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Wednesday, October 23, 2024

10/23 Links Pt1: Six Al Jazeera journalists are Hamas, PIJ terrorists; NYTs Is Not Disclosing a Source’s Ties to Hamas?; Guterres embraces the authoritarians

From Ian:

Gil Troy: Israel must not end war yet despite Sinwar success
Alas, refusing to incorporate new, inconvenient, politically incorrect facts into their worldviews, Biden, Harris, and Friedman instantly returned to the same stale rhetoric they used to try to restrain Israel for months.

Harris, whose words most count now, insisted: “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.”

We in Israel crave those goals. But this year has confirmed that achieving them requires a long, bloody process – and much more patience.

Indeed, we cannot “end the war in Gaza” until “Israel is secure.” And if the Gazans are truly innocent, they should turn on Hamas and force it to surrender, while freeing the hostages.

Until that happens, Israel must maintain the military pressure, and prepare its security zone along the Gaza border, including taking Gazan territory, so the Palestinians learn that every future attack will result in more territorial losses.

MEANWHILE, let’s end the hostage negotiation farce – by exposing the self-destructiveness of Israel’s Hostage Deal movement. Politicizing the issue keeps raising Hamas’s price to free the hostages.

The movement should only protest – and harass within the limits of the law – Qatari and Turkish diplomats, as well as those in North America, Australia, and Europe. Qatar and Turkey host and bankroll Hamas. Bibi-bashing may feel good – but it’s counterproductive.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sinwar kept “urging” Hamas officials “to refuse a hostage deal. Hamas had the upper hand in negotiations, Sinwar said, citing internal political divisions within Israel, cracks in Netanyahu’s wartime coalition and mounting US pressure to alleviate the suffering in Gaza.”

A more unified global front against Hamas might have freed the hostages sooner; it remains the only way to end their suffering, which weighs on all people of conscience.

In short, we, who want this war to end yesterday, must keep fighting tomorrow and tomorrow, until the aggressors – Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran – cave in.

Only then, once Israel is secured, will those Palestinians who actually want “dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination” – rather than Israel’s destruction – have a shot at making progress, too.
On Proportionality
The opposite was true in the Second World War, when President Roosevelt, backed by the American public, thought it appropriate to do whatever it took to win, even if that meant rooting

out Japanese infantry cave by cave, never mind the high cost in American lives; leveling German and Japanese cities; and, ultimately, dropping atomic bombs. We killed thousands of French civilians prior to the Normandy invasion just to damage the French rail network and impede the Germans’ ability to move troops to the invasion zone. To my knowledge, everyone thought it was necessary. Even the French tend not to talk about what we did to them, precisely because they understand it to have been necessary. The suffering was justified. Until recently, the Germans didn’t talk about what we did to their cities, either. Books on the subject, like Jörg Friederich’s The Fire, date to this century, not before.

Of course, IHL did not exist then. However, I suspect that even if it did, Americans’ understanding of proportionality would have condoned the extreme violence we meted out on the Germans and Japanese. It is fashionable for some people today to fret that we committed war crimes in those wars. Those people were extremely rare in 1941-1945, if they existed at all. I’d go so far as to argue that concern with the ethical imperative of the post-war legal notion of “proportionality” is a luxury to be enjoyed by nations with little at stake in what mostly are wars of choice. So no, the wars in Gaza and Lebanon are not like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, because unlike America in those wars, for Israel a great deal is at stake. What was proportional in Afghanistan and Iraq is not the same thing as in Israel’s conflict with Iran and the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The second problem has to do with the whole logic behind the use of force in a conflict. The basic idea in war is to seek “decision.” To do something that makes one’s victory all but assured. Theorists from Carl von Clausewitz to Ferdinand Foch thought of that in terms of destroying the enemy’s ability to fight, such that one can impose one’s will on them. Hitting someone back with precisely the same force that they hit you does not achieve decision. Trading blows in a tit-for-tat struggle also does not achieve decision. It prolongs the conflict, which then becomes one of attrition. Wars of attrition often go to the side that can withstand the most pain. In that case, a death cult like Hamas is sure to win. Hamas does not care how many people die. So much the better, if the deaths can be filmed and disseminated in all their gruesomeness over the internet. Hamas seeks decision in the public sphere.

Decision in warfare can be achieved in many ways, but often it just boils down to this: if someone hits you, you hit them back with so much force that one has, in effect, won not just this fight but the next. One seeks to end one’s enemy’s ability to do you any harm, at least not any time soon. Some might object that eventually one’s enemy will get back on its feet and seek vengeance. That is true. However, human history is long, and to expect a “final solution” that ends a conflict forever is to aspire to end history. That’s messianism. Maybe when we attain warp drive, the Vulcans will come and teach us to transcend our divisions. Alternatively, one can aspire to genocide, which no one counsels.

Insisting on “proportional” responses to Iran serves only to avoid escalation, but that means avoiding decision. Which means prolonging a conflict and ensuring that there will be more fighting soon. That is precisely what happened when the “international community” forced Israel to call a halt to its 2006 invasion of Lebanon. The net result of ending that fight was only to enable Hezbollah to grow in strength and acquire ever more precise and destructive Iranian weapons. The present war in Lebanon is a direct consequence of past calls for proportionality. Likewise, the present war in Gaza is a direct result of Israel’s failure to follow through in the few times in conducted land incursions into the territory following its withdrawal in 2005. Under intense international pressure and fear of suffering casualties, Israel contented itself with a proportionality dictated by others who had their own interests at heart. And here we are today.

Today I read that Israel assured the Biden Administration it would not hit Iran particularly hard. It will respond “proportionately,” defined, it seems, in a way intended not to trouble the U.S. elections. I don’t see the point, and think Israel should focus instead on seeking decision against Hamas and Hezbollah if it is not inclined to hit Iran hard enough to make a real difference. Or maybe just wait until after the November election. That would mean, however, postponing decision. Is that what’s best?
Can Israel Ignite Regime Change in Iran?
If Israel’s “deadly, accurate, and surprising” attack does not meet the Islamic regime’s threshold of domestic, regional, and global embarrassment, it is unlikely that they will retaliate in any shape or form, potentially ending the chain reaction. This scenario might be in favor of the regime. Because historically, the regime has proven their lack of military and intelligence superiority. And despite their propaganda machine spewing how powerful the regime is, I believe they are internally fully aware of their inferiority to Israel’s military intelligence prowess (head of IRGC’s Quds Force was missing for a while).

Knowing this, Israel’s willingness to keep the chain reaction alive could positively affect the course of events. In other words, if Israel has bigger plans for Iran, it will strike in such a way that will require a response from the Islamic regime.

But if that is not Israel’s goal, and its response is what the regime wants (weak, inaccurate, and predictable) then Israel partially weakens the regime and takes the upper hand in the conflict, without escalating any further.

Similar to what Israel accomplished in Lebanon, these series of attacks could be “deadly, ” targeting regime leadership, top decision makers, IRGC commanders, and even the House of Leadership (بیت رهبری); they could be “accurate” and target sensitive locations such as nuclear facilities, oil fields, and missile depots; they could be “surprising, ” targeting the regime when and where it least expects it.

Israel has demonstrated how precise they can be in their attacks, so it should not be surprising if they invent new ways to deal with the threat of the Islamic regime. The Israeli intelligence community’s creative approach will tell us how these chain reactions will play out.

Will Israel be able to strike the regime a humiliating blow that ignites an inevitable chain reaction resulting in the regime’s demise?


Why Is ‘The New York Times’ Not Disclosing a Source’s Ties to Hamas?
When The Free Press asked The New York Times why its podcast concealed key parts of Owda’s identity and his Hamas ties, the paper replied with the following statement: “For the October 7, 2024 episode of ‘The Daily,’ we interviewed Mr. Owda as a father and private Gazan citizen to offer a snapshot of life on the ground, one year after the attack. We are aware of his employment with UNRWA, which we’ve disclosed in our earlier reporting,” said Danielle Rhoades Ha, SVP of external communications for the Times.

In the link Rhoades Ha sent, Owda is cited as “an aid worker with UNRWA.” In total, the Times has quoted Owda four times—in two podcast episodes and two stories—citing his work for UNRWA twice but revealing no other affiliations.

When The Free Press asked Owda for comment via his Instagram account, he replied in a message, “Anyone knows me would know that I am far away from politics, and I don’t agree with Hamas. I only believe in humanity. And by the way none of the organizations I worked with is controlled by Hamas,” signing off with a laughing emoji.

Former Treasury analyst Schanzer, who is now a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that not everyone employed by Hamas is a terrorist. Some, he said, are just trying to “put food on the table for their families.” Perhaps Owda is one of those people. And yet, for the past decade, he has been employed by entities linked to Hamas, and that ambiguity is why, Schanzer said, all cards should be laid out for the reader.

“Just saying he’s a municipal worker in this context?” he asked, referring to Owda. “It’s almost glib. Not mentioning his connection to Hamas at all? Now that’s a problem.”

Since Israel’s war against Hamas began, multiple legacy media outlets have quoted Owda as an ordinary citizen trying to survive the war. The first time The New York Times quoted Owda was last October, right after Israel launched its retaliatory ground invasion in Gaza, in which he said “every basic need for humans became a distant dream for us.” NBC News, in a report from this past March, identifies Owda as a “computer engineer” who said his home was destroyed—along with that of his parents, sister, brother, uncle, and grandfather. In January, Al Jazeera described Owda’s work as multimedia producer for UNRWA as “highlighting the plight of other displaced Palestinians and their suffering in light of the lack of safety, shelter, food, water, and healthcare.” Al Jazeera, it should be noted, is backed by the Qatari government, which harbors leaders of Hamas. NBC News and Al Jazeera did not reply to multiple requests for comment from The Free Press.

According to a new Gallup poll out last week, the media is now the least-trusted civic and political institution in America. That’s no surprise when you consider the fact that The New York Times has fallen for Hamas propaganda in the past. Or when you factor in the Times’ description of the late Hezbollah terrorist Hassan Nasrallah as “beloved among many Shi’ite Muslims.”

I asked New York Times spokeswoman Rhoades Ha over email if her paper would ever conceal an Israeli source’s connection to the Israeli government during a time of war.

I did not receive an answer.
IDF reveals: Six Al Jazeera journalists are Hamas, PIJ terrorists
The IDF announced on Wednesday that six journalists actively working for Al Jazeera were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The IDF says that due to intelligence recovered from the Gaza Strip during military operations, they can reveal that Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Saraj, Ismail Abu Amr, and Talal Aruki are all affiliated with the military wings of either Hamas or PIJ.

Al Jazeera denied these claims in a post to X on Wednesday, calling them "unfounded" and "fabricated." It implied that Israel was using this as cover in order to kill more journalists.

Ismail Abu Amr was injured several months ago in Gaza by an IDF attack; during that period, Al Jazeera denied his membership in Hamas. Documents recovered by the IDF showed this was untrue.

Some of the documents include personnel tables, terrorist training courses, phone books, and salary documents for terrorists.

Al Jazeera employed active terrorists
The IDF said that this "unequivocally proves that they function as military terrorist operatives of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip."

The IDF also said that these documents prove Al Jazeera has employed them simultaneously.

The exposed journalists are part of Hamas's military wing operating as the vanguard of Hamas's propaganda war against Israel.


Iran unveils ‘No hostage will be released’ blood-splattered mural in Tehran
Authorities in Tehran released a blood-splattered mural depicting photos of Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 with the text “no hostage will be released” in Hebrew, Iran International and local media reported.

The mural was reportedly put up in Tehran’s Palestine Square on Tuesday, according to Tehran Times.

Among the photos of the hostages is Noa Argamani, who, despite Tehran’s caption on the mural, was freed by IDF soldiers in an operation in June along with three other hostages.


Kassy Akiva: Here’s What Kamala Was Saying About Gaza As Sinwar Cited White House Pressure To Reject Hostage Deal
Following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a new revelation has emerged about his rationale for rejecting generous negotiations to release Israeli hostages: the tides were turning against Israel’s Hamas offensive in the United States.

On March 26, Sinwar and Hamas rejected Israel’s offer to pause its counteroffensive in Gaza for six weeks and release approximately 700 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli hostages. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sinwar argued to Hamas officials that the terror group had the upper hand in negotiations, partly due to increasing U.S. pressure to alleviate suffering in Gaza. It was part of his argument for holding the line in hostage negotiations, even as Israeli forces wiped out terrorists.

Where was this pressure coming from in the United States?

In the days leading up to Hamas’ rejection of a ceasefire deal, Vice President Kamala Harris ramped up her criticism of the Israeli government, taking an even firmer stance than President Joe Biden, who was caught on a hot mic that month saying he told the Israeli Prime Minister they would have a “come to Jesus meeting.”

On March 3, Harris harshly criticized Israel in a Selma, Alabama speech, where she demanded an “immediate ceasefire,” calling the images from Gaza “devastating.” She claimed Palestinians were shot when approaching trucks carrying humanitarian aid. The IDF stated that Palestinians were killed or injured when stampeding each other.

In the speech, Harris accused Israel of imposing unnecessary restrictions on humanitarian aid and called for a ceasefire without tying the release of more than a hundred Israeli hostages as a precondition. Members of the National Security Council reportedly toned down parts of the original speech draft which was harsher on Israel, NBC News reported.

That same day, Harris took to X to reiterate her call for a ceasefire, calling the situation in Gaza “devastating” and saying “our common humanity compels us to act.” The post made no mention of the hostages.

A day later, Harris met with Israeli politician and Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz, then a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, who traveled to Washington in defiance of the prime minister.


Qatar’s Sheikha Moza glorifies Yahya Sinwar in social media post
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, praised slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a post on X shortly after Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces operating in Gaza.

“The name Yahya means the one who lives,” she wrote. “They thought him dead but he lives. Like his namesake, Yahya bin Zakariya, he will live on and they will be gone.”

Moza, who has frequently used her public platform to spread anti-Israel content, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks last year, was in December described by Ariel Admoni, a Qatar expert at Bar-Ilan University, as the “public face of Qatar.”

The mother of the Qatari emir was born in Qatar but grew up in Kuwait, returning to Doha upon her marriage to Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who abdicated the throne in 2013 and handed power to their son.


People in Close Contact with Iranian Intelligence Shouldn’t Be Handling America’s State Secrets
Using its spy satellites, U.S. intelligence obtained information about Israel’s planned counterattack on Iran that some official then leaked, and which subsequently appeared in Iranian state media. The IDF has likely delayed its strike to come up with an alternative plan as a result. More recent reports about who was responsible for the leak remain unconfirmed, but, argue the editors of National Review, something is definitely amiss within the current national-security apparatus:

[N]o individual who has had extensive contact with Iranian intelligence and diplomatic officials, and who has deferred to the direction of those officials before, should have ever been put in a sensitive position in the first place. The Biden administration has ignored this rather simple rule.

The most glaring example of its questionable handling of the Iran portfolio is [the] Iran envoy Robert Malley’s continued employment by the State Department amid a probe into his handling of classified materials and the possibility that he shared information with the regime. . . . Possibly worse than Malley’s appointment is that of Ariane Tabatabai, an academic turned State Department and Pentagon official. She was part of the now-infamous Iran Experts Initiative—a program used by Tehran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cultivate relationships with foreign academics who could carry water for the regime.

[S]ince October 7, pro-Hamas ideologues within the State Department have labored to leak information that would help their cause and damage Israel’s war effort. . . . The president was wrong to appoint these officials in the first place, and he should have fired them long ago.


Israelis in Sri Lanka called to evacuate immediately following terror threat at tourist beaches
Israel's national security council called on Israelis on Wednesday to immediately leave some tourist areas in southern Sri Lanka over the threat of a possible terrorist attack.

The agency said the warning pertained to the area of Arugam Bay and beaches in the south and west of Sri Lanka, and stemmed from "current information about a terrorist threat focused on tourist areas and beaches".

The security council did not specify the exact nature of the threat and called on Israelis in the rest of Sri Lanka to be cautious and refrain from holding large gatherings in public areas.

"The Israeli security establishment ... is in close contact with the security authorities in Sri Lanka and is following the developments," it said.

US citizens warned
The US embassy in Sri Lanka also released a security alert stating it had received "credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations in the Arugam Bay area".

"US citizens are strongly urged to avoid the Arugam Bay area until further notice," it added but did not give details.

Police security has been beefed up in the area and officials are on high alert, police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa said in a video statement released in Colombo.

"This area is a popular spot for surfing and this has attracted a large number of Israeli tourists. We are working to ensure they remain safe," Thalduwa said.

Sri Lanka, famed for its pristine beaches, tea plantations and historic temples, is seeing a resurgence in tourists as the island nation recovers from a severe financial crisis.


Biden-Harris envoy accused of pressuring Israeli lawmakers to drop bill banning terror-linked UN agency
As the Israeli Knesset prepares to debate legislation aimed at severing ties with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), U.S. pressure on Israeli lawmakers is said to be mounting against the bill.

Fox News Digital has learned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leaders, including Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman, have received requests from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew to halt the proposed laws.

The current legislation seeks to end all relations between UNRWA and the Jewish state, including diplomatic visas granted to UNRWA workers and other services provided by the State of Israel.

"There is a difference between dialogue and pressure," Yulia Malinovsky said about the alleged interference from the ambassador. Malinovsky is a Knesset member from the Yisrael Beiteinu party and one of the authors of the legislation.

She told Fox News Digital, "UNRWA is a terrorist organization, and Hamas is an integral part of it. Its existence perpetuates the conflict."

She expressed commitment to ensuring the legislation moves forward, claiming, "Around half of UNRWA employees are affiliated with Hamas, and the first weapons found in UNRWA were back in 2014. They were involved in the October 7 Massacre. This agency is part of the problem perpetuating the status of refugees to benefit its workers."

The Biden administration sent a letter to Israeli leaders last week demanding that Israel take steps within 30 days to improve the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk the supply of U.S. weapons to Israel, according to a copy of the letter published by Axios. In the letter, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stressed that passing the law against UNRWA would be devastating for the humanitarian effort in the Gaza Strip at a critical time and would prevent education and welfare services for tens of thousands of Palestinians in Jerusalem.

They emphasized this could also constitute a violation of U.S. laws.

"As a matter of policy, we do not comment on private diplomatic conversations," a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital regarding telephone calls said to have been made by the U.S. ambassador to Israeli politicians.
GOP senators threaten UN funding if global body sidelines Israel
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and 27 other Republican senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations and its subsidiary agencies if they downgrade Israel’s status.

“Reports indicate that the Palestinian Authority will attempt to downgrade Israel’s status at the United Nations” following a U.N. General Assembly vote in May, the 28 senators wrote. That vote saw Palestinians gain new rights within their existing non-member “permanent observer” status, which is short of full U.N. membership.

“Any attempt to alter Israel’s status at the United Nations is clearly antisemitic,” Risch stated. “That said, if the U.N. member states allow the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization to downgrade Israel’s status at the U.N., the U.S. must stop supporting the U.N. system, as it would clearly be beyond repair.”

Risch added that he is “disgusted that this outrageous idea has even been discussed and will do all we can to ensure any changes to Israel’s status will come with consequences.”

Titled the “Stand with Israel Act,” the bill would forbid the federal government from disbursing funds to “the United Nations or any of its funds, programs, specialized agencies or other related entities” if the global body “expels, downgrades or suspends membership, or otherwise restricts the participation of Israel.”

The United States is the largest contributor to the world body, giving it and its agencies $18 billion in 2022—about one-third of the total U.N. budget.

Those contributions are mandatory for members of the U.N. General Assembly under the global body’s “assessed contributions” system. Countries that fall into arrears on paying their contributions are stripped of their vote in the General Assembly.

Objections are longstanding in Washington to paying for the budget in Turtle Bay.

In 1982, then-Secretary of State George Schultz threatened U.S. withdrawal from any U.N. body that did not seat Israel. The United States nearly lost its General Assembly vote in a budget dispute in 1999. Former president Donald Trump cut off funding to the U.N. Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, in 2018 and negotiated a lower overall U.N. budget in 2017.
UN’s Francesca Albanese Failed to Disclose Antisemitic Husband Worked for PLO Ministry
Massimiliano Cali has been employed by the World Bank Group since 2014 and is currently senior country economist for the World Bank in Tunisia. He is also the husband of UN Palestine Rapporteur Francesca Albanese who herself has been condemned for antisemitism by the U.S., France, and Germany. Cali routinely promotes antisemitism and incites jihadi terrorism on Facebook. Below is a non-exhaustive selection of his Facebook posts.

Shares one-side UN report by his wife Francesca Albanese accusing Israel of “perpetrating a genocide in Gaza” while completely ignoring the October 7 Hamas atrocities and Israel’s rights to security and self-defense. (March 25, 2024).

Shares information about a panel with his wife Francesca Albanese titled Colonialism and Apartheid in Palestine. The text of the post accuse “committing extermination in Palestine.” (January 30, 2024).

Shares a flyer about another anti-Israel panel with his wife Francesca Albanese. The text of the post criticizes “the West” for its defense of Israel, asserting that it is “sinking into the abyss.” (January 29, 2024).

Attacks the West for defending Israel and fighting antisemitism, while blaming Israel for the rise in antisemitism. Cali claims that if Western politicians “really cared about antisemitism (or humanity for that matter), these politicians would do everything they could to stop Israel’s indiscriminate massacre of Palestinians.” He adds that Western politicians’ defense of Israel shows that “their anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia are stronger than their desire to protect Jews and humanity.” (December 6, 2023).

Promotes his wife Francesca Albanese’s antisemitic book J’Accuse which accuses Israel of “apartheid and neocolonial occupation.” The title, J’Accuse inverts the trademark term used to denounce antisemitism since the 1898 Dreyfus affair and turns it against Israel as the Jewish State. (November 28, 2023).

Shares his wife Francesca Albanese’s RAI News 24 interview in which she talks about the “Israeli colonial and apartheid project.” (May 16, 2022).

Celebrates end of Palestinian Authority security cooperation with Israel – “at long last the Palestinian Authority is gonna stop beating and jailing its own people on behalf of Israeli occupation forces.” (July 26, 2019).

Accuses Israel of “terrorist killings” and “massacres” in its summer 2014 war against Hamas in Gaza in the context of sharing a GoFundMe campaign sponsored by antisemite Roger Waters to support a lawsuit against Israeli officials in a Dutch court. (February 10, 2019).


Guterres embraces the authoritarians
It’s often said about antisemitism that Jews are the canary in the coal mine: What starts with them won’t end with them, and sooner or later, the rest of society will suffer the consequences of this thoroughly anti-democratic ideology. I’m not going to delve into that proposition here, save to say that while I don’t entirely agree with it, there are times when its core observation can prove useful.

A case in point concerns the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres. Back in June, I gave voice to the disappointment I know is shared by many other Jews over the evolution of his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After initially appearing quite promising and making all the right noises on why antisemitism is a global threat that needs to be dealt with, Guterres transformed for the worse after the Hamas pogrom in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, joining the chorus chiding the Jewish state on the international stage—from Ireland to South Africa, from Spain to Chile, and all points in between. Particularly disgraceful was his decision to place Israel on a blacklist of countries whose militaries abuse children, alongside such paragons of virtue as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, Burma/Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen. Other democracies, including the United States, France and the United Kingdom, could easily end up on a list like this given the actions of their militaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they don’t because the United Nations understands that the political costs of such an action are minimal only when it comes to Israel.

Now Guterres is burrowing deeper into the authoritarian, conspiracy-addled universe from which antisemitism springs. Last week, the U.N. chief arrived in the Russian city of Kazan for a three-day summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) bloc of states, which bills themselves as an alternative to the economic institutions, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that have dominated the post-World War II global order.

The summit was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who delightedly used the occasion to demonstrate that his illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine hasn’t exactly robbed him of allies. More than 20 world leaders joined him in Kazan, among them Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Other states eager to enter the BRICS fold, including Ethiopia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, also sent senior representatives to sit at Putin’s feet.

By attending the summit in Russia, Guterres was effectively spitting in the faces of both Ukraine and Israel. In doing so, he proved that when you flirt with antisemitism and legitimize its tropes, you open yourself up to embracing all of its associated baggage—fake news, outlandish theories and the recasting of terrorism as a form of “resistance.”


State Department: UN Resolution 1701 only way to end war with Hezbollah
Israel has also charged that UNFIL has allowed Hezbollah to construct tunnels and store weapons within plain sight of the U.N. force.

“For 18 years, Hezbollah brazenly refused to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which requires it to move its forces away from our borders,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to the U.N. Security Council on Sept. 27. “Instead, Hezbollah moved right up to our border. They secretly dug terror tunnels to infiltrate our communities and indiscriminately fired thousands of rockets into our towns and villages.”

“They fire these rockets and missiles not from military sites—they do that, too—but they fire those rockets and missiles after they place them in schools, in hospitals, in apartment buildings and in the private homes of the citizens of Lebanon,” Netanyahu said. “They endanger their own people. They put a missile in every kitchen. A rocket in every garage.”

“I said to the people of Lebanon this week: Get out of the death trap that Hezbollah has put you in,” he added.

On Oct. 14, Netanyahu stated that it was “completely false” that Israel had intentionally attacked UNIFIL forces.

“It’s exactly the opposite. Israel repeatedly asked UNIFIL to get out of harm’s way. It repeatedly asked them to temporarily leave the combat zone, which is right next to Israel’s border with Lebanon,” he said at the time. “In fact, on the day that Israel began its ground operation next to our border with Lebanon, we asked them specifically, ‘Please leave this area so you’re not harmed.'”

The Jewish state is fighting the Hezbollah terror organization, not UNFIL nor the Lebanese people, Netanyahu stressed.

“Hezbollah uses UNIFIL facilities and positions as cover while it attacks Israeli cities and communities. These attacks have claimed the lives of many Israelis,” he said. “Israel has every right to defend itself against Hezbollah and will continue to do so. We regret any harm done to UNIFIL personnel, and the IDF is doing its utmost to prevent such incidents. But the best way to assure the safety of UNIFIL personnel is for UNIFIL to heed Israel’s request and to temporarily get out of harm’s way.”

Speaking at the State Department press briefing on Tuesday, Patel said that “ultimately what we want to see here is conditions that will allow civilians to be able to return home and, beyond that, get the government and country of Lebanon to a place where it is out of the stranglehold of Hezbollah and able to stand on its own two feet, be in a place where it can select a new president.”
UN ‘outmanoeuvred and intimidated’ as tree-planting Hezbollah makes dramatic gains
Hezbollah’s actions became more flagrant from 2016, the Atlantic Council think tank wrote last year, with the emergence of an environmental group called Green Without Borders.

The organisation said it aimed to protect Lebanon’s green areas and plant trees and it built camps and outposts as part of its work.

But the US government last year sanctioned the group, claiming it “served as a cover for Hezbollah’s activities” and had outposts “manned by Hezbollah operatives in more than a dozen locations”.

The outposts were cover for “underground warehouses and munitions storage tunnels”, the US treasury claimed and had “impeded” Unifil inspections.

Peacekeepers’ attempts to inspect the positions were blocked by the group, who said the posts were on private property and off-limits.

“Under the cover of Green Without Borders outposts, Hezbollah members conduct weapons training at firing ranges, patrol the surrounding area and maintain containerised housing units 25m from the Blue Line,” the US treasury claimed.

At the time of the sanctions, the organisation claimed it was “not an arm for anyone”.

Zouher Nahli, its leader, who was also sanctioned, said: “We as an environmental association work for all the people and we are not politicised.”

In July, the UN secretary general wrote to the security council requesting the latest 12-month extension of Unifil’s mandate, but admitting its difficulties.

He said both sides were still violating 1701. He also said there were at least five “unauthorised firing ranges outside state control” in the area “used on a number of occasions by gatherings of individuals in military-style attire with weapons”.

He said that despite repeated requests to the Lebanese government, “visits to these sites were not facilitated”.

Since hostilities escalated after Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks, peacekeepers had often been unable to patrol or fly helicopters, and were sheltering in bunkers, he said.

Analysts said peacekeepers have also faced growing hostility from the local Lebanon population, perhaps deliberately inflamed by Hezbollah which is deeply entrenched in southern Lebanon.

The hostility and the desire to avoid flashpoints and protect troops had made it more difficult to enforce the resolution.

The Lebanese government, which includes members of Hezbollah’s political wing, has also been accused of limiting the peacekeepers’ access, and keeping them out of sensitive areas.

The Atlantic Council last year reported that among peacekeepers there was “a rueful acknowledgement that force protection has come to trump mandate implementation”.

“If Hezbollah members block a patrol from accessing a certain area, the peacekeepers will log the event and return to base rather than force the issue and risk a confrontation and possible subsequent backlash.

“There is a growing sense of disillusionment among some peacekeepers.

“They privately question the point of continuing the mission when it is unable to challenge Hezbollah’s presence and actions on the ground.”
Understanding Israel’s War on Hizballah’s Finances
For the past ten years, I’ve been reading, from some of the smartest Middle East analysts, about the need to stymie the financial lifelines of Iran and its murderous proxies. I’ve learned that Hizballah, besides receiving money from Tehran, funds its own activities through a web of illicit operations on at least four continents—laundering money for South American drug lords and trading in cocaine and narcotics. There are numerous actions America and allies could take, without firing a shot, that could disrupt or even cut off these income streams—but these calls to action have fallen on deaf ears.

Now Israel has taken a different and far more direct approach that I have not seen suggested: dropping bombs on the banks that hold these funds. It has also announced to the Lebanese where one hoard of gold and cash is stored. Dean Shmuel Elmas speaks with Udi Levy, former head of the Mossad’s economic-warfare department, who explains that simply bombing a bank doesn’t make the accounts it holds disappear, but can still be effective:

The damage, according to Levy, is found, among other things, in the message that the attack conveys. The message is: “We will damage your softest underbelly—the money. Without it, Hizballah cannot rehabilitate itself.”

Levy also points out further damage that has been done. “The critical point from the terrorist organization’s point of view is that the IDF attack is expected to cause panic among the Shiite population, whose assets were deposited in [the targeted banks]. People can now be expected to demand the withdrawal of their funds, and this may result in severe damage to Hizballah, which is already in dire straits.” . . .

“Israel must impose a blockade on seaports and airports,” [Levy] says, “and this would make possible the economic collapse of Hizballah. . . . If this happens, a new reality will be created that conveys a clear message to the Iranians: your economic system is in our crosshairs.”


Stephen Pollard: The BBC’s credulous reporting of Hezbollah has become almost comical
I know there’s nothing amusing about the BBC’s determination to portray Israel as some sort of Fourth Reich. But sometimes its reporting is so grotesquely, obviously and clearly off kilter that it becomes almost comical.

Take its coverage of the IDF’s recent revelation of how Hezbollah is hiding at least half a billion of dollars in cash and gold in a “money bunker” under the Al-Sahel Hospital in Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold. According to the IDF, Iran sends “suitcases of cash and gold in planes to the Iranian embassy in Beirut”, the money coming from oil sold in Syria – hardly a surprise, given that Hezbollah is Iranian-funded.

Now if you were one of the hospital’s bosses, you would doubtless be slightly discombobulated by the world knowing that your hospital was perched above Hezbollah’s piggy bank. Not put out by the fact of Hezbollah using the hospital for cover, of course – your hospital is, after all, bang in the middle of prime Hezbollah real estate - but by everyone now knowing about the once-secret bunker. And you’d doubtless be worried that bad things might follow.

So you would try to come up with a cunning plan to show – innocent face – that the story is all wrong. You’re just a normal hospital doing normal hospitaly things. How could anyone doubt that? A Hezbollah bunker? How very dare you!

So yesterday the hospital implemented that very cunning plan, inviting the media to visit the hospital and take a gander to see that all that’s going on is medical care.

At this stage I might point out that the hospital director, Fadi Alameh, is also – what a coincidence! - a Lebanese MP for the Shia Amal party, which is a Hezbollah ally. And he was adamant – adamant, don’t you know – that the hospital had nothing to do with Hezbollah and there is no underground bunker. Its underground floors are just wards and operating theatres. How could anyone doubt his word?

The cunning plan would only work, of course, if the credulous media – the same media that takes everything that Hamas and Hezbollah say as gospel - could be persuaded only to look in the parts of the hospital that were, yes, a hospital. And not to look at the bit which was, er, a money pit.

But getting the credulous media to be credulous is about as difficult as getting me to eat more matzah balls than I should. And so yesterday we were treated to various journalists broadcasting reports of them wandering around the hospital pointing out that they could see no evidence of any money bunker, just a hospital being a hospital. Lebanese TV reporters were seen looking under sheets and beds and in opened drawers for money. Others were filmed looking inside morgue drawers, which had been left open for journalists to view.

And the BBC’s Orla Guerin – of course it was Orla – reported to the camera that, “Hospital staff are adamant that there is no hidden bunker”, as she looked around a room with medical waste, and boxes of equipment and surgical scrubs.

Just one problem. Orla and co were in the wrong place. Of course all they saw was the hospital being a hospital, because they were in the bit that is A HOSPITAL.


Grieving Druze double down on bond of blood with Israel
In the grieving Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel on Mount Carmel southeast of Haifa, Sabura Abu Hamad closed her empty cafe early on Monday to attend the funeral of the highest-ranking Israeli casualty in the current war.

“It’s a huge loss, but we remain strong,” Abu Hamad, 53, said of the death of Israel Defense Forces Col. Ehsan Daxa, a 41-year-old father of three who died fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza on Sunday.

His death reminded Abu Hamad of her family’s own sacrifices for Israel.

Her father was murdered and his body mutilated by terrorists in Lebanon while serving in the Israel Defense Forces when she, the youngest of four siblings, was in her mother’s womb. Her father’s head was never recovered. Her mother has been wearing black since her husband’s death and rarely smiles, said Abu Hamad.

Her mix of personal, communal and national grief is shared by many Israeli Druze, a 150,000-strong ethno-religious minority with a rich military tradition. Their alliance with the Jews predates the state’s establishment and is often described as a fraternal bond of shared fate.

In several places along the main street of this town of some 20,000 residents, giant television screens showed pictures of Daxa. Admired as a local success story, he was also a trailblazer and role model for having climbed the ranks in the IDF Armored Corps, where relatively few Druze serve.
Soldier killed in Southern Lebanon, bringing IDF toll to 752
An Israel Defense Forces officer was killed on Tuesday while battling Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon.

Maj. (res.) Aviram Hariv, 42, was the deputy commander of the 228th “Alon” Infantry Brigade’s 9308th Battalion, from Dolev in the Binyamin region.

Earlier on Tuesday, the military announced the death of Staff Sgt. Yishai Mann, 21, a soldier from the Nahal Infantry Brigade’s 50th Battalion, in an operational accident near the border with the Gaza Strip.

Mann, a resident of Mitzpe Yericho, also in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria, died in a car crash.

On Sunday, IDF Col. Ehsan Daksa, 41, the commander of the ]401st Armored Brigade, was killed in action in the northern Gaza Strip.

A member of the Jewish state’s Druze minority, Daksa was the highest-ranking officer to be killed since the start of the Gaza campaign on Oct. 27, along with Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, head of the Golani Brigade chief’s forward command team, who was killed in an ambush on Dec. 12.

Daksa was fatally wounded when an explosive device was detonated after he exited a tank in Jabaliya, where IDF soldiers have been operating since Oct. 6 to thwart a Hamas resurgence in the city.

The death toll among Israel Defense Forces troops since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre now stands at 752, according to official figures.


Moments of IDF airstrike in Beirut caught in photos and video
An Associated Press photographer on Tuesday captured the moments of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, which the military said struck a Hezbollah weapons cache.

The Israel Defense Forces issued evacuation warnings before the strikes, as part of steps to mitigate civilian harm. This afforded the press time to wait outside and take footage and images of the blast.

The pictures by AP photographer Bilal Hussein include an initial warning blast on the roof of the building, then clearly show a bomb fired by a fighter jet flying towards and then impacting the building, leveling it.

The IDF also released footage of the strike, which was one of several on Hezbollah weapons depots in Beirut Tuesday.

Earlier at the site, Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif was forced to interrupt a press conference after the IDF’s Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation order for residents of the area.

He was filmed as he hastily wrapped up his speech and got up to leave the stage while his assistants removed the microphones. As he left, he was heard saying: “The bombing does not scare us, nor the threats. Our will is firm and our determination is strong.”


Seth Mandel: Do Western Officials Actually Want to Solve the Gaza Aid Problem?
What’s the solution? Well, the most realistic solution is to let Israel win the war already and defeat Hamas, whose existence is the barrier to feeding and supplying the Palestinian residents of Gaza. But Western governments are adamantly opposed to this option. They want a ceasefire and a cessation of hostilities that leaves the conflict frozen and gives Hamas a chance to regroup and survive as an organization.

That leaves one option: hire private security firms not to police or pacify the battle zones but to carve out humanitarian-aid collection fortresses. What will the professional complainers say about this one?

“Essentially, this would privatize military rule over Gaza by handing it over to private companies with private financial interests and nothing beyond that,” claims Haaretz’s Noa Landau. “The goal is to transfer moral and legal responsibility from Israel to these armed militias.”

That is, quite simply, not what is being considered at all. In fact, the plan under consideration would be designed specifically to avoid that. Gaza is not being sold by the IDF.

In the Guardian, the head of Refugees International, Jeremy Konyndyk, raises a different concern: “US-funded contractors [in the war on terror] that took an armed security approach got hit a lot because they were seen as combatants.”

Fair enough, but the point is that in Gaza, aid convoys are attacked by Hamas not because they are seen as combatants but because they are seen as aid convoys. So whoever delivers the aid to Gaza is going to be attacked, at least at first. Experienced security firms might be willing to deliver the aid anyway—which the UN, recall, is not doing.

Moti Kahana, however, is. His Global Delivery Company, which has rescued Jews from war zones around the world, has been in touch with a British firm of military contractors and is pitching itself as a solution to the aid problem.

One riddle Kahana aims to solve: the fact that local Palestinians cannot distribute aid without being targeted by Hamas. GDC would hire Gaza-based Palestinians and put them under armed protection. That would keep Palestinians from being locked out of the process as well.

Such a plan is not without its risks or costs, either, of course. Perhaps the best way to evaluate any plan’s chances of success is to put it before the doubters and complainers. If the proposal is any good, they can be expected to oppose it. After all, if the problem gets solved, they can’t complain.


Senior US officials have daily job of auditing Israeli aid to Gaza, Blinken says in Tel Aviv press conference
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Wednesday morning press conference at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv before boarding a plane to Saudi Arabia, that Israel is not doing enough to aid Palestinians in Gaza. In response to a question from a reporter, he replied that multiple senior State Department officials are monitoring Israel’s progress on humanitarian aid daily.

“This is exactly why we’re so intensely focused on this issue,” he told a reporter, who asked for evidence that Israel has made progress on aiding Palestinians.

Blinken noted that trucks with aid are getting into Gaza. “There are a lot of challenges that go along with that, including lawlessness, including looting,” he said. “But Israel has to maximize everything it has under its control in order to get the food in.”

“We’ve had periods before where the Israelis have increased what they’re doing only to see it fall back,” he added. “So we’re tracking this very, very, very carefully, and we went over it in some detail.”

The progress that Washington has seen since Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin penned a letter to Israeli counterparts, calling for the Jewish states to make changes within 30 days, is “not enough,” Blinken said at the Tel Aviv press conference.

“We’ve seen progress in the opening of the Erez crossing. We’ve seen progress in the reanimation of the Jordanian corridor. We’ve seen progress in the opening of a fifth crossing point and other steps that have been taken,” the U.S. secretary said. “We have a list of things that we’re going through one by one, systematically, with our Israeli counterparts to make sure that they follow through on.”

“We’ve told them very clearly in the letter that we expect these steps to be taken within 30 days but starting immediately,” Blinken added. “They have started, and we’re tracking this, as I say, every single day. We have senior officials from the department whose job is to focus on that every day. That’s exactly what they’re doing.”


FDD Morning Brief | feat. Eugene Kontorovich (Oct. 21)
FDD Senior Vice President Jon Schanzer delivers timely situational updates and analysis, followed by a conversation with Eugene Kontorovich, an Israeli legal scholar and professor at George Mason University specializing in international law and the Arab-Israeli conflict,.




Not ‘one bit of evidence’ to show Israel targeting civilians
Modern War Institute John Spencer says the US has said many times that there is not “one bit of evidence” to show Israel targeting civilians.

Mr Spencer told Sky News host Sharri Markson that there “has been accidents”.

“Israel has done more to prevent and to safeguard civilians.”


SBS admits to censoring interviews ‘too supportive’ of Israel
Sky News host Sharri Markson discusses how the SBS has “censored” interviews with international figures due to being overly supportive of Israel.

“The SBS has censored interviews with prominent international figures - like Colonel Richard Kemp - because they were too supportive of Israel,” Ms Markson said.

“I can tonight reveal that SBS has removed, edited or refused to run four interviews that presented Israel's side of the story - the public broadcaster claimed they didn't meet their editorial standards.

“We've all seen interviews from ABC and SBS where the journalists don't ask tough questions and they show anti-Israel bias, yet have you ever heard of a formal reprimand before?

Ms Markson said the SBS admitted to the censorship as the content did not meet the ‘editorial standards of balance and impartiality’.


travelingisrael.com: Johnny Harris got a few things wrong about Israel (and Lebanon and Iran)



UKLFI: Samidoun Donations Prevented
Samidoun, an NGO providing a “Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network”, can no longer collect donations from its website.

This follows its designation on 15 October 2024 by the USA and Canada as a terrorist organisation. According to the US Treasury Department, Samidoun is “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”

UKLFI wrote on 16 October 2024 to Alliance for Global Justice (AGJ), a section 501(c)(3) organisation which acted as a fiscal sponsor, collecting donations for Samidoun benefiting from US tax relief.

UKLFI pointed out to AGJ that Samidoun is now designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as a Specially Designated Network (SDN) to which the Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) program applies.

The relevant Code of Federal Regulations prohibits transactions between US entities or individuals and Samidoun, whose assets have now been blocked. No U.S. person or entity is allowed have any transactions or dealings with Samidoun, including offering or receiving any goods or services.

There are extremely high fines, or up to $1 million, or even imprisonment for up to 20 years for ignoring these regulations.

Samidoun has been designated by the Israeli Ministry of Defence as a terrorist organisation since February 2021, when it was described as a subsidiary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). According to the Ministry, Samidoun was founded by “members of the PFLP in 2012” and Khaled Barakat, identified by the PFLP as “coordinator” of Samidoun was “involved with establishing militant cells and motivating terrorist activity in Judea & Samaria and abroad.”

Khaled Barakat has also been designated by the US and Canada as a terrorist in the latest announcement, and his assets have been frozen.

Samidoun has also been listed as a terrorist entity by Germany.

The Donate button on the Samidoun website had led to a web page giving instructions on how to send a cheque to AGJ. Now however, all fiscal sponsorship by AGJ appears to have been “paused.”
High class restaurant boss pays a high price for vile Israeli flag protest - as his 'furious' WIFE now turns on him
The move comes as other chefs and restaurant bosses are still speaking out about the war in Gaza and Lebanon, one year after the Hamas attack on Israel.

Interior architect Rebecca Yazbek confirmed to Daily Mail Australia her husband and business partner is no longer a part of their hospitality group after the angry community backlash.

'We are in the process of restructuring the business and hope to be able to make an announcement on that in the next week,' she said on Wednesday.

She previously acknowledged that he behaved in a way that offended a lot of people.

'We deeply regret the impact his actions have had on the community, and for that, we sincerely apologise,' she told the Daily Telegraph.

'As both his wife and business partner, I was furious with his actions and heartbroken by the harm they caused.

'I fully understand the disappointment and frustration felt by those affected, and I am committed to doing everything possible to restore your trust.'

The couple built their high class restaurant group over the last decade with restaurants Nomad Sydney and Nomad Melbourne, as well as Reine & La Rue.

His exit follows more hospitality figureheads making their anti-Israel political views known after sharing hateful posts on social media.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal two-time MasterChef star Mitchell Orr and restaurateur Pablo Vargas are behind anti-Israel propaganda shared on Instagram.

'Prince of Pasta' Mitchell Orr, who fronts Ace hotel's Kiln restaurant in Surry Hills in Sydney's east has been vocal with his inflammatory anti-Israel social media content.

'The number one cause of child death on earth is Israel' one of Orr's posts read.

'The genocidal facts don't lie: Israel failed humanity.'

Orr, known for his expertise in pasta, began working in a pub and has since cut his teeth at some of Sydney's highest profile kitchens.

Fellow hospitality figurehead Pablo Vargas uploaded a post to his private instagram with a image with the phrase 'Everyday is f*** Israel day,'




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