Friday, November 29, 2024

11/29 Links Pt1: Obama Plays a Dead Man’s Hand in Lebanon, and Wins; Glick: Bibi Between Biden and a Hard Place; Greece: ICC arrest warrant for Israeli officials is wrong

From Ian:

Tony Badran: Obama Plays a Dead Man’s Hand in Lebanon, and Wins
Barely three weeks ago, Barack Obama’s legacy was in tatters. His party was roundly defeated in the election, after he personally engineered the defenestration of his doddering former vice president from the Oval Office. Instead of greeting the sight of Obama emerging from the shadows with relief, Americans reacted with horror. His handpicked candidate was trounced, while the Party he directed lost both houses of Congress. The Iran deal, which he once saw as his ticket to Mount Rushmore, would be consigned to the dustbin of history by self-proclaimed master dealmaker Donald Trump.

And yet, two months before the end of his lengthy shadow presidency, and faced with the final undoing of his signature legacy project in the Middle East, Obama went all in—and won big. By forcing Israel to accept a deal with Hezbollah that will formalize America’s role as the terror group’s protector, Obama will have locked in a key piece of his decade-old policy of leveraging American power to secure both Iran’s continuing regional influence and its direct control over Israel’s borders.

After nearly two months of operating in Lebanon, the Israeli cabinet agreed on Tuesday to the cease-fire deal brokered by President Joe Biden’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein. The details of the deal are, for the most part, as irrelevant as they are meaningless. In essence, they represent a return to the Oct. 6, 2023, status quo ante. Namely, that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will again deploy in south Lebanon, and again pretend to “implement UNSCR 1701”—the meaningless 2006 U.N. resolution which supposedly prevents Hezbollah’s rearmament and the reconstruction of its infrastructure south of the Litani River. To prop up this threadbare charade, the U.S. will now up its annual taxpayer subsidization of Hezbollah’s base—reportedly by at least another $400 million—to account for the enlargement of the LAF with new, U.S.-subsidized recruits. With these additions, U.S. taxpayer funding for Hezbollahland will now sit at around a $1 billion a year.

The relevant parts of the agreement have to do with the formalization of the U.S. role in Lebanon—a process that began with Hochstein’s maritime deal in 2022—as an arbiter between Israel and Hezbollah, increasing America’s direct management of the Lebanese special province and of Israel’s defense policy. The vehicle for this role that the deal introduces is the creation of a so-called monitoring committee headed by the U.S., which will be represented presumably by a CENTCOM officer.

In other words, the U.S. is now responsible for handling Israel’s complaints about the myriad violations of 1701 that will doubtlessly be forthcoming as Hezbollah’s forces and supporters stream back into their villages on Israel’s northern border. And since the U.S. underwrites the LAF, in which it has been heavily invested for two decades, the Americans will be inclined to cover for the LAF’s collusion with Hezbollah—in the process becoming directly complicit for the aid that the LAF will give to its symbiotic terrorist partner. The lawyerly language that Team Obama planted in the side letter they gave Israel, as well as the text of the agreement itself, make it plain that the U.S. will now restrict Israeli actions, certainly in the parts of the country north of the Litani. As a senior administration official told its Israeli stenographer Barak Ravid, “There are restrictions on the military activity that Israel can carry out. It is impossible to sign a ceasefire agreement if Israel can shoot afterwards whatever it wants in Lebanon and whenever it wants.”

Instead, as Hochstein told Al Jazeera, “The United States will send diplomats and military personnel to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, whose mission will be to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces and Lebanese authorities.” And if Israel has a complaint, it will need to notify the U.S., and share intelligence with it in the context of the monitoring committee, so that the CENTCOM officer can then relay those concerns to the LAF, which has long operated in partnership with Hezbollah’s forces, and whose political sponsors in Beirut are dominated by the Iranian-run militia.

In other words, the agreement affirms that Israel is a province that lacks full sovereignty, especially when it comes to its defense policy in territory where Washington has decided to partner with Iran and establish a joint protectorate dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
Ruthie Blum: Bibi’s latest challenge
According to a survey conducted by Direct Polls for Israel’s Channel 14, the Israeli public is split down the middle on the Lebanon ceasefire agreement that went into effect on Wednesday at 4 a.m. What’s notable in this case is that the division doesn’t run along party or ideological lines.

In fact, the newly minted deal—stipulating that Israel has 60 days to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, during which time the Lebanese Armed Forces will deploy to the southern border and Hezbollah will retreat northward of the Litani River—has been met with harsh criticism by both supporters and detractors of the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chief among the latter are members of the “anybody but Bibi” protest movement, most of whom claim to consider Netanyahu a greater threat to national security than Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the head of the snake, Iran. Since they oppose every policy that he puts forth, their knee-jerk anger was to be expected.

The former category includes residents of northern Israel: evacuees forced for the past 14 months to live in temporary lodgings; and others, slightly farther south of the Lebanon border, who’ve remained under constant rocket, missile and drone fire.

Rather than welcoming the prospect of a truce enabling them to return home or stop running for shelter with every air-raid siren, these people are furious. Not trusting Hezbollah to honor an arrangement that it didn’t actually sign, nor believing that the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL will guarantee the phony peace, they feel that Netanyahu capitulated to foreign pressure before finishing the job.

His explanation for the move—from the Knesset podium and subsequently in a video message—may have assuaged some of their fears. It also possibly helped them understand the timing of his decision. Nevertheless, they remain wary and out of sorts.

Champions of the ceasefire are also a mixed bunch, with pundits and part of the populace who disagree with one another on various other issues viewing the maneuver as strategically clever. This disparate group seems to be growing with each additional clarification by Netanyahu and the coalition partners who gave him the green light.

In an effort to persuade skeptics—especially after Hezbollah violated the terms of the deal within hours of its implementation—Netanyahu sat down on Thursday evening for a lengthy, one-on-one interview with Channel 14’s Yaakov Bardugo.

Bardugo is a right-wing journalist whose natural inclination would be and was to disapprove of such a ceasefire. After all, on paper, it’s almost identical to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, the farcical 2006 document that ended the Second War in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
Clifford D May: Another week of attacks on Israel
For more than a year, Israel has been fighting a brutal multifront war against Iran’s rulers and their terrorist proxies: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Shia militias in Syria and Iraq.

Last week, Israel was also attacked by enemies in New York, Washington and The Hague. Although these were not kinetic battles, they did damage.

First attack: On Nov. 20, 14 members of the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of a resolution that did not call on Hamas to release its hostages, Americans among them, as a precondition for a ceasefire in Gaza.

President Joe Biden, credit where it’s due, instructed his envoy at the United Nations to veto the resolution. Allowing the resolution to pass, said Ambassador Robert Wood, would have “sent a dangerous message to Hamas.”

Which raises this question: Do the leaders of France, Britain, Japan and South Korea who voted with Beijing and Moscow not understand the message they just sent to Americans at a time of rising isolationism?

And if American diplomats tried but were unable to persuade America’s allies to stand with the United States, how likely is it that they will prevail when negotiating with the envoys of Beijing, Moscow, and their buddies in Tehran and Pyongyang?

Second attack: Also on Nov. 20: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led what The Nation, a far-left journal, called a “bold new effort to block arms sales to Israel.”

He and 18 other senators, all Democrats or self-styled independents, apparently would prefer that Hamas survive the war it launched against Israel with its invasion and barbaric pogrom on Oct. 7, 2023. And they clearly don’t regard liberating the hostages as an urgent concern.

Sanders’ resolutions to limit munitions sales to an ally defending itself from genocidal enemies failed. But Mother Jones, another far-left journal, noted that the vote “shows Dems are shifting.” Hard to disagree.

The third attack: On Nov. 21, Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Khan also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza. However, since Deif was “martyred” in July, I doubt his lawyers will put him on the stand.

Khan has not just politicized international law; he’s weaponized it to defame and blood libel the only surviving and thriving Jewish community remaining in the Middle East.

To achieve that, he violated both international law and the rules of his court.


PM threatens ‘intensive war’ if truce breached, as restrictions end in much of Israel
In his first interview since the start of the ceasefire in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that if Hezbollah were to violate the agreement, there would be “intensive war.”

The prime minister said he had given the Israel Defense Forces instructions that in the case of a “massive violation of the agreement,” the response would extend beyond “surgical operations like we’re doing now.”

Meanwhile, a day after the ceasefire took effect, the IDF’s Home Front Command lifted all restrictions on gatherings south of Haifa. The restrictions, which limited the number of people allowed at indoor and outdoor gatherings, were put in place amid heavy rocket fire from Hezbollah.

Restrictions remain in various areas of northern Israel, and schools will remain closed in the northern frontier towns and Golan Heights as Israel examines the security situation.

Thursday saw the military carry out a number of strikes in Lebanon for the first time since the ceasefire began, saying it had targeted terror operatives and violations of the truce. This included a strike on a Hezbollah medium-range rocket facility after identifying activity there, and another against two Hezbollah operatives who entered a known rocket launching site in south Lebanon. The army also said it fired warning shots at several suspects entering restricted areas.

Commenting on the ceasefire Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the military would enforce it “with fire” to enable the return of the displaced residents of the north to their homes.

“This agreement is the result of months of fighting and in particular the last three months. A lot of achievements in Lebanon, intense work, very determined work, the killing of the entire senior [Hezbollah] echelon, the killing of all the commanders,” Halevi said during an assessment. “It is now moving to another stage, with the same determination… and we have precise knowledge that Hezbollah came to this agreement from a place of a lack of options and weakness.”

He added that “the residents in the north are looking now and want to see us very determined on enforcement so that they can return, and this is our duty to them, and our duty to ourselves.”
‘The ceasefire is shaky, like all things in Lebanon’
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, which came into effect on Wednesday morning, is facing significant questions regarding its stability and longevity.

Throughout the day on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces detected violations of the truce by Hezbollah, and in keeping with vows by government and military leaders, enforced the arrangement using Israeli firepower.

Several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in Southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire and leading the Israeli military to fire on them.

Later that day, terrorist activity was identified in a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets in Southern Lebanon. An Israeli Air Force craft struck the site, the military reported.

“The IDF remains in Southern Lebanon and will actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement,” it added.

Professor Eyal Zisser, vice rector of Tel Aviv University and holder of the Yona and Dina Ettinger Chair in Contemporary History of the Middle East, told JNS on Thursday that the arrangement is shaky, “as is everything in Lebanon.”

“It depends on one thing—whether Hezbollah will be deterred from violating it for fear of an Israeli response,” Zisser said. “If Hezbollah decides to violate it, the Lebanese army will not be able and will not want to prevent it from doing so, because it is weak and also composed of members of the Shi’ite sect, and in general, it is an army lacking capability, and UNIFIL is a body lacking usefulness and ability that will not confront Hezbollah.”

The burden will therefore be on Israel and its willingness to enforce the arrangement, including for so-called minor incidents, he added, a dynamic that could lead back to war.

“It is clear that Hezbollah will seek to rearm and violate the agreement as soon as it can,” Zisser assessed. “As a result, the agreement is on ice, and most of the chances are that they will not keep to it.”

This, he added, likely sets the stop clock rolling to the next conflict.
Bibi Between Biden and a Hard Place | Caroline Glick In-Focus
Most Israelis were outraged to hear of what seemed to be capitulation in the form of a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.

What happened behind the scenes, however, draws a much more complicated picture that forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to choose between bad and worse options.


Anne Herzberg: The ICC is carrying out the whims of unaccountable UN bodies and NGOs
This narrative can be directly traced to lobbying and false and distorted publications issued by NGOs and UN bodies. Some of these groups even have ties to Hamas and the PFLP terrorist organization. Already beginning on October 9, 2023, and before Israel had begun its military incursion, anti-Israel NGOs were accusing Israel of engaging in a policy to deliberately starve Gazans. A March 2024 report by the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, apparently heavily relied upon by the Prosecutor, projected imminent famine in Gaza and thousands of deaths. Not only were myriad methodological failings found in the report, including the significant undercounting of aid, but the IPC itself later rejected its own findings.

Similarly, the IPC reports and other UN bodies relied on flawed data that came from UNRWA and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). For instance, OCHA’s data on humanitarian aid entering Gaza was based solely on numbers provided by UNRWA and excluded the amount of aid provided by other organizations and through crossings not used by this UN agency.

Similarly, OCHA’s casualty data is sourced to Gaza’s “Ministry of Health” (aka Hamas). OCHA does not and cannot verify these figures, and makes no distinction between civilian and combatant deaths when presenting the data on its website. Its conflation of fighters with civilians deliberately manipulates how the casualty data is viewed. In May, OCHA was forced to drastically revise its figures, reducing the reported number of women and children killed by 50%, a move which should have raised immediate red flags in the ICC Prosecutor's office about the reliability of its information.

Under the ICC’s rules, Khan is obligated to disclose exculpatory evidence to the Court such as that mentioned above, but we do not know if he did so in his applications to the Court. Khan’s May 2024 statement announcing the application for the warrants, which ignored Hamas destruction of humanitarian aid crossings on October 7 and repeated claims emanating from the debunked IPC report, suggests he did not.

For years, unverified and non-credible publications issued by the UN and NGOs have dominated narratives regarding the conflict and have been used to impose ever increasing and preposterous legal standards on Israel and Western countries that are committed to observing international humanitarian law. International institutions that are supposed to serve as sober and responsible actors should act as a check on the excess demands of radical activists and mediate with states to instead develop realistic and pragmatic policies.

The ICC has not fulfilled this mandate. Set up as an ostensibly independent institution which was supposed to be insulated from such politicized influence, the ICC was meant to stand in as a last resort court to try international crimes in very specific circumstances. It was not designed to be a vehicle to carry out the political whims of unaccountable UN bodies and NGOs, with which it is now increasingly tied. The non-transparent cooperation agreements with UN bodies and NGOs, secret meetings and NGO lobbying, and the over-reliance on UN and NGO reporting, among many other questionable practices, have significantly degraded the Court.

The issuance of the warrants against Israeli officials has placed these fundamental problems at the Court in stark relief. By limiting the availability of Israeli officials to travel to Europe and other ICC member states, and hampering information sharing with these counterparts, the warrants are causing major interference to Western security cooperation. This disruption also obstructs the ability by the West to counter threats from Iran, Russia, and global terrorism. The trouble caused by the Court is so serious that the US Congress is already working on implementing mass sanctions on those involved, and threatening to crush the economies of those allies who help the Court.

The failure by the ICC to exercise more discretion in its choice of source material may turn out to be the very thing that leads the Court out of existence.
Revealed: Legal advisers on ICC Netanyahu case had criticised Israel in an article and social media
Legal experts who advised on the International Criminal Court on the Netanyahu arrest warrant have a history of publicly criticising Israel, the JC can reveal.

Kevin Jon Heller, a Jewish law professor who also advised Khan, has been posting strong criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu for a decade.

In 2015, for example, Heller wrote that Netanyahu was “a war criminal” and in 2020 he wrote: “Pretty sure Trump, Netanyahu, Friedman, and Kushner couldn’t care less about what international law says.”

Another adviser on the Netanyahu case, British peer Baroness Helen Kennedy, is the president of Medical Aid for Palestinians and a longstanding critic of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians.

In a 2020 article for website Middle East Eye about Israel “intentionally” targeting Palestinian doctors, she wrote: “New research … shows that the protected status of hospitals and medical personnel under international law is not being upheld.” However, she did not mention that Hamas had been repeatedly accused of using hospitals and ambulances for its terrorist activities.

Jonathan Turner from campaign group UK Lawyers for Israel said it was not surprising there were allegations of bias within the ICC in light of its own analysis of the recent ruling. “We have analysed the prosecutor’s summary and found every phrase in every sentence is false,” he said.

Arsen Ostrovsky, human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, which was one of the groups that made submissions appealing the Prosecutor’s request for warrants, said: “Regrettably, from the judges who issued the arrest warrants, to Prosecutor Khan who sought them and the Special Advisers who counselled him, the ICC has violated every conceivable foundational principle of the court, not least that of complementary, in issuing these mendacious and baseless warrants.

“They have essentially sacrificed the Rule of Law and all semblance of impartiality and objectivity at the altar for the pursuit of a political agenda against the State of Israel, that will do nothing but reward the murderers and rapists of Hamas, and undermine the very international legal order upon which the pursuit of justice is based.”
Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis has expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Marinakis questioned the impact of the ICC’s decision, stating, “These decisions do not help.” He emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, highlighting the civilian casualties on both sides.

“We cannot equate a state that suffered a terrorist attack, in this case by Hamas, with nations that initiated attacks, such as Russia in Ukraine,” Marinakis asserted.

Despite Greece’s stance on the ICC warrants, the country remains committed to its alliances. Marinakis clarified that Greece distinguishes between Hamas and the Palestinian people, calling for solutions to protect civilians.

The ICC issued the warrants, accusing Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif of war crimes related to the recent conflict in Gaza.


Seth Frantzman: The returning threat: How the IDF disabled Hezbollah's ability to rearm
One of the last acts of the third Lebanon war, which appears to have ended with a ceasefire on November 27, was an IAF strike on a Hezbollah precision-guided missile production site.

This was an important strike, and it was a good way to close the curtain on this two-month war, which began on September 23 with Operation Northern Arrows.

It’s possible the war will start up again, but regardless of what happens, taking out this key Hezbollah capability was important.

Hezbollah has been seeking to acquire more advanced Iranian precision-guided missiles over the last decade. Eventually, over the last five years or so, it sought to move production to Lebanon.

This meant it would have to rely on smuggling via a route that stretches through Syria. Precision-guided munitions, or PGMs, are important because unlike unguided rockets, they can target important sites with precision.

Limiting Hezbollah's ability to return
Hezbollah has also developed a large number of kamikaze drones that also strike with precision. The IDF has eliminated many senior Hezbollah officers linked to the drone program.

“We degraded Hezbollah’s launch capabilities, struck its strategic assets, eliminated its leadership, and damaged its command and control chain,” IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said Wednesday. “We have also targeted its ability to rearm and resupply, and we have severely disrupted its ability to carry out its planned infiltration into our territory – a plan it had meticulously prepared to carry out.”

The strike on the PGM site was one of the last acts of this conflict.

“Before the ceasefire came into effect on Tuesday, IAF fighter jets, under the direction of the Intelligence Directorate, struck Hezbollah’s largest precision-guided missile production site in Bekaa’s Janta area,” the IDF said. “The 1.4-kilometer-long underground infrastructure was used to produce surface-to-surface missiles, and components of different weapons, and store a range of precision weapons designated to be used in attacks on Israel.”

The site was “located in an underground compound near the Syrian border,” it said. “Due to its proximity, the site was a central point through which thousands of weapons components and even terrorist operatives were smuggled from Syria and Lebanon.”
IDF reveals military achievements against Hezbollah after Lebanon
The IDF released detailed data of Operation Northern Arrows against Hezbollah on Friday, following the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, which took effect early Wednesday morning.

According to the data, at least 2,500 terrorists were killed. This number includes Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and 14 senior members of the group’s leadership, including Fuad Shukr, the organization’s chief of staff. In addition, four division commanders, 24 brigade commanders, 27 battalion commanders, 63 company commanders, and 22 platoon commanders were killed during the campaign.

Ground operations were a key element in the campaign, with 14 brigade combat teams participating in over 100 special operations missions and 24 divisional raids. These operations, combined with the aerial and naval components, dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah’s Radwan Force and its operational infrastructure.

The IDF’s air and naval units played a central role in the campaign. Fighter jets logged approximately 14,000 flight hours, including 11,000 sorties (quick military strikes) targeting Hezbollah assets across Lebanon. Naval forces, meanwhile, conducted around 25,000 operational hours at sea to secure maritime zones and prevent arms smuggling.

More than 12,500 Hezbollah targets were struck during the operation, including 1,600 military headquarters and over 1,000 weapons storage facilities. The campaign also targeted infrastructure deep within Lebanon, with 360 sites struck in Beirut and approximately 1,000 sites neutralized in the Bekaa Valley, a known Hezbollah stronghold.

Hezbollah’s firepower capabilities were also significantly reduced. The IDF estimates that the group now retains less than 30 percent of its pre-war fleet of drones.

The campaign also saw the confiscation of over 155,000 weapons and pieces of military equipment. This includes approximately 12,000 explosive devices, drones, and other explosive weapons, more than 13,000 anti-tank missile launchers and rockets, and anti-aircraft missiles. Over 121,000 communication devices, computers, electronic equipment, and documents were also confiscated.


The Israel Guys: What Israel DISCOVERED in Lebanon is WILD (this war may not be over)
Israel discovered chemical weapons in a Hezbollah terrorist facility inside Lebanon, and gas masks, and drug substances, meant for kidnapping and subduing Israeli civilians. Also, there may have been a very sinister and dark reason that Israel was forced (yes forced) to accept the ceasefire deal this week…..and it might have to do with America withholding weapons shipments to Israel.

Bottom line….was the ceasefire good or bad for Israel and the free world? What do you think?




Hezbollah chief Qassem declares victory against Israel in televised speech
“We are meeting today in an atmosphere of divine victory,” Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said in a televised speech Friday, adding that the “victory” achieved is greater than the one in 2006.

“We won because we prevented the enemy from destroying Hezbollah, stopped them from ending the resistance, and defeated them because the enemy was forced to justify the agreement,” Qassem said.

One of the signs of Israel’s defeat is “the image of the return of our people and the absence of the settlers on the opposite side,” he said, referring to the Israeli evacuees who have not returned to their homes.

“Israel expected to achieve its goals in a short time after striking the command system and capabilities,” Qassem said, alluding to the pager attack Israel conducted in September.

“Hezbollah was able to stand firm on the frontlines and began targeting the enemy's home front, which put the situation into a significant defensive position,” he continued.


Two shooting attack attempts target security forces in West Bank amid rising tensions
In two separate incidents, terrorists attempted shooting attacks on Israeli soldiers in the West Bank on Friday, according to Army Radio.


A terrorist fired at a Border Police vehicle in the area of El-Khader, near Bethlehem, Friday evening.

There were no injuries; however, there was damage to the vehicle. An IDF soldier returned fire, and the terrorist fled. Security forces have closed off the area of the attempted attack.

Earlier, an assailant attempted a drive-by shooting attack targeting IDF troops in the area of Hebron.

The assailant fled the scene.
Terrorist attack on bus near Ariel wounds nine
A terrorist exited his vehicle at the Giti Avisar Junction near Ariel in central Samaria shortly after noon on Friday and fired his weapon at a Tel Aviv-bound No. 286 bus.

Nine victims, including civilians and soldiers, were wounded by gunfire and shrapnel—three seriously, one moderately and the rest lightly. The terrorist was killed. It was initially thought there was a second terrorist who fled, but that proved not to be the case.

United Hatzalah EMTs Hanan Afik and Tidhar Hozeh said: “We provided initial medical treatment to eight people who were wounded. Three are in serious condition, one in moderate condition, and four were lightly injured. Additionally, we provided aid to people suffering from trauma resulting from the attack.”

According to a Palestinian report, the terrorist was Samer Atal, 47, a father of five from Einabus, south of Nablus.

Earlier this month, Palestinian Hamas terrorists opened fire toward the Shahak Industrial Park near the community of Shaked in northern Samaria.

No casualties were reported in the attack on the industrial zone, which is located some five miles west of Jenin, a hotbed of Palestinian terrorism.

In the first six months of 2024, Judea and Samaria saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to data made public by Hatzalah Judea and Samaria (Rescuers Without Borders).

During that period, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings.


Exeter Dance Festival removes Israeli film about Nova massacre
A film festival has caved in to pressure from anti-Israel campaigners to drop a short film about the Nova festival massacre.

The Exeter International Dance Film Festival (EDIFF) removed the film Rave, a two-and-a-half-minute dance piece by Israeli choreographer Dor Eldar, from its 2024 line-up.

The October 7 film was initially accepted into the festival’s programme but the festival's management then told Eldar they had decided to cancel the screening, citing pressure from sponsors and artists, and concerns that they did not want to appear “political”.

The film is a dance portrayal of the Nova festival massacre on October 7, when Hamas terrorists gunned down hundreds of young party-goers.

Eldar condemned the decision, telling Ynet: "Now I understand what antisemitism means." He added that his work had been unfairly targeted.

In a statement, EDIFF organisers said: “The festival has made the difficult decision to remove Rave from our programme. We had to consider our audience and artists, and we are under pressure from the artistic community.

"The subject of the piece is controversial and causes tension, and as a non-political organisation, we must be extremely cautious about where we shine our spotlight.”

The festival clarified that the decision was not a boycott of Israeli films, but rather a response to the “political” nature of the work.

“EDIFF does not boycott Israeli films, but we had to make the difficult decision to boycott anything specifically relating to events impacting ongoing conflicts worldwide,” the statement continued.

A spokesperson from the festival said that concerns had been raised about the film's perceived bias.

"We consulted a conflict resolution specialist who agreed that the film highlights a politically contentious and incendiary situation," the spokesperson said.

As a result, the film was withdrawn and a full refund was offered to Eldar.




Hochul, Rick Scott, Jewish groups note hostages in Thanksgiving messages
U.S. elected officials and Jewish organizations urged Americans to remember the hostages, whom Hamas continues to hold in Gaza, in a their Thanksgiving messages

“As we gather with family today, we must not forget the families who are missing their loved ones who were taken hostage by Hamas 418 days ago—including New York’s own Omer Neutra,” wrote New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat.

“Let us pray that by this time next year, they will be reunited safely with their families,” she added.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote that “as you spend Thanksgiving with your family and friends, don’t forget the 100-plus families whose loved ones are being held hostage by Iran-backed Hamas for the second holiday season in a row.”

“It’s been 419 days,” he wrote. “Enough! Bring them home now.”

The Israeli Consulate General in New York, AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee, and the latter’s CEO, called attention to the hostages in their Thanksgiving messages.

“Our tables are incomplete until all 101 hostages are home,” AIPAC stated.

“We can only truly give thanks when every hostage is freed from Gaza,” wrote Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights attorney and CEO of the International Legal Forum.


Daughter’s emotional plea to bring parents home from Gaza
Daughter of Hamas victim Iris Weinstein Haggai has spoken to Sky News host Erin Molan about her parents whose remains are still being held in Gaza by Hamas.

“I’ve been doing everything I can to return my parents home and not just my parents, my community,” she said.

“This is a fight for my community, not just my parents.”


Erin Molan unloads on UN official Francesca Albanese over 'insane' response
Sky News host Erin Molan has criticised UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese following recent remarks she made during an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Ms Albanese’s appeared reluctant to acknowledge the rapes that occurred during the October 7 attacks.

The UN Special Rapporteur, when asked during her interview with Piers Morgan earlier this week if she now accepts that rape occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the October 7 attacks, replied saying she prefers to “rely on the two reports issued this year by the Commission on Inquiry”.

“Is she insane? They admitted it themselves. Not to mention the hordes of irrefutable evidence,” Ms Molan said.


‘Unrelenting idiocy’: Erin Molan calls out the West’s ongoing insanity on Israel
Sky News host Erin Molan has called out the West’s “unrelenting idiocy” following recent attacks on Jewish communities.

Ms Molan criticised the notion that recent horrific attacks on Jews are justified responses to Israeli actions.

“We all know and learnt from the events of Amsterdam, when a handful of bad-behaving Israeli fans were apparently the justification for a sickening Jew hunt. These attacks only occur not because of antisemitism, no God no, but because of course the Jews started it,” Ms Molan said.

“You don’t need to stand with Israel or agree with every move they make to stand against what their enemies represent.

“But they’re the only country currently fighting back and destroying the terrorists currently trying to destroy our way of life.”




Brighton man charged with terror offences over Hamas comments
Tony Greenstein, of Belgrave Place, Brighton, has been charged with one count of inviting support for the proscribed organisation, after comments were made online on October 7, 2023.

Greenstein, 70, was charged following an investigation by Counter Terrorism South East officers.

Greenstein has been bailed and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on December 12.




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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