madison Avenue Couture, which sells it for the $32,000 price tag the IDF noted.


401st Brigade commander Col. Ehsan Daxa killed in northern Gaza
The commander of the IDF's 401st "Iron Tracks" Brigade, Col. Ehsan Daxa, was killed in combat in northern Gaza, the military announced on Sunday evening.

Col. Daxa was 41 years old and came from Daliyat al-Karmel, the largest Druze community in Israel. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

According to a Walla report, Col. Daxa was killed in combat after his tank hit an explosive device.

He is considered to be the highest-ranking officer to die in ground combat since the start of the war, the report added.

Israel's military said that during the incident in which Col. Daxa fell, an additional officer from the 52nd Battalion of the 401st "Iron Tracks" Brigade was severely wounded.

The wounded officer was then evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment, the IDF added.

During the incident, Col. Daxa and the wounded officer reportedly arrived with separate tanks at a lookout point in Jabalya. About twenty meters from both sides of the tank, an explosive device with a tripwire was reportedly detonated.

Col. Daxa was killed instantly by the explosive device, the report said.

During the Second Lebanon War, Col. Daxa fought as a tank commander in the 75th Battalion of the 7th Brigade against Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon villages.

Daxa was promoted to the rank of colonel in 2020 when he was given command of the 205th "Iron Fist" Brigade.

The 205th, like the 401st, is one of the IDF's armored brigades.

The following year, he was appointed commander of the 474th Brigade, overseeing security in the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon area.

Daxa received command of the 401st Brigade earlier this year during the Israel-Hamas war.

Herzog expresses his condolences
Following the announcement of Daxa's death, Israel's President Isaac Herzog expressed his condolences in an X/Twitter post.

"Together with the entire house of Israel, I received with sorrow and pain the bitter news of the fall of the 401st Brigade, the late Col. Ehsan Daxa, who fell today in the battles of Jabalya," Herzog wrote.

"Ehsan - is a hero of Israel, a brave, humble, and valuable warrior - and his fall is a loss to the State of Israel and to Israeli society as a whole," Herzog added.

Furthermore, Herzog addressed the Druze community, of which Daxa was a part of, mentioning the many lives lost in the Druze community throughout the war.

"I salute him and hug his family, the community of Daliyat al-Karmel, and our sisters and brothers from the Druze community who have lost many precious sons since the beginning of the fighting with devotion, a sense of mission, and shared destiny. May his memory be blessed," the post concluded.


Hagari: IDF to strike Hezbollah's banks in Beirut, exposing Iran's funding of terror
The IDF was poised Sunday night to strike at many targets in Beirut and other places that belong to the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah’s financial infrastructure, army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters.

“We will issue an advance evacuation warning to residents of Beirut and other areas in Lebanon to evacuate locations being used to finance Hezbollah's terror activities.

“I emphasize here—anyone located near sites used to fund Hezbollah’s terror activities must move away from these locations immediately,” Hagari stressed.

“In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran finances Hezbollah's terrorist activities through the use of civil institutions, associations, and non-profits as a cover for terrorist operations.

“We will attack them during the night and update them on the results of the attack in the coming day,” he said. “We will strike several targets in the coming hours and additional targets throughout the night."

“In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah's terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism,” Hagar said.

He spoke one day after Israel claimed that Hezbollah had tried to assassinate Netanyahu by launching a drone toward his Caesarea home.


Too lazy to work? Join UNIFIL and get paid for doing nothing
Hey you!

Are you struggling to find employment because every employer requires you to actually work and produce results?

Want a job where you’ll get paid for doing nothing at all?

Then the United Nations has the perfect position for you!

Join UNIFIL, the place where laziness and an unwillingness to actually work are the most valued traits for any employee.

Officially, your job will be to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701 by preventing the Hezbollah terrorist organization from operating south of the Litani River, from smuggling weapons such as rockets, and posing a threat to the State of Israel to the south. But in reality, you’re not expected to do anything! How great is that!?

Preventing armed groups from smuggling weapons or launching attacks on their neighbors is hard work and potentially dangerous. That’s why you don’t have to do it at all! The UN doesn’t care if you don’t know Resolution 1701 from the NCC 1701 from Star Trek! It just needs someone to pretend to be useful so it can pretend it is useful.

Those Hezbollah terrorists who are the reason you’re there? Ignore them! They’ll ignore you back. If they put an entire arsenal in your backyard, it’s not worth lifting a finger for. If they launch rockets at Israel from 100 yards from your position, just pretend you don’t notice. It’s only Jews they’re attacking anyway.

Get to know your Hezbollah neighbors, and maybe you can even become best buddies with them! (Note. Going out for beers with fanatical Islamist terrorists may be difficult given their ban on drinking alcohol. Try other fun activities like rocket launching or drone flying instead).

Bring an Xbox! You’ve got all the time in the world to kill, since your only job is pretending to be doing a job no one but those darn pesky Israelis actually wants you to do.

So come join UNIFIL, the place where no one is ever expected to do their job and no one ever does!


Jonny Gould: Andrew Fox marks the first anniversary of October 7th by joining me for an interview at South Hampstead Synagogue
South Hampstead Synagogue gave me the honour of introducing my friend, Major Andrew Fox to the community.

"More than just a SHul”, as the South Hampstead strapline goes, and that sense of community was heightened by hosting our conversation on October 7th, the first anniversary of the pogrom committed by Hamas terrorists in Southern Israel.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Andrew served in the British Army for sixteen years with three tours to Afghanistan, one of them with US Army Special Forces.

He was in the Parachute Regiment and the Special Forces Support Group with tours in Bosnia, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland.

He retired in 2021 as a Major.

Since then, Andrew's leveraged his huge experience into academia, as a senior lecturer in the War Studies and Behavioural Science at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

He holds degrees in Law & Politics, Modern War Studies and Psychology. He is now a Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society.

As you’ll read in this transcript of our discussion, his areas of expertise include Defence, the Middle East, and disinformation.
Jewish Museum London invites British public to share memorabilia to reflect impact of October 7
The Jewish Museum London is inviting the British public to share collectible items and written or recorded thoughts that reflect how Jewish and wider communities have responded to last year’s October 7 attack.

Entitled Documenting the Present: The Impact of October 7th on the British Jewish Community, the initiative aims to shed light on the significance of the traumatic event by preserving the memorabilia that has arisen from this year in the museum’s collections.

There are no immediate plans for a physical display, but the museum is considering a digital exhibition or the use of social media platforms to share memorabilia, they said.

Sally Angel, CEO of Jewish Museum London, said the institution was working closely with communities, individuals and organisations across the UK to document how the events of October 7 and its aftermath continue to impact British Jews.

She said: “We want to provide a lasting record of people’s experiences in 2024 for future generations. The museum’s existing collection already holds invaluable material on British Jewish life, and this new initiative will build on that foundation and will be a resource for understanding the diverse experiences and emotions felt at this time.

“Your photos, posters, films, audio, objects, and artefacts, will help to ensure that this period in our history is preserved and remembered for future generations.”

The museum will accept a wide variety of responses to the most cataclysmic day in modern Jewish history that saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage when Hamas stormed southern Israel. The public are encouraged to submit both physical and digital material, which can include images, placards, audio and film.

All offers will be considered against the museum’s collecting criteria for the purpose of future research, educational use, or potential display. As a non-partisan, independent institution not affiliated with any specific strand of Judaism, all responses from the diverse array of Jewish voices will be respected and considered, said museum heads.


"Grave Mistake!" Bibi warns Iran after assassination attempt | JLMinute
Is yesterday’s assassination attempt on Prime Minister Netanyahu really that much of a game changer? And what happens now that Israel’s attack plans seem to have been leaked to Iran? Join Josh Hasten and JNS CEO Alex Traiman in our Jerusalem studio for insight and analysis! We’ll also cover Israel’s elimination of Yahya Sinwar and reactions; continued rocket attacks from Hezbollah; progress in Gaza; and stern warnings from the US administration.

Chapters
00:00 The Assassination of Yahya Sinwar
04:51 Implications for Hamas and Hostages
09:48 The Future of Governance in Gaza
14:50 International Reactions and Humanitarian Concerns
20:07 The Attempted Assassination of Netanyahu
25:01 Iran's Role and Future Attacks
30:07 The Broader Regional Conflict
35:05 Conclusion and Future Prospects


‘Modern-day Nazi’: Hamas leader’s death a ‘cause of celebration’
Spiked Online Chief Political Reporter Brendan O’Neill has branded Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a “modern-day Nazi” whose death is a “cause of celebration”.

“He was a modern-day Nazi who was driven by a violent hatred for Jews and organised the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Mr O’Neill told Sky News Australia.

“In my view, if anyone deserved to die in this 21st century, it was him.

“His death is a cause of celebration.”


Dr Qanta Ahmed gives insight into life in Israel
Independent Women’s Forum Fellow Dr Qanta Ahmed has given an insight into life in Israel as the war in the Middle East with Hezbollah and Hamas rages on.

Dr Ahmed hailed the “extraordinary” medical response to wounded Israeli soldiers with them receiving blood within 15 minutes to a helipad in central Tel Aviv.

“25 minutes later they're in the operating room and they have halved the fatality rates for these badly wounded soldiers, many of whom get better and want to go back to war,” she told Sky News Australia.




MEMRI: On Anniversary Of October 7 Attack, Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Calls For An Islamic Military Force To Fight Israel: 'Islamic Countries Possess A Large Force; If They Do Not Use It Now, When Will They Do It?'; Islamic Preacher Zakir Naik Urges 'NATO-Like Alliance For Resolving The Palestine Issue'
On October 7, 2024, marking the first anniversary of the 2023 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, an all-party conference was organized at the President's House in Islamabad. Leaders of several political parties and religious organizations expressed support for Palestinians, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for an Islamic military force to fight Israel. Earlier, the exiled Indian preacher, Dr. Zakir Naik, who is on a month-long official tour of Pakistan, called for a NATO-like alliance of Islamic nations to aid the Palestinians and resolve the conflict.

The all-party conference, hosted by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was attended by: Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) party; Maulana Fazlur Rehman, emir of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party; Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, emir of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan; Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM); Ijaz-ul-Haq, the son of former military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq and leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Z); Sarwat Qadri from Sunni Tehreek; and others.[1]

Addressing the conference, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is brother of the current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and arguably the most influential politician in Pakistan, told the religious and political leaders present: "The worst atrocities are being committed in Gaza. The entire region has been turned into scenes of destruction. But sadly, the world has adopted silence. The UN is sitting helpless."[2]

According to a report in the Urdu daily, Roznama Ummat, Nawaz Sharif proposed "a military alliance of Islamic countries, and said that Islamic countries possess a large force. If they do not use it now, when will they do it? Perhaps, another moment will or will not come for using it, but today is the time. Israel is flexing muscles because international powers are behind it. They should think: over how long they will test the patience of the Islamic world and Palestine?"[3]

In his address, Shehbaz Sharif emphasized the urgent need for the international community, especially the Muslim World, to act swiftly to establish a ceasefire in Palestine: "Immediate halting of the ongoing barbarism and bloodshed in Gaza and Palestine is the need of the hour."[4] The prime minister said, according to a media report: "It is the time for the Muslim World to move forward and take practical steps to prevent Israel from further bloodshed in Palestine."[5] Shehbaz Sharif also announced that teams of experts from Pakistan will be sent to the world capitals, to highlight the issue of Palestine.[6]

Addressing the meeting, President Zardari said: "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. We will continue to raise the issue of Israel's violation of human rights at every forum. Peace cannot be established without resolving the Palestinian problem in accordance with the [UN] Security Council resolution. There cannot be peace in the Middle East in the absence of a two-state solution."[7] President Zardari's view favoring a two-state solution was quickly rejected by religious leaders at the conference.


Muslim police officer faces sack over alleged links to female jihadist
A hijab-wearing Muslim police officer who was hailed as a role model for confronting anti-lockdown protesters faces being sacked from Scotland Yard over her alleged links to a female jihadist in Syria.

Pc Ruby Begum, 29, is also accused of posting offensive messages on Twitter where she insulted Jews and mocked the 9/11 terror attacks.

She is alleged to have made the comments before joining the Metropolitan Police in 2016 but chose not to delete them after becoming a special constable.

Pc Begum, who faces a misconduct hearing, is alleged to have failed during the force’s vetting process “to disclose her association with a female jihadi living inside the Islamic State caliphate in Syria”.

She is also said to have an “interest in the teachings of extremist preachers”.

The officer, who serves with the Met’s territorial support group, a unit which specialises in public order policing, was praised by colleagues and the public in 2020 after a photograph of her confronting a mob of anti-lockdown protesters in London went viral on social media.

She was seen wearing a hijab on the front line against the baying crowd.

Offensive term
The Metropolitan Police has said the offensive and discriminatory comments were made between 2013 and 2019.

One of the posts, from July 30 2014, first exposed in an investigation by the Mail on Sunday, reads: “Israel have no limits. Scumbags. I can’t wait for the day they get severely punished.”

She is also said to have used the offensive term “kuffar” to describe non-believers, writing: “Kuffar lips have been all over my mug there is no way I’m using that thing again.”

Another tweet two months later read: “Must be stupid if you think I’m gonna do 2 mins silence for 9/11.”


Park Slope Food Co-op members face anti-Israel, antisemitic hate
It’s a vicious food fight.

The Park Slope Food Co-op has devolved into a hotbed of antisemitic and anti-Israel hate, with members spewing Nazi slogans toward Jews and sneering they “smell of Palestinian blood,” according to a complaint filed with the state.

Real estate developer Ramon Maislen, 43, said he filed the complaint with the state Human Rights Division on Oct. 7 after he and other Jewish members of the socialist-leaning grocery cooperative on Union Street were harassed for opposing a campaign to boycott Israeli products.

The crunchy co-op, founded in 1973, requires its roughly 16,000 members to work 2.75-hour shifts every six weeks, in exchange for the privilege to purchase heavily discounted groceries, in addition to voting on store policies.

In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack and the ensuing war in Gaza, however, several members began pushing to strip the store’s shelves of products linked to the Jewish state, such as Sabra hummus, with the spicy scuffle soon permeating campaigns for the co-op’s board of directors election earlier this year.

In May, a Jewish co-op member who was standing outside the store and trying to inform those strolling by about the boycott effort was confronted by a shopper, who called her a “Nazi,” according to Maislen’s complaint.

The odious member began walking away, but not before shouting “Sieg Heil” at the 35-year-old, according to the complaint.

“I’ve had antisemitic stuff happen to me, but like that publicly, that brazen, with that language … I was really shaken up,” the woman told The Post.


Andrew Pessin: Roundup of Campus Antisemitism
I monitor the campus scene closely, in work for the Algemeiner — a terrific news source that focuses on Jews/Israel, and which has had a dedicated “Campus Bureau” for nearly ten years. The Algemeiner was ahead of its time in seeing the antisemitism growing on campuses, and now that it has exploded into the open since the October 7 massacre the news outlet has been working overtime to monitor and analyze. To stay abreast of all the relevant news please subscribe here for the daily email blast, which links to the top stories of the day.

If you’re aware of any news-worthy matters happening on a campus related to Jews, Israel, anti-Zionism, etc., please reach out to me and let me know.

Thanks for reading Pariah--But The Truth, You Know, Ain't A Democracy! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Meanwhile, just to give you a sense of the scale of the phenomenon, here are the stories I have tracked simply since October 1 of this year, less than three weeks. Bits of good news, of wins, but loads of bad. I think it’s safe to say that our campuses, at least the major ones, are quite out of control with Jew-hatred. You probably should have that fact in mind as you prepare to cast your vote in the upcoming federal elections.

I also post daily lists on my Facebook group, Anti-Zionism on Campus, if you want to stay on top of this — if you’re on FB, join us there. Similarly, follow me on Twitter: @AndrewPessin.

Here you go:
Pomona bans and suspends students involved in Oct. 7 demonstration
In the past few days, Pomona College has suspended and banned 5C students who were allegedly involved in the Oct. 7 demonstration at Pomona College’s Carnegie Building, according to emails obtained by TSL.

Four days after the demonstration, at which over 400 students called for Pomona to divest from companies and manufacturers supporting the Israeli government, President G. Gabrielle Starr addressed the situation in an email to the Pomona community.

In the email, Starr condemned the protest — which culminated in the occupation and vandalism of Carnegie Hall, leaving the building closed for several days — as “unfathomable.” She added that the college would be moving forward with disciplinary action.

“Starting this week, disciplinary letters are going out to students from Pomona and the other Claremont Colleges who have been identified as taking part in the takeover of Carnegie Hall,” Starr wrote.

At the time of publication, Pomona failed to confirm its method for identifying students involved. Protesters were advised by organizers to conceal their identities and many did so with masks, sunglasses, keffiyehs and other head coverings.

In her Oct. 11 email, Starr warned the community about the range of possible punishments for identified individuals.

“I anticipate that, within the scope of the student code, and commensurate with individual circumstances, sanctions will range widely, including campus bans, suspension and expulsion,” the email reads.

In the days since, dozens of students have been notified that they were among those identified by Pomona.


CNN Uncritically Amplifies a Kangaroo Court
Merriam-Webster defines the term “kangaroo court” as “a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted.” There is no more apt term for the United Nations’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) against Israel, which has long dispensed with any pretense of being fair, impartial, or objective. So why did CNN’s Niamh Kennedy and Muhammad Darwish treat the COI as if its conclusions carried any respectability?

In their October 11 article, “UN inquiry accuses Israel of ‘crime of extermination’ through deliberate destruction of Gaza’s health care system,” Kennedy and Darwish uncritically amplify the COI’s latest report. As the headline indicates, the commissioners leveled serious allegations toward Israel. Yet nowhere in the article are readers warned about the many reasons to treat the COI’s claims with great skepticism.

One major reason: all three commissioners have histories of antisemitism. Most infamously, while serving as commissioner, Miloon Kothari complained about “social media that is controlled largely by…the Jewish lobby.” COI Chairwoman Navi Pillay, who has a long history of running cover for antisemitism, refused to denounce Kothari’s remark. Condemnations of the incident subsequently poured in from member states and even UN officials.

Allowing antisemites to sit in judgment of the world’s only Jewish state is contempt for truth and justice.

True to form, the commissioners have acted with disdain for fairness and accuracy. Prof. Anne Bayefsky detailed much of this at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs: the COI has staged hearings, arbitrarily dismissed submissions of evidence, omitted testimony, and “ravag[ed] the basics of due process.” CAMERA, too, has addressed this, exposing the COI’s low standard of proof, lack of transparency, and reliance on activist sources.

The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics instructs journalists to “[i]dentify sources clearly,” reasoning that “[t]he public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.” So why is this information completely absent in Kennedy and Darwish’s article?


The BBC international editor’s portrayal of the elimination of Sinwar
At the Telegraph, Charles Moore had this to say:
“Following Thursday’s news that Israeli troops had killed Yahya Sinwar, the BBC’s international editor, Jeremy Bowen, wrote an article. This was Israel’s “biggest victory so far in the war against Hamas”, he said: Sinwar had made Hamas the “fighting force that inflicted the biggest defeat on the state of Israel in its history”.

Interesting, Bowen’s deployment of that word “defeat”. It usually refers to battle – Nelson defeated the French at Trafalgar, Montgomery defeated the Germans at El Alamein. But Bowen was talking about the events of October 7, 2023. On that day, what happened was no battle (though a few Israeli soldiers tried to rescue the situation). These were planned attacks by armed terrorists against civilian non-combatants in their own homes or at music festivals, in their own country. The terrorists raped those civilians, kidnapped or killed them (or, in some cases, did all three). Those civilians were not “collateral damage” in a war fought under rules: they were the targets of barbarians.

Were they “defeated”? Implied in that word, as in Bowen’s phrase “fighting force”, is state-of-war legitimacy. Would he say that Himmler’s Einsatzgruppen, during the Nazi invasion of Eastern Europe, “defeated” the civilians (most commonly Jews) whom they lined up and shot in their tens of thousands over several years? Did Stalin’s men “defeat” the 22,000 Poles they shot in the Katyn forest in May 1940? Wouldn’t “murdered” be a more accurate word? No law of war sanctions murder.

Bowen’s words are those of a moral imbecile, and call into doubt his professional detachment, but I am almost glad he uttered them. His thinking accurately reflects Hamas thinking. When we understand that thinking, we can see just how right and how important is Israel’s killing of Sinwar.

If “defeat” of your enemy means the intentional, longed-for killing of civilians, and a “fighting force” means those who exult in killing the old, the women and the children because they were (with a few exceptions) of the Jewish race, then the world should be able to see what Hamas is. It is not an army engaged in a conventional conflict about borders, but a set of death squads explicitly trying to wipe out an entire state defined chiefly by its ethnicity. The accurate word for that is genocide.”

But the BBC’s multi-platform promotion of Bowen’s mainstreaming of the Hamas narrative of ‘defeat’ is not the only remarkable aspect of the corporation’s coverage of the news of Sinwar’s death. In Bowen’s written report, readers find uncritical amplification of additional disinformation:
“In the ruins of Khan Yunis, the birthplace of Sinwar, Palestinians interviewed for the BBC by local trusted freelancers were defiant. They said the war would go on.

“This war is not dependent on Sinwar, Haniyeh, or Mishal, nor on any leader or official,” said Dr Ramadan Faris.

“It’s a war of extermination against the Palestinian people, as we all know and understand. The issue is much bigger than Sinwar or anyone else.”

Adnan Ashour said some people were saddened, and others were indifferent about Sinwar.

“They’re not just after us. They want the entire Middle East. They’re fighting in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen… This is a war between us and the Jews since 1919, over 100 years.”

He was asked whether the death of Sinwar would affect Hamas.

“I hope not, God willing. Let me explain: Hamas is not just Sinwar… It’s the cause of a people.””

Moreover, that disinformation was also uncritically promoted in another report published on the BBC News website on October 18th, on the same BBC News website live page and (from 04:18) in Bowen’s above filmed report for the BBC News Channel.


‘Epitome of evil’: Exiled crown prince of Iran discusses Iranian regime
The exiled crown prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi says Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the “epitome of evil”.

Mr Pahlavi joined Sky News host Erin Molan to discuss his inability to return to his country.

“I had left Iran six months before my father and mother did on January 16th of 1979,” Mr Pahlavi said.

“I had just finished high school in Iran and I was on my way to the United States of America for the Air Force pilot training program.

“It was in the midst of that time that the revolution occurred and obviously under the circumstances I was unable to go back to my country as a result.”




Giant of Holocaust education Professor Yehuda Bauer mourned
Holocaust educational organisations across the world have been paying tribute to one of the greatest scholars in the field, Professor Yehuda Bauer, who died in Israel on Friday at the age of 98.

The honorary chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and veteran kibbutznik, who was Czech-born, emigrated to Palestine with his family on the eve of World War Two.

A professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he wrote numerous books on many topics that included Jewish resistance during the Shoah, reaction to the catastrophe and antisemitism, and was the founding editor of the journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Mourning a “giant”, University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education said he was “one of the greatest Holocaust historians of our time, and the most compelling orator and teacher”.

Robert J Williams, chief executive of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation said “he was, in many ways, the force that led to the creation of what is now known as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance…

"World leaders came to Yehuda to seek counsel on how to ensure better education on the Holocaust, commemoration efforts that would remind the wider public important of the Shoah, and research initiatives that would always keep the subject alive.”

Bauer, he added, “was largely responsible for initiating many critical conversations needed today, including the uniqueness of the Holocaust, the roles of perpetrators, the experiences of survivors and victims, the complexities of rescue, and the cynicism with which some states and movements misuse the history of the Holocaust.”
United in grief, strong in hope before sixth anniversary of Tree of Life shooting
As we reflect on the upcoming sixth anniversary of the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha mass shooting that left 11 Jewish worshippers, most of them elderly, dead on Oct. 27, we again find ourselves in a new and painful chapter in Jewish history. The recent horrors in Israel and across the Diaspora cast an even darker shadow on this commemoration. Out of such devastation comes the remarkable power of resilience—a quality that has shaped our people for generations. The events of Oct. 7, 2023, may have shaken us to our core, but they have also reignited a fierce determination to survive, thrive and defend our right to live freely as Jews, no matter where we are.

Six years ago in Pittsburgh, we were reminded that hate still festers in the world. Every year since, we’ve been reminded of something far more powerful—our ability to rebuild, find hope amid the brokenness and unify in the face of fear. This moment, more than any before, calls for deep reflection on what it means to be resilient as Jews today. When faced with the darkness, we have always turned towards the light of community, faith and action.

What sets this year apart is not only the physical trauma of a seven-front war facing Israel but the ripple effect it has had on Jewish communities worldwide. Just as Squirrel Hill became a symbol of perseverance in 2018, today, Israel stands as a living testament to the unyielding Jewish spirit. We mourn, but we do not succumb to fear. Instead, we draw from our tradition of turning anguish into action, despair into defiance.

Squirrel Hill, the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh, is more than just Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood; it is a model for what a community should be. Even before the massacre, Squirrel Hill embodied diversity, unity and Jewish life in America. In the wake of the tragedy, it transformed into a beacon of resilience, where differences became strengths and unity was the only option. The way this neighborhood has healed and continues to rebuild is nothing short of extraordinary. It is not just a place where a tragedy occurred; it’s a place where a community redefined itself in the face of that calamity.
Amid fresh wave of antisemitism, some French Jews resort to fake names
A recent turning point
Jews have lived in France for over 2,000 years, making them one of the oldest Jewish populations in Western Europe. France was the first European country to emancipate the Jewish people, during the French Revolution, and Jewish street names and quarters can be found across the country.

But in recent years, attitudes toward Jews have appeared to harden in some French minds. “Everything changed with the second intifada,” says Philippe Boukara, a French historian of contemporary Judaism.

The uprising of Palestinians against Israeli occupation, lasting from 2000 to 2005, brought in its wake an unprecedented number of antisemitic acts in France: 970 in 2004.

That record was surpassed last year, after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. In 2023, France recorded 1,676 antisemitic incidents, compared with 436 in 2022, according to data from the French Interior Ministry and the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community. Around 75% of them occurred in the three months following the attack.

That has prompted more French Jews to apply for Israeli nationality and residence rights; in the last three months of 2023, some 1,200 began applications to emigrate to Israel, or to “make aliyah,” a 430% increase over the same period in 2022.

Still, the number of Jews who actually leave has been falling each year for nearly a decade. Most simply do not want to leave their homes in France, and certainly not when Israel is engaged in active conflict. Instead, they’re adapting to the current situation by changing their everyday behavior.

Anna, a Parisian architect, has taken to covering herself and her two young daughters with kaffiyehs – the black-and-white checkered scarves that have become symbols of Palestinian nationalism – when she visits her grandmother in a Paris suburb with a large Muslim population.

There is no evidence that antisemitic acts are committed more frequently by French Muslims than by extreme far-left or far-right antisemites. But because French Muslims generally support the Palestinian cause, many French Jews – with or without reason – are afraid they might be harassed.

“I’m responsible for my daughters’ safety,” says Anna, who asked to be identified only by a pseudonym. “It’s not the time to be a hero.”

Safety in numbers
People like Christine Taieb see this sort of attitude as evidence that more education is needed if Jews and Muslims are to feel safe in France.

Ms. Taieb leads the Paris branch of Judeo-Muslim Friendship in France, a group that seeks to encourage interfaith dialogue and understanding between the two communities.

“We teach people to respect and listen to others, and learn from their experiences,” says Ms. Taieb. “The goal is to extend a hand to the person on the other side.”

Ms. Taieb says she has never personally been subjected to antisemitic remarks and refuses to be afraid. That’s a recurrent theme among Jews living in a heavily Orthodox community in the northeast of Paris.

On a sunny weekday afternoon, young men proudly wear their kippahs at stands selling etrog – a citrus fruit used to observe this week’s Sukkot holiday. The soldiers often stationed in front of a nearby school have left, stood down after an Oct. 7 anniversary alert. Hundreds of schoolchildren filter out into waiting buses and cars.

“I was educated from a young age that we should all be able to live together, that there are good people and bad. Why should I be scared?” says David Benchetrit, an etrog seller, holding out a fruit to a prospective client. “But there’s definitely a feeling of safety in numbers.”

There is a sense of defiance among many in the Jewish community here – not to give up and let fear win. Rebecca, who stops for a sandwich at a local kosher bakery, says she’s not a scared person by nature and won’t become one now.

“People tell me to be careful, to change my daily habits,” says Rebecca, who asked to be identified by her first name only to protect her family. “But I refuse to enter into that fear. The day I do that, I’ll leave.”

Still, Rebecca says she has taken down her mezuzah and changed her last name for home deliveries. Last year, she went ahead and completed her application to make aliyah – just in case.


Melanie Phillips: Israel Appreciation Day
Last month I recorded a keynote address for Israel Appreciation Day, a broadcast event produced in America by a group of concerned citizens who wanted to celebrate what makes Israel special at this critical moment in its history. You can watch my address by clicking on the arrow below, and you can visit the Israel Appreciation Day website with the recording of the full event here.






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