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Friday, November 08, 2024

11/08 Links Pt2: Trump’s election has checkmated Iran; US three men in Iranian plot to assassinate Trump; Qatar To Expel Hamas Leaders

From Ian:

Why America Stopped Winning Wars
Israel, a country of just 10 million with no friendly population on any of its borders, cannot afford to follow America’s example. America might be able to avoid national suicide by correcting its policy errors, because of the great physical distance that separates it from its enemies. Israel’s enemies are right on the border, and Israel has neither a moment nor a square foot to spare.

The events of Oct. 7 demonstrated that Hamas indeed posed and continues to pose a catastrophic threat to Israel’s citizens. If Hezbollah’s forces poised on Israel’s northern border had followed through on its own invasion plans for the Galilee on Oct. 7, for which we now know it was amply prepared, the result might well have been three or four times the scale of mass killings, perhaps precipitating the collapse of Israel. Proportionality, in its true sense, would therefore dictate the annihilation of Hamas in response, to remove an existential threat.

Control of a territory by an extremist movement necessarily means that the majority of the civilian population either actively sustains it or else tacitly accepts its activities.

Yet, in contemporary American military and government understanding, proportionality means that every Israeli action should be examined from the point of view of whether “disproportional harm”—often meaning, any harm—has been inflicted on noncombatants. This is insane in the literal sense, as there is no way for Israel to apply this principle in practice and at the same time destroy Hamas.

The reason why the U.S. managed to spend the extraordinary sum of $2.3 trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and other, associated operations, is largely “proportionality.” Careful assessment of what is and is not a proportional attack, or a proportional campaign, is incredibly expensive. It requires the constant collection of a vast amount of detailed intelligence on such subjects as the number of civilians likely to be present in a particular building. In its implementation, proportionality is taken to require the use of guided “smart” low-impact munitions in almost all circumstances, another enormous drain on the budget. Repeated attacks on the same target with expensive munitions often substitute for single attacks with cruder weapons, whose death tolls might be higher—but which will not exhaust America’s financial strength and are more likely to lead to victory. If the Union had spent the Civil War obsessing about the proportionality of its actions instead of annihilating the Confederacy, the war would likely have ended in a stalemate, and the continuation of slavery in the South.

A third and final reason why America stopped winning wars is its misunderstanding of democratization, which is not at all limited to the actions of President George W. Bush, or the ideas of so-called “neoconservatives.” Predictably, relying on democratization as a long-term solution to a foreign threat has proved a misguided and exceptionally expensive approach.

A dangerous regime like Saddam Hussein’s is a proper target for war. Those who are inclined to suggest that Saddam was not dangerous, or no longer dangerous, by 2003, are invited to consider what a vicious dictator like him would have done with Iraq’s vast oil revenue over time. Iran, a very dangerous regime, earns much less money exporting oil than Iraq, partly because it is much simpler to extract and export Iraqi oil. Thus, making sure that Saddam was not left permanently sitting on top of a vast revenue stream to support future aggression was a legitimate military objective.

Imposing democracy on Iraq was not a legitimate military objective, because it could not be reasonably achieved in a limited period of time through force. A society which has existed as a tyranny for decades cannot suddenly be turned into a democracy, especially if the society is not very sophisticated, either technologically or socially, simply by means of military invasion and occupation. It is worth remembering that West Germany had previously been a democracy, however flawed, during the Weimar Republic. It was also an advanced industrial power. Under direct occupation by the Western Allies after a catastrophic military defeat, and with massive Marshall Plan aid, West German society was capable of again sustaining democracy—which was already a familiar form of government. Nothing of the kind was possible in Iraq.

Seeking democracy, or even some substantively democratic form of government, is futile in places like Iraq and Gaza, because democratic governance requires a preexisting institutional and social basis. What should be done, and what America can do, is to rapidly destroy military threats to its national security and economy—as was in fact done in America’s initial invasion of Iraq in 2003. Instead of attempting to police Iraq into the future, America should have then maintained forces in safe areas in close proximity, like Iraqi Kurdistan and Kuwait, to make sure that the old regime could not return to power.

America cannot afford to fight long wars against its enemies, both because of the cost, and because any long campaign inevitably teaches the enemy to adapt and adjust, and thereby become at least partially immune to attack. What the United States should do instead is carry out sudden crushing attacks, which can be repeated without warning. America’s nature as a distant power with a large air force and navy makes this approach ideally suited to its strengths, while avoiding its weaknesses. If you don’t want to suffer the consequences of such an attack, then don’t do things like attack shipping in the Red Sea or take Americans hostage.

For the moment, America has no strategy, no operational approach, not even a clear sense of the tactics it should employ, even in simple situations where America’s interests are clear—like keeping shipping lanes open or keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of an Iranian regime that regularly promises “Death to America.” What America has, in overabundance, are empty soundbites. As long ago as Jan. 17, 2005, President Bush said of Iran’s nuclear program, “I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table.” Two decades later, Vice President Harris says on that same topic, “diplomacy is my preferred path … but all options are on the table.” After two decades of continuing inaction, such rhetoric, on both sides of the aisle, is a portent of further failures to come.
Jonathan Tobin: Will Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy help or hurt Israel?
The stakes involved in Israel’s war against Iran and its proxies are very different. The notion that Ukraine is a valiant democracy fighting for the freedom of the world is a myth. The regime of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not as democratic or free from that nation’s antisemitic past as the foreign-policy establishment claims. By contrast, helping Israel defeat these terrorists who seek to spread chaos and genocide in a region central to American interests because of its oil reserves and strategic placement is vital to U.S. security.

All foreign-policy choices are transactional, but every nation has the duty to consider the interests of its own people first.

The choice of “America First” for the title of Trump’s foreign-policy vision has always been unfortunate since it conjures up the pre-World War II movement led by Charles Lindbergh that was both dedicated to appeasing Nazi Germany and antisemitic. Trump’s “America First” is neither dedicated to appeasing a foreign foe or spreading Jew-hatred. It is, instead, more of a realist policy than anything else. That’s because it involves, as we saw in Trump’s first term, a desire to defeat the Islamist terrorists of ISIS, in addition to an aggressive policy of sanctions and anti-terror special operations against Iran.

There is a difference between having the good judgment to pick and choose your battles based on American interests and a policy of isolationism. The notion that an America not willing to commit itself to conflicts anywhere no matter the circumstances will betray Israel is absurd as well as impractical. And it has yet to be explained how Israel is helped by a situation in which American strategic reserves are drawn down to the breaking point to fund and supply an endless war in Ukraine, rather than expended sparingly until they are needed for more important conflicts. Israel needs a strong American ally, not one mired in a conflict that only saps its strength.

Trump’s version of “America First” has other tangible benefits for Israel. Unlike both Obama and Biden, Trump is not interested in bolstering multilateral organizations like the United Nations that are cesspools of antisemitism and irredeemably hostile to the Jewish state. The president-elect has little use for that world body or any of its constituent agencies that do so much to demonize and harm Israel.

And though Biden bragged about how European leaders were thrilled with the return of the Democrats to power in January 2021, Trump is right to regard their good opinion as having no value. The less connected the United States is to international opinion, and especially that of the governments of Western Europe, the better it is for an Israel that Western Europe has already largely written off.

Some observers are so deranged by Trump’s ascendance that they fail to recognize that defending the interests of U.S. citizens “first” is both moral and a wise policy. Though many anti-Trumpers falsely accuse Trump of antisemitism, the opposite is true since he did more to combat Jew-hatred on campuses than his predecessors, who saw the antisemitic mobs as demonstrating idealism that must be heard, if not fully accepted.

While events and changing circumstances can’t be accounted for when determining the future, Trump’s pro-Israel record and opposition to woke ideology represent a harbinger of smoother sailing for the alliance between the two countries in the next four years. Whether successful or not, “America First” is likely to be a better American foreign policy for Jerusalem than the efforts of Biden and Harris.
Douglas Murray: 10 things Trump can do to clean up Biden’s messes abroad
Israel
Biden talked a strong game on Israel, but his administration was wet and leaky as hell.

In fact, the Biden administration spent more time trying to perform regime change in Jerusalem than it ever did anywhere else.

Now that Biden, Chuck Schumer and that gang are out, this is a good time to reaffirm the alliance.

Israel doesn’t need America to fight its wars for it. But it does need the US as a resolute ally while it finishes off Hamas and Hezbollah.

It also needs America to assert the sort of pressure the Biden-Harris administration never did to get the remaining hostages freed.

Trump has said before that they must be freed before his inauguration. Now is the time to tell Hamas’ regional backers that time is up.

The slogan for freeing the hostages — including the American ones — should never have been “Bring them home.” It should be “Give them back.” Now.

Iran
Which brings me to the single most important thing Trump can do in the Middle East.

The only reason Iran has been able to fight a seven-front war against Israel for the past year is because Biden-Harris turned the money spigots on for the mullahs the minute they came into office.

Before that, the mullahs were crawling to Trump, begging him to lift his crippling sanctions on their country.

Now is the time to slam the sanctions back on. Iran has seen its terror proxies crippled by Israeli military and intelligence in the past year. Now is the time to go for the head of the snake.

The Iranians are threatening another direct strike on Israel from Iranian territory.

In the last exchange, Israel took out the Revolutionary Islamic government’s air defense systems. There might be a reason for that. In the “tit-for-tat” of this part of the war, the next strike from Iran is imminent.

With Trump on the way back, Israel should be confident that its responding counter-strike destroys the mullahs and wipes away their nuclear ambitions once and for all.

Who knows, perhaps the sordid, barbaric Islamic regime in Tehran will finally fall and the Iranian people can finally get their country back.

If so, then perhaps by the end of his next term, Trump will be able to bring Iran into the Abraham Accords.

Now that is something that even the Nobel Committee would have to notice.
Podcast: Mark Dubowitz on the Dangers of a Lame-Duck President
America has just elected a new president, or rather, a new-old president. Donald Trump will be the first American president since Grover Cleveland to be elected to non-consecutive terms. All transitions between presidential administrations have an awkward aspect, felt especially during the months between the election and when the incumbent takes office. This period, when the successor has already been named by the electorate but does not yet have any official power, is when a lame-duck session of Congress meets, and the president himself is called a lame-duck president.

During this period, the president—while retaining all of his constitutional authority—nevertheless tends to diminish in the power hierarchy of Washington. Presidential power is based, to a very large degree, on the possibility of promising something in the future, and lame-duck presidents don’t have a future in which they can fulfill any promises. It can also be a period when, unconstrained by the need to run for office again, a president can put executive orders and other kinds of policies in place without worrying about their political consequences. So it can be a period of troublemaking.

Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), fears that a lame-duck Biden administration might decide to target Israel with executive action in very damaging ways. Dubowitz has spent decades working on financial warfare and sanctions in and out of government, and he is an expert on Iran’s nuclear program.

In order to follow this conversation, there are a couple of things it helps to know. First, in December 2016, during President Obama’s lame-duck period, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2334, which conveyed that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are illegal. The U.S. could have vetoed the resolution, but instead abstained.

The second is Executive Order 14115, which President Biden signed back in February, which gives the State and Treasury Departments authorization to sanction individuals and entities who undermine peace and security in the very areas Security Council Resolution 2334 determined Israelis may not live in. Sanctions have already been levied against some Israelis—some of whom genuinely do undermine peace, and some of whom do not. Dubowitz joins Jonathan Silver to warn of the danger that the president will use the last weeks of his term to take accelerated action under these authorities.


Father of hostage writes open letter to Trump
Dear President-elect Donald Trump, the next leader of the United States of America,

As you assume once again the mantle of the presidency and leadership of the free world, I write to you with an urgent purpose.

The world watches you today with a shared conviction that good must triumph over global evil. Your previous tenure demonstrated that appeasement of malevolent forces serves only to embolden them. As a fellow believer in the Republican tradition, you understand that national strength alone can safeguard a nation's citizens.

In your victory speech, you mentioned your family and their support throughout your campaign and beyond. I wanted to tell you a bit about my family and about my son Eitan, who is still held captive in Gaza.

We live in Kiryat Arba, near Hebron – a name I know resonates in America, where several cities share this biblical designation. Each day brings renewed anxiety for Eitan's safety, tempered with profound pride in his actions. When terror struck on October 7, he chose to help others escape rather than seek his own safety, saving dozens before being taken captive in the afternoon hours. This exemplifies his character – Eitan has always been someone who assists others, whether through attentive listening, concrete action, or wise counsel.

Our family's sole wish is to have Eitan home before his captivity reaches 400 days. His young sisters, aged five and eight, maintain a vigil of hope, decorating our front door with drawings awaiting his return.

We understand the weight of your influence and the impact of your policies. At this critical juncture, we need you to fulfill your pledge to help secure the hostages' release. Every previous attempt has ended in failure.

Hamas continues its pattern of rejection, seemingly intent on maximizing our anguish while demanding concessions beyond Israel's capacity to give. Each negotiating delegation raised our hopes, leaving us fixed to news broadcasts and mobile phones, desperate for any sign of progress. Yet Hamas remained intransigent, amplifying our family's torment with each refusal.
Freed child captive has moments of joy, as family yearns for normalcy
“She’d rather sleep anywhere else than inside a bomb shelter, because that’s where she was kidnapped from. That’s where Hamas burst in and took her and Hila,” Tom Hand, the father of former captive Emily Hand, told JNS on Thursday.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Emily Hand was sleeping over at her friend Hila Rotem Shoshani’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri, five miles from the Gaza Strip, when Hamas launched its assault, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 hostages including 40 children, among them Emily, 8, and Hila, 13.

Authorities at the kibbutz told Tom that his daughter had likely been murdered. The family’s plight went viral after a distraught Tom said in an interview that his first reaction to the news that his daughter had been murdered instead of captured had been relief.

However, roughly a month later, the IDF confirmed that Emily’s body was not among the remains of some 120 people killed in Be’eri, and that no traces of blood had been found in the house where she was staying.

Moreover, cell phones belonging to members of the family with whom she had been staying were tracked to Gaza.

On Nov. 17, 2023, Emily spent her 9th birthday in captivity. Just over a week later, on Nov. 26, she was released after spending 50 days in Gaza, as was her friend Hila, as part of a weeklong ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that freed 105 hostages (81 Israelis, 23 Thais and one Filipino), primarily women and children, in return for 240 terrorists.

“I was spending a week in England, there was a massive rally at which I spoke, and then we heard whispers that there was going to be a prisoner-for-hostage swap and we got on the next plane out with our fingers crossed,” Tom told JNS.

He made it back to Israel and was staying at the David Dead Sea hotel in Ein Bokek with the rest of the refugees from Be’eri when the army called to tell him that Emily was on the list of the hostages to be released by Hamas.

“Immediately, it’s hope. You’re ecstatic just at the possibility of being reunited while understanding that anything could go wrong. Hamas could change the conditions, change their mind, and so could our own government,” Tom said. “Anything could have gone wrong at any point from the moment they called me till the handover 24 hours later. You really suppress your excitement and hope and pray for the best.”

As part of its psychological warfare strategy, Hamas delayed Emily’s release by six hours.

“It was torment, terror. It was a hard 24 hours,” a tearful Tom told JNS.

“When we got her back, she was very white, she had not seen the sun in over a month. She was very quiet, afraid to make any kind of noise out of her mouth. At that point, we did not know how traumatized, terrorized or broken she was,” he continued. “Thank God, people talk about the resilience of children, she is a resilient one. I know other kids that have been brought back, and they are still in a bad way, they don’t leave their room, they don’t mix with their friends.”
Clifford D. May: The Sting Doctrine
On Oct. 8, 2023, Hezbollah began firing missiles at northern Israel from Lebanon, initiating a second front in the same war.

Israeli troops are now in Southern Lebanon, where they’ve found an extensive, elaborate and expensive system of tunnels that were intended to be used in Hezbollah’s “Conquer the Galilee” plan—an attack on Israel that would have been similar to that carried out by Hamas.

This underground fortress—containing command centers, thousands of missiles, drones and explosive devices—“would not exist were it not for the expertise, engineering, equipment, advisers and technicians provided by North Korea,” according to Bruce E. Bechtol, president of the International Council on Korean Studies.

Twice this year, Khamenei also has attacked Israel directly. First, on April 13, a barrage of more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles. Then, on Oct. 1, he launched from Iranian soil some 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli population centers. Thanks to Israel’s high-technology air-defense system and assistance from the United States, most were intercepted.

On Oct. 25, Israel struck back against Tehran, hitting only military targets and knocking out the S-300 air defense systems supplied by Putin.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters: “We don’t think that Iran should or needs to respond.” She added that opportunities now exist “to use diplomacy to dial down tensions in the region.”

But that’s not on Khamenei’s to-do list. On Saturday, he threatened a “crushing response” to the “enemies, both the USA and the Zionist regime.

Contra Sting, Khamenei thinks his war is winnable. The lesson he needs to be taught is that it’s also losable.
Trump’s election has checkmated Iran
In the past four-years, the Biden administration has made it clear to Khamenei that the US will not impose direct military consequences on the IRGC, including when the IRGC’s proxies killed three US soldiers in January this year. This approach shaped the Iranian regime’s calculus and made them believe that they could get away with escalation without repercussions.

The result has been unprecedented direct missile attacks on Israel and the ramping-up of its nuclear program to near-weapons grade level (something that did not occur under Trump despite withdrawing from the nuclear deal). This marks a stark difference from when Trump shocked Tehran by ordering the killing of the IRGC’s notorious terrorist commander Qassem Soleimani after his proxies killed a US citizen. Trump would not only restore US deterrence in the Middle East, but would likely lift constraints on Israel’s efforts to dismantle the IRGC’s terrorist network.

Could Khamenei turn to his powerful friend in Moscow for support? Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ayatollah has provided Vladimir Putin with missiles and drones, hoping to secure a strategic relationship. But Trump could be the ultimate homewrecker in this Putin-Khamenei “love affair”. If Trump strikes a deal in Ukraine that satisfies Moscow, would Putin stay faithful to the ayatollah? History suggests Putin isn’t known for commitment and would have no problem dumping Khamenei to satisfy his own needs.

With few options, surely the ayatollah would have no choice but to shake hands with what he calls “the Great Satan”, after all Trump is a dealmaker?

But this is where the checkmate move strikes.

Khamenei cannot be seen shaking hands with the man who killed Soleimani. In the eyes of the regime’s small but radical consistency, Soleimani was akin to a messianic Islamist idol. Against the backdrop of unprecedented anti-regime sentiment and looming protests, Khamenei cannot afford to lose the young Soleimani zealots who have consistently taken to the streets to uphold the regime through the suppression of Iranian civilians and protestors.

Together this could put the Islamist regime in Iran in its weakest position in 45-years. If Trump’s maximum pressure is followed with maximum support for the Iranian people, by the end of Trump’s presidency there may not be a theocracy left in Iran.

Trump may not seek overt regime change as a policy, but it may be one of the inadvertent consequences of his actions. After all, for Trump, politics is personal and if a “revenge list” does exist, Khamenei — whose regime has spent the past 4 years trying to assassinate the president-elect — will almost certainly feature at the top.
"Iran Has Been Humiliated and Exposed by Israel" | Haviv Rettig Gur on Why Israel Is Winning the War
In this episode, we spoke with Haviv Rettig Gur, a veteran Israeli journalist and senior analyst at The Times of Israel. Since 2005, Haviv has covered Israeli politics, foreign policy, the education system, and the relationship with the Jewish diaspora, reporting from over 20 countries.
Haviv explained why Iran must be defeated and how the U.S., under President Biden, has hindered Israel's ability to achieve this goal. We also explored where the war in Gaza is headed and Israel's potential next moves.
Additionally, we discussed the relationship between moderate Arab nations and the Jewish state, and whether Israeli Jews and the Jewish diaspora are in sync.


On Election Day, Biden-Harris Admin Quietly Waived Terrorism Sanctions on Palestinian Government, Docs Show
Just before Tuesday’s presidential election, the Biden-Harris administration quietly waived mandatory terrorism sanctions on the embattled Palestinian government—even as it determined that the government's leaders are paying imprisoned terrorists and fomenting violence in breach of U.S. law.

The State Department, in a non-public notice to Congress, determined that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are not complying with agreements to curb terrorism against Israel and end the "pay-to-slay" program, which rewards imprisoned terrorists for committing acts of violence.

Those violations should trigger American sanctions, barring members of the Palestinian government from obtaining U.S. visas. The Biden-Harris administration nonetheless used its executive power to waive the sanctions.

"A blanket denial of visas to PLO members and PA officials, to include those whose travel to the United States to advance U.S. goals and objectives, is not consistent with the U.S. government’s expressed willingness to partner with the PLO and PA leadership," the State Department told Congress in the private notification obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The agency issued the waiver just as Americans headed to the polls Tuesday to hand Donald Trump a decisive victory driven in part by the former president’s clear-cut commitment to Israel’s security amid a broadening regional war. The waiver enables the Palestinian government to duck American sanctions for another 180 days, at which point it will come up for renewal once Trump is in the White House.

Most notably, the State Department determined the Palestinian government "continued to make payments to the families of prisoners convicted of committing acts of terrorism and the families of individuals who were wounded or died while committing acts of terrorism, whom they dubbed ‘martyrs.’"
'Israel needs to get off of American aid': Ben Shapiro goes on the attack
A musical theater playbill might seem like an unlikely place to find Ben Shapiro's name, but the sharp-tongued American political commentator is indeed one of the creators behind "We Will Rise," which premiered recently in Beersheba. If that's not surprising enough, Shapiro maintains that among his many ventures, this is one of his most emotionally significant. While he couldn't attend the premiere, he plans to be present for the gala opening in Jerusalem.

The songs and music were composed by his father, musician David Shapiro, while Ben wrote the rest of the text. The story centers on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, connecting those events to the October 7 attacks in Israel and the ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Some characters in the musical are based on actual figures from the ghetto: Adam Czerniakow, head of the Judenrat, or Mordechai Anielewicz, leader of the uprising. Others are fictional or were developed with significant artistic license.

Shapiro, a Jewish-American affiliated with the conservative right, is one of the most influential political commentators in the US. He has tens of millions of followers on social media, and episodes of his daily current affairs podcast, "The Ben Shapiro Show", receive hundreds of thousands of listens. He graduated from UCLA and Harvard Law School, was previously an editor at the American news site Breitbart, has written bestsellers, and was among the founders of The Daily Wire. Since October 7, Shapiro has participated in numerous public debates, consistently standing with Israel and defending its war efforts.

He spoke with Makor Rishon for an interview to talk about the play as well as on politics, excerpts of which are brought below.

Q: What do you think Israel should do if Kamala Harris wins?
"I think that Israel should do the same thing whether Kamala wins or whether Kamala loses. I think what Israel needs to recognize, and I've said this to every prime ministerial candidate for the last 10 years, is Israel needs to become self-sufficient. Israel always needed to be self-sufficient. They need to be more militarily self-sufficient, they need to get off of American aid, and they need to generate an economic dynamism, unleash the economy over there sufficient to pay for all of that. What we've seen in the aftermath of October 7 is that Israel cannot be reliant on the goodwill of other nations, because that is a very precarious place to be. You don't want to be Blanche DuBois in this Tennessee Williams play. You don't want to be reliant on the kindness of strangers. And Israel has sustained itself by attempting moral suasion for several decades at this point. And it turns out that moral suasion doesn't go all that far. What actually goes far is the raw ability to sustain yourself. And so that means on an economic level is radical deregulation of the economy in Israel. It means allowing businesses to thrive and succeed. It means that it shouldn't take 300 days to do a real estate deal. It means that the taxes are way too high on literally everything, which is why half of real estate deals are now black-market real estate deals. It means that you shouldn't have to have a cousin in one of the, in a "misrad" [referring to a generic ministry in Israel] somewhere in order to get something done. It means that the stranglehold that Histadrut [the main public service Israel trade union] has on labor needs to stop. The economy can't shut down every time somebody has a political gripe. All these things need to be done. And that's not a political point. That is, that is a reality. Either Israel's going to do that and have a dynamic economy because Israel has very, very high social fabric, high IQ, high confidence levels. And all of that is being held up. Like as everyone who is American who's ever visited Israel recognizes the miracle of Israel is that it works at all because the system is so gummed up and so ridiculous that it is sheerly through sort of bootstrapping and personal connections that anybody can get anything done over there. I mean, it's insane.
Senate Republicans Mounted an Effort To Threaten Qatar To Expel Hamas Leaders. After Trump's Win, an Israeli News Report Suggests It May Have Worked.
Earlier this week, congressional Republicans mounted an effort to punish Qatar for providing shelter to Hamas's remaining leadership, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Now, following former president Donald Trump's election, an Israeli news report suggests that the Gulf state has informed Hamas it is no longer welcome in Doha.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) and Jim Risch (R., Idaho)—the ranking members on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees—sent a letter to the Biden-Harris administration on Monday arguing that it is past time for the United States to threaten severe diplomatic repercussions for Doha if it does not freeze Hamas’s assets and turn over the terror group's top leaders who reside in the country. One day later, Trump, whose administration will undoubtedly take a tougher approach toward Hamas and its benefactors in Tehran, cemented his return to the White House.

Then, on Friday, Israel's national public broadcaster, Kan, reported that Qatar informed Hamas's leaders they are "not welcome here." The move "is taking place due to heavy American pressure," according to the report.

Neither the White House nor the Qatari embassy responded to requests for comment on that report, though an anonymous source told Jewish Insider that the Biden-Harris administration also asked Qatar to expel Hamas leaders when they rejected a ceasefire shortly before the U.S. election. The official would not say whether there is a deadline for Hamas leaders to leave, meaning it is unclear if they have already done so.

The expulsion of Hamas from Qatar would deal a major blow to the terror group. Its top leaders have long lived in luxury in Doha, residing in opulent hotels and sitting on billions of dollars in assets.

Wicker and Risch's coordinated pressure campaign was more than a year in the making and signals that lawmakers are fed up with Qatar’s policy of providing protection to Hamas, even as Doha plays a central role in the U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire between the militant group and Israel. The senators say that Qatar can no longer play both sides of the war and risks losing its elite diplomatic status with America if Hamas’s leaders are not turned over.

"The defeat of Hamas is within reach, and ending the safe haven that its leadership enjoys abroad is vital to defeating it," Wicker, Risch, and 12 of their GOP colleagues wrote in a letter sent Monday to the State and Justice Departments and obtained by the Free Beacon. There is no path towards an enduring ceasefire while Qatar provides shelter to Hamas and treats its leadership as protected dignitaries, the lawmakers say.

The Biden-Harris administration has relied on Doha to push Hamas into a ceasefire, emboldening Qatar’s intransigence. These efforts have repeatedly failed and deepened distrust between American lawmakers and the Middle Eastern power. The Biden-Harris administration nonetheless long declined to pressure Qatar, fearing hopes of a ceasefire would be dashed.
Netanyahu concerned ICC to issue arrest warrant before Trump takes office
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned that the International Criminal Court will issue a warrant for his arrest in the coming weeks, before President-elect Donald Trump enters office, and as Senate Democrats continue to hold up legislation sanctioning ICC officials.

Asked on Thursday about Netanyahu’s chief concerns about President Joe Biden’s remaining months in office, a Prime Minister’s Office official cited the ICC warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, ahead of the possibility that the administration could allow the U.N. Security Council to pass resolutions pressuring Israel, as former President Barack Obama did, or potential moves to restrain Israel in the case of another attack from Iran.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan asked in May for the court’s judges to issue warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh – all of whom have since been killed – for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The judges have yet to make a decision on the matter, and can do so at any time, without forewarning. The presiding judge, who was thought to oppose the warrants, went on medical leave two weeks ago, and was replaced by Beti Hohler, a Slovenian judge viewed by the government of Israel as less amenable to their case.

“As President Biden said, the ICC prosecutor’s actions are outrageous,” an Israeli Prime Minister’s Office official said. “They’re also dangerous, because they could compromise the soldiers of any democracies, and the ability of democracies to fight terrorism.”

The official called the prosecutor’s petition for a warrant “troubling and peculiar,” and noted that Khan had promised a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators that he would not seek arrests before conducting an investigation in Israel. He did not arrive in Israel on the day he was scheduled to meet with senior Israeli officials and issued the request for warrants that day.
US Justice Department charges three men in Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, kill Jews
The U.S. Department of Justice charged three men on Friday who it said were involved in an Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump and to murder Jews, Israelis and an Iranian-American rights advocate.

Prosecutors charged Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, N.Y., with two murder-for-hire counts and one money laundering count each, carrying a maximum of 40 years in prison total per person.

Shakeri is further accused of terrorism and sanctions violations charges with an additional 60 years of potential prison time.

“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” stated Christopher Wray, the FBI director.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—a designated foreign terrorist organization—has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on U.S. soil and that simply won’t be tolerated,” Wray added.

Police arrested Loadholt and Rivera on Thursday, and the two appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York the same day. Shakeri is at large and believed to be in Iran, according to the Justice Department.

According to the criminal complaint, Shakeri, on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, attempted to orchestrate targeted assassinations of Americans and the mass killing of Israelis.




For U.S. Officials, Lebanon May Be a Problem Too Big to Solve
With faint hopes for ending the war in Gaza, U.S. officials have turned their focus to Lebanon to strike a ceasefire deal. So far, however, U.S. diplomacy has failed to stabilize the situation.

Some senior U.S. officials have called Israel's campaign against Hizbullah an opportunity to reshape the politics of Beirut and stand up a stronger Lebanese government, reducing the influence of Hizbullah and its sponsor, Iran. An empowered Lebanese Army with strong government backing is the only way to keep Hizbullah from reconstituting along Israel's border and avoid further Israeli military action, officials and analysts say.

To some, it is a fanciful goal. While Hizbullah is clearly weakened and Iran may feel intimidated by Israel's recent displays of military prowess, both retain influence that they are unlikely to surrender easily. U.S. officials are trying to find some way of assuring Israel that Hizbullah will not simply regroup after the current fighting ends.

Amos Hochstein, a senior White House aide who serves as President Biden's point man for Lebanon, said the aftermath of this conflict "must be entirely different. Lebanon can be secure and prosperous and free. That is an attainable goal but will require international community support."

Matthew Levitt, an expert on Hizbullah at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he expected that "Hizbullah is going to fight for their position in Lebanon....I just don't have faith that the government of Lebanon is going to get its stuff together and stand up to the militants. I think the Biden administration understands the limits of trying to move the chess pieces in Lebanon."
The IDF's Gamble in Lebanon
Following the chain of blows inflicted by Israel on Hizbullah's high command in August and September, its rate of rocket launches on Israel was much lower than expected. More importantly, the quality of those launches - the ability to concentrate barrages of rockets to overcome Israeli air defenses, and the ability to locate and accurately hit targets in Israel - was significantly diminished.

Yet Hizbullah's ground army in southern Lebanon was only slightly damaged. The deployment of the IDF on a very thin strip, in the face of a Hizbullah army that maintains significant military strength, including anti-tank and mortar capabilities, raids and ambushes, exposes the IDF to dangerous enemy initiatives. At least one battle so far, in which almost 50 fighters of the Egoz battalion were injured, illustrated this risk.

To deny the enemy a return to operational equilibrium and to bring about the disintegration of its tactical arrays in the south, it may still be necessary to capture the Hizbullah army in southern Lebanon through rapid divisional moves deep into the south and encircle the enemy based on the river lines (the Litani, Zahrani or Awali rivers) - quickly and aggressively surrounding and squeezing the enemy.

The current Israeli caution stems, at least in part, from an understanding that on the military level, our forces are dangerously vulnerable to enemy capabilities and not effective enough to cleanse the south without sinking into an eternal guerilla war.

At the moment, Israel's strategy strives for the demobilization of South Lebanon by some kind of political agreement, apparently in the spirit of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Yet Israel has bitter experience of the unreliability of such mechanisms.

No one will dismantle Hizbullah in Lebanon for us. If a significant part of its power is preserved, its deterrence of Israel will improve, and Israel will not be able to enforce demilitarization by force. Hizbullah's survival in defeat will simply turn over the hourglass for the next clash with a smarter enemy that is eager to restore its honor.
IDF Shifts Tactics in Gaza Offensive, Causing Higher Hamas Casualties with Fewer Munitions
Some 1,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed since the IDF's latest operation in Jabalya in northern Gaza began over a month and a half ago.

The IDF estimates that 500-600 terrorists remain entrenched in the area, with some blending into the civilian population still present.

Of the 70,000 Palestinians originally in the region, the IDF has managed to evacuate 55,000 southward.

Since the beginning of the operation, IDF forces have discovered over 200 booby-trapped buildings. In two incidents, explosives were triggered inside homes, killing six soldiers.

IDF ground forces have been developing new tactics. "Instead of firing missiles from a Hermes 450 drone, we've killed dozens of terrorists using Iron Ball, a drone that drops simple fragmentation grenades on terrorists and tunnel shafts," said Lt.-Col. Y., commander of the Multidimensional Unit.

"Now, IDF brigades are using Iron Ball in southern Lebanon as well."

In recent days, the unit also eliminated 10 terrorists hiding in a building using two precision mortar bombs. "These mortars are cheaper and more available than fighter jet bombs."
IDF Officer Says Humanitarian Convoys Enter Gaza Daily, Denies Troops Use Gazans as Human Shields
"The reports that the Gazan population doesn't receive food and all sorts of things are simply not true," said Lt.-Col. Dori, 47, the operations officer of the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade, which recently concluded an operation in Bureij in central Gaza.

"With my own eyes, I saw humanitarian convoys go in almost every day," with the exception of days when operational reasons precluded this. "But the next day, the amount is made up. If there is any reason food doesn't reach civilians, it's because of Hamas looters that don't allow their civilians to reach it or don't distribute it." He said he saw Hamas gunmen steal aid: "They wait for trucks to come, raid them and loot them."

Dori also denied allegations that IDF troops were using Gazans as human shields during operations. "Unequivocally, no," Dori said. "We didn't do that, we didn't see that, we certainly didn't instruct anyone to do that. I didn't come across anything like that or hear about anything like that."


House report finds that universities made ‘shocking concessions’ to hate
Amid the past year’s many outrages and disappointments, one hopeful exception has been the House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce. Led by North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx, this committee has spotlighted surging campus antisemitism in the wake of October 7.

Last week, the committee published a 324-page report on their investigation, sharing details about 11 campuses. The report reflects the Committee’s four hearings, interviews and “more than 400,000 pages of documents”.

Among the major findings is that universities made “shocking concessions” to their “students who established unlawful antisemitic encampments” and university leaders created campus risk by shirking their leadership responsibilities. University leaders “intentionally declined to express support for campus Jewish communities”. “Universities utterly failed to impose meaningful discipline for antisemitic behaviour that violated” laws or campus policies. And university leaders bristled at oversight, while treating campus antisemitism “as a public-relations issue and not a serious problem demanding action”.

The antisemitic rot runs so deep even this lengthy report isn’t exhaustive. Will Sussman, immediate past president of MIT GradHillel (a Jewish community of MIT graduate students), who testified about MIT, was “somewhat underwhelmed” that “only half a page of exposition was dedicated to MIT”.

Sussman had submitted 54 pages of written “testimony against the MIT Graduate Student Union” and “the amended Title VI [civil rights] complaint against MIT is 133-pages long.”

However, Sussman was interested to learn that MIT is one of the six schools mentioned that suspended no students.

As for Columbia, which has epitomised extreme antisemitism, assistant professor at Columbia Business School Shai Davidai told me the report offered “two groundbreaking revelations”.

First, Columbia’s administrators know “the Faculty Senate is working in cahoots with the pro-terror student organisation on campus” but they’re “unwilling to act”.

Second, Davidai described as “just shattering” the recounting of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “completely sticking sticks in our wheels, telling the previous university president not to worry, that this will all pass. So, while I and Jewish students are out there fighting the antisemitism, calling it out, and I am paying a personal price for this, Chuck Schumer is colluding with the Democrats at the university to not do anything.

“For me that just shows utter and complete betrayal, both by the administration at Columbia and unfortunately by the leader of the Senate.”


MEMRI: MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky In 'Wall Street Journal' Op-Ed: 'Hamas And Hezbollah Threaten The U.S. – American Supporters Are Increasingly Open About Their Allegiances'
Public support for terrorist organizations would once have shocked Americans. Now it's common. On social media and college campuses, kaffiyeh-clad protesters openly embrace Hamas and Hezbollah, both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Labor Day marchers in New York City waved the Hamas flag even as news broke that the group had executed Israeli and American hostages in Gaza. On Sept. 10, protesters outside the presidential debate in Philadelphia waved Hamas flags and held a banner stating: "Amerika is the head of the snake." They chanted in support of Hamas's military leader, Yahya Sinwar.

Islamist organizations and preachers at extremist mosques openly mourned the death of Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas's political bureau. Haniyeh, a State Department-designated terrorist who helped organize the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, was killed in Tehran on July 31.

"Tonight we mourn Ismail himself but know his martyrdom is not in vain," tweeted Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in San Francisco. In a Friday sermon delivered Aug. 2, Sheikh Ismail Hamdi of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, N.J., called Haniyeh a "great leader," adding "we are happy for him that he was martyred." Imam Raed Alsawaier of Washington State's Pullman Islamic Center compared Haniyeh to the American revolutionaries of 1776 while calling for the annihilation of "the plundering Zionists." "Count them one by one," he said. "Scatter them, do not spare a single one of them."

In Dearborn, Mich., local religious leaders and activists staged a Sept. 29 vigil for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed two days earlier in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Attendees chanted, "We heed your call, oh Nasrallah," "Death to Israel," and "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return"—a reference to a seventh-century slaughter of Jews in what is now Saudi Arabia. Hezbollah has branded its retaliatory strikes against Israel "Operation Khaybar."

U.S. authorities have warned about the possibility of domestic attacks by American supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray told a Senate committee on Oct. 31, 2023, that his "most immediate concern" is that "violent extremists" inspired by Hamas will "carry out attacks against Americans." The FBI, he revealed, had "multiple, ongoing investigations" into Hamas-affiliated subjects. In July, federal authorities detained three Palestinian migrants with possible terrorist ties at the San Diego border crossing.
Hate Exploded Across College Campuses Surrounding the October 7 Anniversary
October’s anti-Israel protests were focused on the tragic anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 massacres, and the Israeli response that began the now year-long war. Campus protests included student walkouts, building takeovers, and vandalism at numerous universities including Columbia University, Pomona College, Tufts University, the University of Virginia, and Princeton University.

At Concordia University, demonstrators were dispersed with tear gas after breaking windows of university buildings.

The homes of the University of Michigan president and Chief Information Office were also vandalized, as was the office of the Detroit Jewish Federation. McGill University canceled classes for October 7, apparently for fear of widespread celebrations of the Hamas massacre. In New York City a Jewish counterprotestor was assaulted as pro-Hamas protests spread across Manhattan.

Other October protests included the attempted blockade of the New York Stock Exchange by 200 Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) protestors, which resulted in arrests, the vandalizing of offices across Britain belonging to the asset management firm Allianz, as well as a factory making parts for F-35 jets.

Bomb threats were called into New York area synagogues on Rosh Hashanah, while antisemitic materials were distributed across the Detroit area. Protestors outside a Jewish cultural center in London chanted “Palestine Is Not Your Home” and accused participants in an October 7th event sponsored by Haaretz featuring both left wing Israeli and Palestinian speakers of being “genocide supporters.”

Attacks on Jews and Jewish sites were common in October. These included the vandalizing of a Chabad sukkah in Pittsburgh by two Muslims males who were then indicted by the US Justice Department. More serious were a New York City car ramming attack aimed at a visibly identifiable Jew on Yom Kippur and a Chicago area shooting of a Jewish male on Simchat Torah, also by Muslim males.
Jewish Columbia, Barnard students fume that professors canceled classes over post-election ‘stress’ but not after Oct. 7: ‘Very telling’
Professors at two prestigious New York universities gave fragile students rattled by Tuesday’s election results an excuse to skip class this week — enraging their Jewish peers who were offered no such grace during months of anti-Israel campus protests where participants openly praised Hamas and hurled genocidal slogans after Oct. 7.

“Columbia has a serious problem with neutrality. For an institution that claims to care so much about equality and equity, their empathy clearly doesn’t apply to the Jews,” student Eliana Goldin told The Post.

“I’m sure that if Harris won, the university would not have canceled classes.”

Lefty professors at Barnard and Columbia — two elite schools that became epicenters for disruptive and, at times, violent anti-Israel protests over the past year — sent warm-and-fuzzy emails to students encouraging them to take it easy Wednesday.

The messages were peppered with language suggesting their pupils had just been through a tragedy in the wake of former Republican President Donald Trump’s historic defeat of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris at the polls Tuesday.

“I hope you are all taking care. I recognize that processing the results of a national election can be heavy and having space to breathe and go a bit slower is vital,” wrote Barnard professor Amelia Simone Herbert to students in her “Race, Space and Urban Schools” class.

In her missive announcing class would be cut short, she obligingly offered to “remain in the room for anyone who wants to use it as a workspace or a space to reflect with others.”

Columbia adjunct professor of international and public affairs Michelle Greene — whose bio says she served on the Obama administration’s White House Council on Women and Girls — announced she was canceling class altogether because it would be “tone deaf” to continue the lesson plan.
University educator wants youth to ‘unlearn Zionism’
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, universities have witnessed massive demonstrations against Israel. While there is no single cause for the protests, one factor may be that students are following the lead of professors who exhibit hostility toward Israel.

It is now common among so-called progressives, including academics, to condemn Israel for racism, apartheid, occupation, genocide and settler colonialism. These accusations form a political anti-Zionism ideology that concludes that Israel is illegitimate and ought to be eliminated.

It cannot be denied that Israel has societal problems or significant issues with the Palestinians. But the anti-Zionist critique of Israel is extreme: Even if some criticisms of Israel are true, they do not warrant the extinction of the Jewish state.

In light of overwhelming support for Israel among Jews and their rejection of anti-Zionism as abhorrent, teaching that anti-Zionism is valid and advocating for it within a university’s Jewish studies program should be out of the question.

Yet such anti-Zionism advocacy is what we are witnessing today at the University of San Francisco’s Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice. There is at least one professor, the program’s assistant director Oren Kroll-Zeldin, who teaches courses on the Israel-Palestine conflict and aims to assist students to “unlearn Zionism.”

Kroll-Zeldin’s approach is outlined his book, Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine. His major point is that young anti-Zionist Jews who engage in “Palestine solidarity” do so as an expression of their Jewish identity. The book more importantly reveals Kroll-Zeldin’s hostility to Israel.

Kroll-Zeldin does not write as a scholar of anti-Zionism, he presents the book as an “autoethnographic account” of his personal journey with “unlearning Zionism” over the last decade and a half.


"Liable for their actions"University of Sydney’s education in hate
Posters calling for the release of 24 Palestinian terrorists were found and removed from the University of Sydney (USYD) campus last week.

It happened on the same week that lawyers representing a group of Jewish students and staff lodged complaints with the Australian Human Rights Commission against two USYD lecturers and the university itself, alleging discrimination under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

The complaints against Dr Nick Riemer and Professor John Keane have been lodged by law firm Levitt Robinson, who announced a planned class action against the university in June this year.

Linguistics academic Riemer posted on social media on October 8, “No progressive should feel the need to publicly condemn any choices by the Palestinian resistance. Doing so just adds to the perception that their cause is unjust.”

Riemer also posted in support of a “global intifada” in November 2023 and in October 2023 shared a tweet stating “The Saturday Paper is owned by Zionists”, a reference to Jewish publisher Morry Schwartz.

Keane, a politics professor, posted an image of Hamas flags on October 8, 2023.

Levitt Robinson managing partner Stewart Levitt told The AJN the conflation of the terms “Zionist” and “Jew” “infects every aspect of the campaign against Israel”.

“What we’re doing here is calling out the sham of people who are trying to hide behind a pseudo-political position in vilifying Jews,” he said.

He added that since Riemer and Keane were “acting within the purview of their employment … [it] makes the University of Sydney vicariously liable for their actions”.

USYD vice-chancellor Mark Scott has repeatedly come under fire over the last 13 months for his perceived failure to tackle antisemitism on his campus.

“[They] were matters known to the university, known to the vice-chancellor, and [the] subject of repeated complaint, but no action was taken,” Levitt said.

The team involved in the Levitt Robinson action includes barrister Adam Butt, who successfully led an antisemitic bullying case against Brighton Secondary College on behalf of a group of Jewish students, and Ron Merkel, a former federal court judge.


‘Time to Begin Wreaking Havoc’: MIT Student Calls for Violence to Oppose Israel, ‘Escalate for Palestine’
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has reportedly banished from campus a student who penned an article which argued that violence is a legitimate method of effecting political change and, moreover, advancing the pro-Palestinian movement.

First reported on Tuesday by the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA), an anti-Israel group associated with National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), the school’s decision — as of yet unconfirmed by MIT officials — stands to reverse an impression that MIT lacks the resolve to punish students who use the campus to break university rules while holding raucous demonstrations against the world’s lone Jewish state.

Titled “On Pacifism,” the article — published in the MIT student publication Written Revolution and flanked by images of members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist group — argued that activists have failed to stop Israel’s war against Hamas and sunder the US-Israel relationship because of “our own decision to embrace nonviolence as our primary vehicle of change.”

The author, PhD candidate Prahlad Iyengar, continued, “One year into a horrific genocide, it is time for the movement to begin wreaking havoc, or else, as we’ve seen, business will indeed go on as usual … As people of conscience in the world, we have a duty to Palestine and to all the globally oppressed. We have a mandate to exact a cost from the institutions that have contributed to the growth and proliferation of colonialism, racism, and all oppressive systems. We have a duty to escalate for Palestine, and as I hope I’ve argued, the traditional pacifist strategies aren’t working because they are ‘designed into’ the system we fight against.”

In a statement distributed by the CAA, Iyengar accused MIT of weaponizing the disciplinary system to persecute him.

“On Friday, MIT administration informed me that as a result of this article, I have been banned from campus without due process and that I face potential expulsion or suspension,” he said. “These extraordinary actions should concern everyone on campus. My article attempts a historical review of the type of tactics used by protest movements throughout history, from the civil rights movement to the struggle to the fight [sic] against South African Apartheid here on MIT campus.”


Hamas weaponizes the press: Media bias is a key part of the terrorist groups’ arsensal
Israel is currently embarked on the most successful counterterrorist campaign in history. In a span of months, the Jewish state has taken out the leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah, the two terrorist groups that most threaten Israel’s existence, as well as their successors. And in a daring operation, Israel turned Hezbollah’s communications systems against the group, exploding hundreds of walkie-talkies and pagers used and worn by its operatives.

But Israel’s foes have an ace up their sleeve: the press.

It has now been more than a year since the Hamas-led invasion of Israel, in which Iranian-backed proxies murdered more than 1,200 people and took hundreds, including Americans, hostage. When adjusted for population, the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel inflicted far greater civilian casualties than the 9/11 attack by al Qaeda. Indeed, it was the largest slaughter of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.

Israel responded by launching a military incursion into the Gaza Strip, from which the Jewish state had unilaterally withdrawn from nearly two decades ago and which Hamas has controlled ever since. More recently, Israel carried out a limited ground operation into Lebanon, de facto ruled by Hezbollah, Iran’s foremost proxy. Like Hamas, Hezbollah calls for Israel’s destruction. The Lebanese-based terrorist group has been ceaselessly launching missiles into Israel for more than a year, murdering and wounding dozens while Israel largely focused on operations against Hamas in the south.

No other nation would be expected to tolerate genocidal terrorist groups on its borders. And after Oct. 7, Israel won’t. Indeed, it can’t. For Israel, Oct. 7 was an epoch-defining moment, a cataclysm that has shuffled priorities and reordered the Middle East. Israel will never be the same again.

Yet, despite enduring the unimaginable, the Jewish state is held to a different standard — by policymakers and the press alike.
BBC faces fury for dismissing calls to label organisations such as Hamas as 'terrorists' in new consultation on reporting guidelines
The BBC has provoked anger by rejecting calls to describe organisations like Hamas as terrorists, saying it will only use this term when it is attributed to others.

A proposed new version of its editorial guidelines says the word 'terrorist' should only be used when 'quoting or citing its use by others', a continuation of the current rules.

This is despite the huge row caused in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre by Hamas in Israel, where the corporation refused to call the attackers terrorists.

That decision was made even though the British government classes Hamas as a proscribed terrorist organisation.

The row saw the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, condemn the BBC for its 'atrocious' refusal to brand Hamas as a terrorist group.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis had accused broadcasters of trying to 'wilfully mislead' by not using the word terrorist.

A revised draft of its Editorial Guidelines has been revealed which the BBC will now consult on.

It reveals that despite some cosmetic changes to the wording of how to deal with the term 'terrorist', the rules remain essential the same. Read More

The proposed new guidelines say: 'The term 'terrorist' should only be used with attribution ie. when quoting or citing its use by others.

'Content makers should not adopt other people's language as their own; their responsibility is to remain objective and report in a way that enables audiences to make their own assessments.'

'The BBC should convey to the audience the full consequences of an act by describing the perpetrators as, for example, 'bombers', 'gunmen', 'kidnappers', 'insurgents' and 'militants'.'
CTV Hails Anti-Israel “Expert” Who Covers Up UNRWA Terror Ties And Rewrites History To Vindicate Hamas
It’s no surprise that Mount Royal University sociology professor Mark Muhannad Ayyash continues to attack Israel, as HonestReporting Canada has previously called him “one of Canada’s foremost peddlers of anti-Israel disinformation.” What is surprising is that Jefferson Humphreys of CTV News would hail him as “an expert on the region” without revealing just how warped Ayyash’s views actually are.

Humphreys welcomed Ayyash to CTV Morning Live on October 30 to discuss an Israeli decision to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Ayyash immediately called the potential impact “catastrophic,” predicting a range of disastrous outcomes.

At no point did Ayyash mention why Israel has been forced to enact this ban. The main reason is that UNRWA has been, if not actively promoting terrorism, supporting terrorist members in its ranks and weapons in its facilities.

A number of UNRWA employees actively participated in the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023 that murdered over 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped over two hundred and fifty more. Many others cheered from the sidelines. UNRWA doesn’t dispute these facts.

UNRWA also acknowledges that Hamas has used its facilities, like schools, to store weapons aimed at Israel. UNRWA says that when it discovers such a breach, it protests to “de facto authorities.” Namely Hamas—who probably won’t mind.

Ayyash didn’t mention any of this. He chalked the UNRWA ban up to Israel’s desire to erase Palestine “from political discourse and from the international agenda.” In fact, Israel has spent over fifty years working with UNRWA despite its growing ties to terrorism.

For years, UNRWA schools have systematically taught anti-Israel and antisemitic hatred. A 2021 EU study found that UNRWA textbooks “contain anti-Semitic narratives and glorifications of violence.”


MEMRI: Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei: 'Today We Need To Establish The Islamic Nation' – Headed By Shi'ite Iran

MEMRI: Statements Attributed To Ali Akbar Velayati, Advisor To Iranian Supreme Leader: 'The President Of Syria Has Betrayed The Sacred Regime Of The Islamic Republic Of Iran'

MEMRI: Editorials In Pakistani Dailies On Israeli Strikes In Iran Warn Of Regional Instability: 'The Fact That The Israeli Airstrikes Spared Iran's Nuclear... Facilities Is A Welcome Development'; 'Iran Is Unlikely To Keep Its Cool And Will Cross The Nuclear Rubicon'

MEMRI: Afghan Groups Demand International Action After Iran Massacres Afghan Migrants: '[Iran's] Actions Against Afghan Refugees Are More Cruel Than Israel's Actions Against Palestinians'; 'How They Can Commit Such Atrocities While... Defending The Rights Of The Palestinian People?'



German Jews should avoid Kristallnacht events to protest anti-Israel policies
The leadership of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, a state-subsidized organization, has largely accommodated the anti-Israel and pro-Islamic Republic of Iran policies of the country’s left-of-center coalition government.

To confront the worst German antisemitism scandal of this century—the Scholz government’s decision to impose an arms embargo on Israel during its seven-front war against Iran and its proxies—the 105 Jewish communities with their roughly 100,000 members should stay away from the November 9-10 Kristallnacht remembrance events with government officials.

There is a precedent for shunning Holocaust commemoration events because of pro-Iranian-regime policies in Europe. In 2010, this writer reported that Ariel Muzicant, the then-head of the Jewish Community of Vienna and the Jewish Communities of Austria, became the first major European Jewish leader to boycott such an event, because of the policies of the Austrian government.

Muzicant said his decision to stay away from the annual Mauthausen concentration camp memorial in the Austrian parliament constituted a “silent protest.”

He cited the then-Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger’s cordial welcome of then-Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki, a key speaker at the infamous 2006 Teheran Holocaust-denial conference. Muzicant has, however and unfortunately, mellowed and now serves as president of the European Jewish Congress.

Germany’s Green Party foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has worked overtime to endanger the security of Israel during its existential war since Hamas massacred nearly 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. Her weapons embargo against Israel may very well have contributed to Hamas and Hezbollah murders of Israeli soldiers and citizens.

She has also hosted antisemites and anti-Israel activists at least 11 times during the war, including for a special dinner at the foreign ministry. The German-Jewish activist Malca Goldstein-Wolf went as far as to urge the Simon Wiesenthal Center to list Baerbock on its list of the most severe outbreaks of Jew-hatred for 2024.

It is unclear why Dr. Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and the council’s executive director, Daniel Botmann, are passive actors in this hour of danger. Germany’s official Jewish community has not demanded that Berlin end diplomatic and trade relations with Tehran. The community has also not mobilized its members for a demonstration against the German government’s anti-Israel policies, including its endorsement of the ICC case to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu.

Some attribute the lack of a robust Zionist consciousness and action among Jewish leaders like Schuster and Botmann to a kind of dhimmitude psychology, where community leaders and many members are chock-full of servility toward the modern German state.
Hasidic Man Attacked in Third Antisemitic Assault in Brooklyn in Eight Days
An antisemitic hate crime spree in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York struck its latest victim on Wednesday, wreaking an “excruciating” beating on a middle-aged Hasidic man.

According to Yaacov Behrman, a liaison for Chabad Headquarters — the main New York base of the Hasidic movement — the victim was accosted by two assailants, one masked, who “chased and beat him” after he refused to surrender his cell phone in compliance with what appears to have been an attempted robbery.

“The victim is in excruciating pain and is currently in the emergency room,” Behrman tweeted. “The police are investigating the incident.”

The perpetrators were two Black teenagers, according to COLlive.com, an Orthodox Jewish news outlet.

Tuesday’s attack was the third time in eight days that an Orthodox resident of Crown Heights was targeted for violence and humiliation. In each case, the assailant was allegedly a Black male, a pattern of conduct which continues to strain Black-Jewish relations across the Five Boroughs.

On Monday morning, an African American male smacked a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was commuting to school on his bike in the heavily Jewish Crown Heights neighborhood

Less than a week earlier, an assailant slashed a visibly Jewish man in the face as he was walking in Brooklyn.
Neo Nazi given a month’s jail: First conviction under Nazi salute ban
White supremacist Jacob Hersant has been sentenced to one month in prison for performing a Nazi salute in public.

It’s an historic ruling that marks the first conviction under Victoria’s new Nazi gesture ban.

The 25-year-old member of the National Socialist Network was found guilty and sentenced at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday for the gesture he performed outside the County Court on October 27 last year, just days after the legislation took effect.

During sentencing, Magistrate Brett Sonnet declared that “the performance of the Nazi gesture is a virulent display of hate speech,” saying Hersant had “taken advantage of the media to disseminate extreme political views.”

Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), who led a decade-long campaign to outlaw Nazi symbols and gestures, hailed the verdict as a watershed moment.

“Justice has spoken—loudly and fiercely. If you salute Hitler, you’ll end up saluting the prison walls and today Jacob Hersant felt the iron fist of justice—and the Nazi salute has taken its last gasp,” Dr Abramovich said.

“This isn’t just a sentence—it’s a national roar that symbols of Nazism have no place on our soil,” he added, though noting that “one month is a start, but for a crime that carries a maximum of twelve months, we need sentences that truly reflect the gravity of these vile actions.”

The conviction comes amid increased scrutiny of neo-Nazi activities in Victoria.
New trial for Jew on death row in Texas due to judge’s Jew-hatred
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals voted 6-3 to grant a new trial to Randy Ethan Halprin, 47, after it found that the judge who ruled against him “was biased against him at the time of his trial because he is Jewish,” the Associated Press reported.

Halprin, who is on death row, is part of the “Texas 7,” which shot and killed a police officer after breaking free from prison in December 2000, per the AP.

He had been serving a 30-year sentence after admitting to brutally attacking a 16-month-old baby.

Sonia Sotomayor, associate Supreme Court justice, wrote on April 6, 2020 of the judge’s antisemitic statements that “the facts underlying this petition are deeply disturbing.”




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