Sunday, December 22, 2024

12/22 Links: Bibi: The Inside Story of Israel’s Victory; Defunding UNRWA is not enough; Erin Molan: I Support Israel Because I "See Right from Wrong"

From Ian:

Why Israel Can Count on Us
Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Israel Alone contains much truth, but its title is fundamentally false. And this means that as insightful and eloquent as the author of this volume often is about the threats Israel faces, his thesis reveals that there is much about the world, and the Jewish place within it, that he does not understand. And for Jews to embrace this book is to countenance a calumny against some of the best friends Israel has in the world.

Lévy, a French-Jewish philosopher and public intellectual, begins Israel Alone by telling us how shocked he was by the events of October 7 and movingly describes how he visited Israel immediately after. His pain is evident as he decries the use of the word "context" utilized in defenses of Israel’s enemies, in statements that were "sung in unison by France’s politicians, the editorialists of the global South, and, in the United States, by the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania." In fact, he asserts, "Israel was defending itself. Struck in the heart, Israel was attempting to neutralize the Nazis that had drawn its blood precisely to ensure that they could never do it again."

All this is laudable. Israel is indeed at war against a Nazi-like evil, and many in European parliaments and palaces around the world have turned against Israel—as they have in the past. But is Israel, as the book’s title claims, truly alone? Are there not prominent political figures that have stood with the Jewish state? Lévy’s reply is that figures such as Donald Trump or Viktor Orban are unworthy of a Jewish embrace. "No accord is possible, no historic compromise is conceivable, with ‘friends’ such as these. The Jews are therefore alone."

Yet whatever one’s views of Orban, or the once and future president of the United States, it remains clear that millions of regular Americans also stand with Israel. The exit polls of the recent election reflect that almost two thirds of voters advocate American support of the Jewish state, with half of those voters contending that the current administration has not supported the country enough. If these polls are even close to being correct, this would mean that at least many tens of millions of Americans harbor an affection for Israel.

What this means is that in fact, the exact opposite of Lévy’s contention is the case: Israel is less alone than it has ever been. In a certain sense, this is more historically wondrous than the rise of modern Israel itself. For consider: The Jews have had sovereign states before, first in the biblical period, and later during the reign of the Maccabees. Throughout these periods, one may have seen a world leader that reflected an affection for Jews. Hiram, king of Tyre, was an ally of David’s; Cyrus of Persia allowed for the Jewish return to Jerusalem; Julius Caesar was grateful for Judean support and bestowed special liberties on Jerusalem for as long as he led Rome.
Islamism still haunts us
As for Christmas markets, a cherished institution in Germany and increasingly a target of Islamist killers, a 15-year-old was sent to youth custody for four years in June for his plan to attack a market in Leverkusen. Earlier this month, a 37-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker was arrested on suspicion of planning a massacre at a Christmas market in Augsburg, and three young suspected Islamists were arrested, the police seizing knives and an assault rifle, for their plot to attack a market in Frankfurt or Mannheim.

That’s just Germany. 2024 was a grotesquely successful year for Islamist terror on the European continent at large. Tajik gunmen backed by ISIS-K, the ISIS franchise operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, slaughtered 145 people and injured more than 500 at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow. It was the deadliest terror attack on Russian soil since 2004. If it wasn’t for a tip-off from US intelligence, similar horrors could have been inflicted on Vienna in August, where two teenagers, who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, were planning to bomb and slash their way through a Taylor Swift concert.

Massacring concert-goers. Mowing down families at Christmas markets. Slashing at people’s necks as they gather together in their city centre. This is a barbarous war on our very way of life, waged by death cults and their sadistic fanboys. And yet Europe’s rulers have come to treat such attacks as akin to natural disasters – as awful, tragic, oh-so-sad things that just happen from time to time.

They seem to have convinced themselves that confronting the Islamist threat too forcefully risks whipping up anti-Muslim hatred, as if the majority are a pogrom in waiting, or risks ‘alienating’ European Muslims, as if they are all terrorist sympathisers. In their supposed efforts to quell bigotry, the elites reveal their own.

The horror in Magdeburg is a reminder that barbarism comes in many different packages. But as we head into 2025, we cannot lose sight of where the primary threat lies. We must refuse to be cowed by Islamist terror – and we must refuse to be condescended to by an establishment that would rather see us as the problem.
An obscene irony: Talk of arresting Netanyahu at Auschwitz
Nearly five years ago, as preparations were underway to hold a major event in Jerusalem on January 20, 2020, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, dozens of world leaders were slated to attend. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, however, announced he would not participate because he would not be allowed to speak at the event.

Instead, keynote speeches were to be delivered by then-US Vice President Mike Pence, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

For Duda, the decision to exclude him from speaking was more than a diplomatic slight—it was, he argued, “a distortion of the historical truth,” denying him the chance to honor Polish citizens who perished in the Holocaust.

This sensitivity to “historical truth” raises questions about how Duda might view a potential scenario unfolding today: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being unable to travel to Poland and Auschwitz for an event marking the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation on January 27 because Poland has stated it would honor an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for his arrest on alleged war crimes stemming from the October 7 war.

Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Władysław Bartoszewski, told a Polish newspaper on Friday that Netanyahu would indeed be arrested if he came to the ceremony. Think of that: Poland, upon whose soil millions of Jews were killed, would detain the leader of the Jewish state for taking actions to protect the country from those seeking to destroy it. And this is based on an arrest warrant issued by a court that lacks jurisdiction over Israel.

Talk about a distortion of truth — both past and present.

Auschwitz stands as the ultimate symbol of antisemitism, where 1.1 million people were murdered, a million of them Jews. To arrest Netanyahu under an ICC warrant—a move widely viewed in Israel as antisemitic due to its double standards and bias—would send an unconscionable message. For Poland to enforce such a decree, especially at a memorial event for history’s greatest crime of Jew-hatred, is almost unfathomable.

The moral bankruptcy here would be staggering.


WSJ: Benjamin Netanyahu: The Inside Story of Israel’s Victory
From the darkness of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has roared back to crush Hamas and defang Hizbullah, leaving the Assad regime in Syria to crumble and all their masters in Iran to fret, without air defenses, over Israel's next move. How did it happen?

The Americans advised against a ground invasion of Gaza. U.S. military experts said to fight from the air instead. Netanyahu knew from experience that wouldn't work. "From the air, you can mow the lawn. You can't pull out the weeds," he says. "We're here to uproot Hamas - not to deliver deterrent blows, but to destroy it."

After the first hostage deal in late November 2023, as the war restarted, "they began to turn on us in the media and in the West." The more Americans and international bodies pressed Netanyahu to fold, the less inclined Hamas became to cut a second hostage deal - "and Hamas said so openly."

The U.S. predicted as many as 20,000 new casualties if Israel invaded Rafah. When Israel finally advanced in May, casualties were notably low as civilians quickly went to the safe zone by the beach. "The Americans said to me, 'If you go into Rafah, you're on your own, and we're not going to send you the critical arms,' which is tough to hear....But if we don't go into Rafah, we can't exist as a sovereign state." In Rafah, Israel cut off Hamas's supply route and later killed Sinwar, its chief.

Even after 11 months of Hizbullah rocket fire, depopulating Israel's north, the U.S. opposed any move to take the fight to Hizbullah. "We prepared for Hizbullah a massive surprise," Netanyahu says. I presume he means the exploding pagers on Sept. 17. The result was "the greatest surgical targeting in history," followed by an attack on Hizbullah's missiles. "In six hours, we wiped out most of the ballistic-missile stockpiles Hizbullah had amassed."

In Gaza, "I'm not going to agree to end the war before we remove Hamas. We're not going to leave them in power in Gaza, 30 miles from Tel Aviv. It's not going to happen."
Netanyahu to WSJ: Won’t agree to end war before removing Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Friday by The Wall Street Journal that Jerusalem would not forsake its war goal of removing Hamas from power.

“I’m not going to agree to end the war before we remove Hamas,” he said. “We’re not going to leave them in power in Gaza, 30 miles from Tel Aviv. It’s not going to happen.”

Editorial writer Elliot Kaufman notes that Netanyahu envisions a partial hostage deal that would see a temporary pause in fighting with the terror group, which comes amid reports of an emerging agreement that would see a staged release of the hostages.

While reports last week were optimistic regarding ceasefire talks, senior Israeli officials told Israel’s Channel 12 News that while progress has been made on some issues, Hamas has not yet submitted a list of living hostages, which is attributed to gaps between the Hamas leadership abroad and its Gaza-based factions.

For its part, Israel has two key demands, as reported by Channel 12. The first is the deportation of high-level terrorists with blood on their hands to a third country. Second, Israel insists on having a veto over the release of 70-100 terrorists in this category, a condition it will not compromise on.

Senior Fatah terror leader Marwan Barghouti would not be among those Israel agrees to release, according to the report.

Senior Israeli officials say that progress has been made on other issues, with a special team from Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency working on tactical matters.

According to a report in Israel Hayom on Sunday, the negotiations include a proposal that would allow Hamas terrorists to leave Gaza for Egypt to receive medical treatment during the ceasefire period.

Several families of Hamas hostages have received signs of life from their loved ones recently, after a prolonged period without contact except for propaganda videos, Channel 12 reported on Friday.


Israel still waiting for list of live hostages from Hamas, sources tell 'Post'
A security source told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Israel is still waiting on Hamas for a list of live hostages it is planning to release in the talked-about deal. Without the list, advancement on the talks will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, the source added.

Additionally, a working group delegation was still in Qatar on Sunday evening to attempt to advance talks. This is not a senior team.

Sources also told The Jerusalem Post that there is some progress in hostage deal negotiations. However, there are substantial difficulties on the path to a deal.

There are gaps - some of which can be bridged, and some are very difficult, the sources told the Post, a week after there were optimistic indications from several reports that a deal could be reached.

Despite this, the sources emphasize that some progress was made in the past week, and in a few cases, the gaps have narrowed, but as previously said, there are still quite a few difficulties.

On Sunday, the security cabinet met for a discussion in the North, and like last week, the ministers were not updated on the talks for the deal as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempt to limit as much as possible those who know what is really happening in the closed rooms.

On Saturday, a Palestinian official participating in the talks told the BBC that hostage deal and ceasefire negotiations are 90% complete.
Trump’s ‘all hell breaks loose’ comment gave us hope, says daughter of American hostage
“It’s not just a fight to return my parents—it’s a fight to return my friends, my friends’ grandparents, my friends’ babies.”

These are the words of Iris Weinstein Haggai, whose parents, Judi and Gadi Weinstein Haggai, were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, attack. Speaking with resolve, Iris shared with The Media Line her family’s ongoing nightmare and her efforts to advocate for the return of all hostages so all of Israel can start healing—Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. “We need them back—this is the key to starting a new chapter.”

The interview
TML: Can you tell us about yourself and your family and about the possibility of a hostage deal? How are you all feeling?

Iris Weinstein Haggai: Well, I’m from Kibbutz Nir Oz. So, you know, it’s not just a fight to return my parents—it’s a fight to return my friends, my friends’ grandparents, my friends’ babies. It’s so much bigger than just the return of my parents. It’s an ongoing nightmare.

Today is day 438. To us, it’s just one long day since October 7, 2023. My father’s birthday was two weeks ago, and I can’t even describe what it’s like to have nothing but military intelligence regarding my parents.

For three months, we didn’t know what had happened to them. I heard my mom's recording with MADA [Israel’s emergency medical services]. She talks about terrorists shooting them while they were taking their early morning walk that day. She says they shot my dad, and he was probably dead, and they shot her, too. But aside from that, we knew nothing.

We expected my mom to come out during the November hostage deal. I even made new eyeglasses for her because we found her broken ones in the fields. Every day, I sat there waiting for her name in this torture of a reality show list game Hamas played. Every night, it was a no.

Eighty-three days later, we found out that they were both murdered that day and taken into Gaza. But we don’t have any forensic evidence. Your mind tricks you—maybe the intelligence is wrong, perhaps she fainted and survived. Plus, Hamas released a photo of her in May, claiming she died from IDF fire, which we know isn’t true. She died on October 7. But still, we don’t have a grave. So, my father’s birthday came, and we had nowhere to go. We can’t even start the mourning process. We’re just stuck—psychologically and emotionally.


The Al Aqsa Flood and the Olive Branch
When Hamas named their godless day of live-streamed murder “Temple Mount Flood,” the name they chose accidentally contains a whole essay on why, and how profoundly, they are going to lose. Op-ed.

Sometimes God plays tricks on the wicked by putting words in their mouths. Obviously when Hamas named their godless day of live-streamed murder “Temple Mount Flood,” it was firstly because the silly, psychopathic Monopoly-game-world they inhabit revolves around stopping us Jews from rebuilding our temple, and secondly because floods are big and scary-sounding. UNRWA school dollars hard at work, there.

Remarkably, though, the name they chose accidentally contains a whole essay on why, and how profoundly, they are going to lose.

In the founding myth of Athens, the goddess of wisdom grants her eponymous city an olive tree as a gift, either because its bitter fruits seem useless unless you are clever enough to figure out how to process them, or else because a main product from the tree is the light from that comes from burning its oil, a light that banishes darkness and reveals new knowledge.

Strictly speaking, we do not need to rely on the fairy tales of now-extinct idolaters to realize the connection between Noah’s flood and the holiday of Hanuka, but doing so does help us to notice clues. When we see a bird, a dove, whose Hebrew name yonah is written identically to yawana (“to Greece”), and that dove is carrying an olive leaf in its mouth, we get suspicious. And then we remember that the bird was sent out from the ark on Day 8 after seven days of waiting; and that it was sent by Noah, an accomplished technologist and mariner, whose grandson, Yawan, would father the whole Greek nation of accomplished technologists and mariners.

If that weren’t enough, the dove is playing the role of illumination, by bringing Noah information about the current state of far away places in the way that shining light often does. More specifically, the dove is telling Noah there is dry land, which the Torah says first began to poke above the retreating waters on the first day of the tenth month, that is, on what would one day become the eve of the eighth and brightest night of Hanuka lights.


Ben-Dror Yemini: Tehran must be defeated before Sanaa
This is precisely the Houthi rationale. Israeli retaliation does not deter them; harming Israel fuels their sense of honor. When Yahya Sinwar orchestrated the October 7 attacks, he did not genuinely believe he could defeat Israel. He knew Israel would respond with overwhelming force. But the anticipated devastation didn’t dissuade him.

The same logic applies to Hassan Nasrallah. When he kidnapped Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, he already knew, based on Israel’s response during the Second Lebanon War, that the reaction would be severe. While he later admitted that had he known the scale of the response, he might not have acted, his actions speak louder than his words. After all, in the heat of the moment on October 8, honor outweighed caution.

While pointed attacks on a Yemeni port might grant us momentary relief, it does little to answer the actual source of our sleepless nights. Lest we forget, Israeli Air Force jets aren't the only threat the Houthis have faced. The Saudis, Americans and British have all brandished their idea of aerial punishment, and the Jewish state itself has done so more than once. And yet, the Houthi war machine rumbles on.

There are two ways to neutralize the Houthi threat, and the two approaches complement rather than contradict each other. The first is to negotiate a deal for the release of hostages and establish a cease-fire. Unlike Hezbollah, the Houthis have shown they keep their word and have made it clear they won’t stop until the war ends.

The second approach is to strike at the source—Iran. While Iran’s "ring of fire" has been weakened by significant blows to Hezbollah and the collapse of Assad’s regime in Syria, the driving force behind this axis of evil isn’t rooted in rational interests. It’s ideological at its core. Their threats to destroy Israel aren’t mere bravado – they mean every word. These threats will only cease – or at least be reduced to hollow rhetoric – if Iran itself suffers a devastating blow.

The Houthis are a nuisance, not an existential threat. Their goal is to drag Israel into a war of attrition, assuming Israel won’t take action where the Saudis hesitated. Given the current circumstances, Iran is the far greater danger – and the far more vulnerable target. That’s where the focus should be.
Wreckage of Israeli chopper downed in Yom Kippur War found in Syria
Israeli forces in Syria have found the wreckage of an Israeli Air Force helicopter which crashed during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The remains of the helicopter, which went down due to bad weather conditions during a rescue mission, were uncovered last week on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.

The wreckage was returned to Israel on Saturday, and the families of the six victims of the April 27, 1974, crash were notified, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported on Sunday.

Israeli forces took up defensive positions on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon shortly after Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted by rebels on Oct. 8.
The President's Daily Brief: Ryan McBeth Explains How a NYT Story Led to the Collapse of Assad
Mike Baker sits down with Ryan McBeth to explore a fascinating theory: Could one article from The New York Times have triggered a chain of events that led to the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria? McBeth breaks down his compelling argument, connecting the dots between media, diplomacy, and the power struggles in Damascus.


Pope doubles down on criticism of Israel
Pope Francis stepped up his criticism of Israeli counter-terrorism raids in Gaza on Sunday, decrying what he described as “cruelty” for the second time in as many days after Jerusalem accused him of singling out the Jewish state.

“And with pain, I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty,” the pontiff said after a prayer service.

On Saturday, Francis drew a rebuke from the Israeli government after he accused the Israel Defense Forces of attacking babies in Gaza. “This is cruelty,” the head of the Catholic Church said. “This is not war.”

“In response to the pope’s statement today: Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry stated. “Cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them.”

Francis “unfortunately” opted “to ignore all of this, as well as the fact that Israel’s actions have targeted terrorists who used children as human shields,” the Israeli government said.

“The pope’s remarks are particularly disappointing as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism—a multifront war that was forced upon it starting on Oct. 7,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

“The death of any innocent person in a war is a tragedy. Israel makes extraordinary efforts to prevent harm to innocents, while Hamas makes extraordinary efforts to increase harm to Palestinian civilians,” it added

“The blame should be directed solely at the terrorists, not at the democracy defending itself against them. Enough with the double standards and the singling out of the Jewish state and its people.”
Ruthie Blum: When Irish eyes are crying …
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar didn’t mince words on Sunday, when he “instructed the closure of Israel’s embassy in Ireland.”

The “actions, double standards and antisemitic rhetoric of the Irish government against Israel are rooted in efforts to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state,” he wrote in a post on X, going on to list concrete examples that led to the move.

“The Irish government recognized a ‘Palestinian state’ during attacks on Israel (a move praised by Hamas); attempted to redefine ‘genocide’ in international law to support baseless claims against Israel at the International Court of Justice; backed politically motivated cases at the International Criminal Court; promoted anti-Israel measures within the European Union; and fostered hostility toward Israel,” he stated, adding: “Notably, Ireland is one of the few European countries that has not adopted the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of antisemitism, and its government has failed to take effective measures to combat the surge of antisemitism within Ireland.”

He concluded with a vow that Israel would “focus its resources on strengthening bilateral relations with countries worldwide, according to priorities that also take into account the attitudes and actions of these states toward Israel.”

Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Simon Harris shot back at what he called “a deeply regrettable decision from the [Benjamin] Netanyahu government,” and went on to “utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel.”

No, insisted Harris, “Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law. Ireland wants a two-state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Ireland will always speak up for human rights and international law. Nothing will distract from that.”

Well, he certainly hasn’t allowed truth to invade his false narratives, which is precisely why his government is seeking to broaden the meaning of genocide in order to guarantee that Israel be censured for it. It’s also behind his suggestion that Israel isn’t “pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.”

But Harris’s disingenuous protestations were small fry compared to the bald-faced mendacity expressed on Tuesday by Irish President Michael Higgins. During a credentials ceremony for two new ambassadors to Ireland—Nicola Faganello of Italy and Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid from the non-existent “State of Palestine”—he responded to a reporter’s question about Sa’ar’s antisemitism allegations by taking a trip to la-la-land.

It’s a “very serious business to actually brand a people because in fact they disagree with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is in breach of so many bits of international law, and who has beached the sovereignty of three of his neighbors, in relation to Lebanon, Syria and would like in fact actually to have a settlement into Egypt,” he babbled, hand shaking, before taking a breath to resume his redundant rant.

“I think to suggest that because one criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu, that is, one is antisemitic, is such a gross defamation and slander,” Higgins said, adding, “Well, I have to say that originally when I accepted [Israeli Ambassador Dana Erlich’s] credentials, I put it [comments about Irish policy] down to lack of experience, but then I saw later that it was part of a pattern to damage Ireland.”
Chief Rabbi: Our Irish leaders have contributed to hatred against Jews
Jewish children in Irish schools hide their heritage from their fellow pupils because anti-Israel sentiment is so strong in the country, the Chief Rabbi of Ireland said.

Yoni Wieder said that many of the roughly 3,000 Jews in Ireland no longer felt safe enough to wear signs of their identity, such as skullcaps or the Star of David, on the streets.

He said there had been a “significant” rise in anti-Semitism since the Oct 7 terror attacks and Israel’s war in Gaza.

Ireland’s support for the Palestinians and fierce criticism of Israel has seen it clash with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which closed its Israeli embassy in Dublin this week.

Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, accused taoiseach Simon Harris of being an anti-Semite after the Irish premier said the embassy closure was to distract from the killing of children in Gaza.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Rabbi Wieder said: “Of late, many Jews are not comfortable to display signs of their Jewish identity outside their homes as is traditional, or to wear things like a Star of David or a Jewish skullcap when walking in the street.

“What I’m most upset and concerned about is the number of school children who have told me in recent months that they feel afraid because they are Jewish, or that they avoid talking about being Jewish in front of their non-Jewish peers.”
Ireland's badge of dishonor in its phony war with Israel
The Irish government is simultaneously accusing Israel of genocide while recognizing nothing done by Israel to defend its citizens against Hamas terrorism currently falls within the existing international law concept of genocide.

This, together with Harris’s much-repeated blood libel allegation that Israel is deliberately killing Palestinian children, is what triggered Gideon Saar’s antisemitic depiction of Harris and the closure of Israel’s Dublin embassy.

It is a pity that before announcing its closure and handing a victory to Israel’s adversaries, Saar didn’t fully realize that Harris is merely a political opportunist who has never visited the Middle East. His initial knowledge of the conflict derives from TikTok and Irish media, that he knows nothing of Jewish history, is addicted to media-friendly student soundbites, and determined to appease Ireland’s Israel haters.

Privately, it can be assumed that both Harris and Martin are delighted by the closure of the embassy.

At the commencement of the new Dáil last Wednesday, Martin observed that “one of the things that most encourages cynicism about politics is when our time is wasted on empty gestures and grandstanding”.

At that moment, he presented as oblivious to that being a succinct depiction of the Irish government's over-year-long pronouncements on the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict.

Save for the Israeli embassy closure and rewarding terrorism by Ireland’s announced recognition of the State of Palestine, the fulminations of Harris and Martin during 2024 achieved absolutely nothing other than the unique distinction of Ireland becoming the only state within the EU to be the recipient of a Tehran issued congratulatory statement from Hamas for engaging in lawfare by joining South Africa’s ICJ genocide case.

How this badge of dishonor and the Irish government's conduct since October 7, 2023, is viewed by the incoming Trump administration in the United States, what impact it may have on Ireland/ US diplomatic relations and trade, and whether it may result in Trump canceling the annual invitation to Micheal Martin, who will by then be Ireland’s Prime Minister, to the annual St Patrick's Day shindig in the White House remains to be seen.

The writer is a former Irish Minister for Justice, Equality, & Defence, a former member of the EU Council of Justice and Home Affairs Minister, and a former Chairperson of the Irish Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee. He is currently the voluntary Chairperson of Magen David Adom Ireland.
Why Jews Should Not Let Our Critics — Such as the Antisemites of Ireland — Define Us
The political philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin, a master of sardonic aphorisms, is purported to have defined an antisemite as “someone who hates Jews more than is absolutely necessary.” This wry observation perfectly encapsulates the peculiar persistence of this ancient prejudice, and came to mind this week after Israel decided to close its embassy in Ireland — a country whose history and present attitudes reflect a relentless and disproportionate criticism of the Jewish State.

Ireland’s longstanding track record on Israel is troubling. But since the October 7th massacre in southern Israel, and the war that has ensued with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, Irish officials have dramatically escalated their rhetoric against Israel, taking it to new levels, perpetuating their long tradition of singling out the Jewish people and their state for unique contempt.

Truthfully, this antipathy to Jews and sympathy for antisemites is hardly new. Ireland’s dubious stance during World War II, during which it maintained “neutrality” as Europe struggled against the Nazi onslaught, reached a new low in 1945 when Irish Prime Minister Éamon de Valera infamously visited the German ambassador to offer his condolences after Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. This gesture only highlighted Ireland’s indifference to Jewish victims of the Holocaust, still fresh in their graves, leaving an indelible stain on its moral record.

This week, Irish leaders insisted they’re not antisemitic, but their actions tell a different story. Despite complex explanations to justify their positions, and claims that their stance is driven by human rights concerns for Gazans and has nothing to do with Israel, the facts speak for themselves. As the late Isaiah Berlin observed in another of his famous aphorisms: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” In this case, Israel is the hedgehog, and it knows one big thing: Ireland’s rhetoric and actions are steeped in antisemitism.

Insistent justifications notwithstanding, nothing can obscure the fact that Ireland disproportionately criticizes and targets Israel while turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Israel’s enemies and countless other actors around the world. This selective scrutiny faced by Israel and Jews has sadly become the norm.

Ireland’s history of antisemitism is, frankly, troubling. And it’s not just about De Valera’s infamous 1945 visit to the German ambassador. In 1980, Ireland became the first European country to recognize the PLO, led by the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” That’s the same PLO whose charter at the time openly called for the total destruction of Israel.
The Taoiseach's crocodile tears
Ireland's Foreign Affairs Department is reported to have said, "By legally intervening in South Africa's case, Ireland will be asking the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a state." Just as Amnesty did, Ireland has implicitly admitted that the traditional definition of "genocide," does not apply, but seeks to change the definition in order to apply the label to Israel.

The intended result is to prevent Israel from completing its mission of eliminating the terror organization that wants to repeat the 10/7 attack. Ireland is condemning that attack, while simultaneously taking action to enable the next one. Its condemnation, therefore, is meaningless and hypocritical.

Prime Minister Harris' empty condemnation echoes that of international policy heavyweights Cynthia Nixon and Dua Lipa. In December of last year, Nixon, an actress and self-styled political activist, told The View, "Every time I speak on this, I say really loudly that the atrocities committed by Hamas, they're brutal, they're devastating, they're unforgivable, all people of conscience must condemn them," even as she demanded that Israel "cease fire." And in January, the singer Dua Lipa told Rolling Stone, "I feel so bad for every Israeli life lost and what happened on Oct. 7," just before signing an open letter demanding an immediate ceasefire.

It seems as though Taoiseach Harris was attempting to emulate these celebrities' crocodile tears. But those who oppose Israel's taking action to ensure that Hamas can't rebuild and attack again are merely being performative in their condemnations.
The UN is watching you, but who’s watching the UN?
As the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) wrapped up its 2024 sessions, one thing became abundantly clear: when it comes to Israel, the UNGA has the attention span of a dog with a tennis ball. In a year brimming with global crises – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the unrest in Syria, and the humanitarian disaster in Myanmar – the UN’s focus remained laser-like on one country: Israel. With 17 out of 23 resolutions criticizing Israel, nearly three-quarters of the UNGA’s condemnations this year were directed at the Jewish state, while the rest of the world collectively received only six. It’s like a movie where one actor is repeatedly blamed for every plot twist, no matter how irrelevant they are to the storyline.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based organization that keeps a critical eye on the UN’s actions, has not been shy about calling out this one-sided obsession. Hillel Neuer, the organization’s executive director, pulled no punches in his response: The purpose of these lopsided condemnations is to demonize and dehumanize Israelis, Neuer declared, pointing out the sheer absurdity of the situation. In a year where many of the world’s most oppressive regimes continued to commit human rights atrocities – China’s crackdown on Uyghurs, Venezuela’s economic collapse, or the Saudi regime’s ongoing abuses – the UN could barely muster a resolution. Instead, it spent the majority of its time dissecting Israel’s every move. It’s as if the UNGA has become an open-air courtroom, where Israel is constantly on trial, with no defense.

To make matters worse, the UNGA’s resolutions have been disturbingly selective in their accusations, turning a blind eye to the actions of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. For instance, a recent resolution on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, initiated by Norway, passed with overwhelming support. However, this resolution completely ignored compelling evidence published by UN Watch that proves UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, has extensive ties to Hamas. Instead of addressing Hamas’s exploitation of international aid for terror tunnels, the resolution conveniently ignored the group’s role in exacerbating the crisis. Instead, it praised UNRWA for its supposed “neutrality”—as if neutrality is still a valid stance when one side of the conflict is indiscriminately firing rockets at civilians and using hospitals as cover.

But the cherry on top was the UNGA’s decision to pass two more resolutions singling out Israel for supposed offenses related to environmental damage and resource exploitation. One, titled “Oil slick on Lebanese shores,” called out Israel for an alleged oil spill during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, despite the fact that Hezbollah’s own actions in the region have inflicted significant environmental damage, a fact the resolution conveniently overlooked. The second resolution condemned Israel for exploiting natural resources in Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights – again, conveniently ignoring the fact that Hamas routinely commandeers international aid meant for development, while Palestinians themselves refuse to develop vital infrastructure like water resources and sewage systems.
Unembeddable AJ+ video tweet Why can’t the UN stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza?



Defunding UNRWA is not enough
The last week has been awful for UNRWA, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Which means it was a good week for humanity.

The Dutch Parliament passed a bill to gradually cut off funding to UNRWA. They join 12 other former donor nations that already have.

Next, UNRWA on Monday was caught red-handed again permitting Hamas to conduct terrorist operations from within a school in Gaza. The IDF blew it up.

Last week, the New York Times – no close ally of the Jewish State – reported without equivocation for the first time that there was independent evidence UNRWA employees doubled as armed terrorists. They called attention to 24 of the UN agency’s staff. Israeli officials (and anyone with a cerebral cortex) hold that the number is two orders of magnitude higher.

The best piece of news came from Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who says that he and eight co-sponsors are preparing to shut off US Taxpayer funding of UNRWA again. The US accounts for about 30% of UNRWA’s budget.

That is a good step, but not enough.

UNRWA crossed the line on October 7, 2023. According to established US criminal law and federal regulations, when UNRWA employees raided, raped, murdered, and abducted Israeli civilians it became a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). Officially declaring it to be an FTO will bankrupt and destroy it.


Norwegian football president calls for investigation into Israel ahead of World Cup qualifying match
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has praised the Norwegian Football Federation after its president reportedly called on FIFA, football’s world governing body, to investigate Israel for humanitarian violations ahead of a qualifying match between Norway and Israel next year.

Following Saturday’s announcement of the forthcoming ties for the qualifying stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will see Israel and Norway go head-to-head on March 25 and October 11, Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, said it was “difficult” to see her country paired to compete with Israel.

She said: “The draw is difficult for us, beyond the purely sporting aspect. None of us can remain indifferent to the disproportionate attacks that Israel has inflicted on the civilian population of Gaza over a long period of time.

“Israel is still part of UEFA competitions. We have to deal with that. We are following the situation closely with FIFA, UEFA, and the Norwegian authorities.”

Klaveness added that the NFF is advocating for FIFA to address sanctions against Israel and is actively involved in pushing Israel to be suspended from international sporting competitions. She noted that her statement was in line with the position of her government, which has called for sanctions against Israel on the international stage and imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank. In May, Norway became one of three European countries, including Ireland and Spain, to official recognise Palestinian statehood.

Despite a number of international news outlets reporting that the Norwegian national team would be boycotting the matches, no statement to that end has been made and the fate of the matches is yet to be seen.

The Palestinian Football Association has welcomed Klaveness’s “principled position” in “calling on FIFA to investigative Israel’s violations ahead of the World Cup qualifier.”

In a statement posted to the PFA website, the body expressed “its full appreciation for Norway’s recognition of the ongoing violations against Palestinian civilians and athletes,” and commended the president’s remarks as echoing “the sentiments of millions around the world who believe that FIFA and the international football community cannot remain silent while grave breaches of human rights persist.”


Germany’s bizarre terrorist sent me angry messages – but what were his motives?
I received a message in my inbox earlier this year from a certain Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, whose profile claimed that Germany was guilty of “Islamising Europe”.

Little did I know that the sender would end up being the main suspect in Friday’s Christmas market attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg when a driver fatally ploughed into a dense crowd at high speed.

A nine-year-old child was among the five dead. Of the 205 injured, around 40 remain in critical condition as doctors fight to save their lives.

Sent in August from a curious-looking account with over 40,000 followers and an Arabic name, the message read: “If this is interesting to you, can you please look at my tweets about German police and prosecutors.”

The bizarre post included a 12-minute video dedicated to Tommy Robinson, the far-Right activist, and listed all of Abdulmohsen’s grievances against ex-Muslim organisations.

Just as strange was the video’s narrator – an AI-generated Elon Musk complete with moving lips that “Dr Taleb Al Abdulmohsen” used to refer to himself in the third person.

In the rambling clip, Abdulmohsen discussed a conspiracy theory surrounding an alleged “Leftist Islamist alliance” of Muslim social democrat politicians and German ex-Muslim activists who had formed an NGO called the Atheist Refugee Relief. He referred to the group as “a corrupt atheist organisation whose aim is to lure female ex-Muslim Saudi refugees and abuse them”.

I promptly dismissed the claims as unfounded.

Yet the heinous act they apparently provoked has left a shell-shocked Germany grappling with the suspect’s identity and motivations – along with what they say about the state of the country.

One thing that everyone has agreed on is that this attack was a security failure. It transpired that Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist, had previously made online death threats against German citizens and had a history of quarrelling with state authorities.

Citing security sources, Der Spiegel, the German magazine, said that Berlin’s spy agency BND was warned a year ago by the Saudi secret service about a tweet in which Abdulmohsen threatens a “price” for Germany to pay over its treatment of Saudi refugees.

In August, Abdulmohsen then wrote on social media: “Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?... If anyone knows it, please let me know.”

Die Welt, another news outlet also quoting security sources, reported that German state and federal police had carried out a “risk assessment” on Abdulmohsen in 2023 but concluded that he posed “no specific danger”.


Katz: IDF will ‘crush Hezbollah’s head’ if violates Lebanon truce
The Israeli military will “crush Hezbollah’s head” if the Iranian-backed terrorist group violates the ceasefire agreement, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday during a visit to an IDF position in Southern Lebanon.

“We defanged the snake, and if Hezbollah does not withdraw beyond the Litani [River] and tries to violate the ceasefire, we will crush its head,” Katz said in a statement.

“We will not allow Hezbollah to return to the southern [Lebanese] villages to reestablish the terror infrastructure that poses a threat to the northern [Israeli] communities,” he added.

“We will ensure the restoration of security to allow the residents of the north to return safely to their homes,” he said.

The IDF continues to destroy Hezbollah terrorist assets in Southern Lebanon, including what the army said on Sunday was a combat compound containing eight weapon storage facilities.

Engineering troops from the 91st Division’s 188th Brigade located the compound with the weapon storage facilities both above and below ground, connected by an underground infrastructure. Inside the compound, soldiers found communication and electrical equipment, anti-tank missiles, explosives and computers.


IDF uncovers massive underground Hezbollah arms complex
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Sunday that combat engineers from the 188th Armored Brigade located and detonated a massive terrorist housing complex in southern Lebanon.

During the operation, troops discovered eight weapons storage facilities located above and below ground, interconnected by underground infrastructure. Among the discovered materials were anti-tank missiles, explosives, computers, communication devices, and electrical systems.

Additionally, the forces identified a firing position aimed at northern Israeli settlements, which contained an additional weapons storage area. Soldiers neutralized this position and confiscated the weaponry.


Netanyahu appeals for patience as IDF prepares to hit Houthis hard
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis on Sunday to be “patient” as Jerusalem prepares to respond forcefully to attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists.

“We will take forceful, determined and sophisticated action,” the prime minister vowed after a Houthi ballistic missile evaded the Israel Defense Forces’ aerial defense systems and hit a playground in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa quarter overnight Friday, lightly wounding 16 people.

“Even if it takes time, the result will be the same—as it has been with the other terrorist arms,” he said, in reference to previous IDF operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Just as we have acted forcefully against the terror arms of Iran’s axis of evil, so too will we act against the Houthis,” Netanyahu said. “However, in this case, we are not acting alone. Like us, the U.S. and other countries see the Houthis not only as a threat to international maritime navigation, but to the international order as well.

“what I ask of you, citizens of Israel, is to be patient, to continue showing the same resilience that you have shown up until now, and to strictly follow the [IDF] Home Front Command directives,” he said.


Only Significant Israeli-American Action Would End the Houthi Threat
The Houthis, a Shiite Jihadi group, insist on proving to the world that, unlike Hizbullah, Hamas and Iran, they remain unscathed and continue to fight in support of Hamas.

The Houthis are euphoric over their military successes and fueled by their extremist Islamist ideology, expecting to emerge victorious and be recognized as the force that held maritime traffic in a stranglehold.

In order to deal with the Houthi threat to Israel's home front and to world trade, there must be a resolute military operation that will eliminate its leaders and destroy its military capabilities.

They are well armed with the latest Iranian weapons.

It is not enough to defend against their ballistic missiles and drones.

Their weapons production in Yemen must also be stopped and their warehouses destroyed, so that they are no longer a problem for the world.

An attack carried out by the U.S. and Britain earlier this month was on empty command posts near Sanaa and caused only minimal damage, without having any real effect on the Houthis' military capabilities.

A joint Israeli-American operation would be able to deter the Houthis if their weapons and production sites are attacked.

Without significant military action, the threat from Yemen will persist.
US has decided to increase activity against Houthis, sources tell 'Post'
The US decided in recent days to increase its activity against the Houthis in Yemen, sources with knowledge of the matter told The Jerusalem Post.

This decision was made by the US in recent days after it deemed its policy and actions against the Houthis over the last year as “insufficient.”

Sources said that “after the US saw that international companies continued to fear entering the Red Sea’s [shipping route] and that the Houthis continued to fire against Israel and international ships,” it realized that “decisions had to be made.”

They added that the US was cooperating with Israel on this issue.

In recent days, Israel has struck ports, which caused them to shut down, and several other targets in Sanaa.

Strikes on Yemen
Concurrently, there has been an increase in US activity in Yemen, including strikes against Houthi targets. On Saturday, the US conducted strikes on Houthi missile and storage facilities in Yemen's capital, Sana'a.

Israeli air force jets also struck Houthi targets in Sana'a in the early hours of Thursday morning, as Yemen fired a ballistic missile towards Israel.


Israeli military operation in Syria ‘wise and correct,’ Druze leader says
Israelis across the country were shocked last week by news of the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime and of the Israeli military occupation of certain areas of Syria. This development reverberated strongly in Majdal Shams, a Druze town on the Golan Heights that has been under Israeli control since 1967. The Media Line sat down with Majdal Shams Mayor Dolan Abu Saleh for an exclusive interview about how Israel’s Druze population is reacting to these events.

Majdal Shams is considered the unofficial Druze capital of the Golan Heights and is home to nearly 12,000 residents, all of whom are Druze. Druze people make up the majority of the 24,000 Arabs living throughout the Golan. An additional 100,000 or so Israeli Druze live outside of the Golan in northern Israel and around Haifa. The town’s ties to Syria run deep. For many families, there are relatives on the other side of the border, creating a complex set of loyalties and concerns.

Abu Saleh, now in his fourth term as mayor, spoke at length about the dramatic changes in Syria and their impact on the Druze community. “For every family here, there’s family on the other side,” he said, stressing the deeply personal nature of these political shifts. He described the fall of Assad as a transformative event, noting, “The people here are very, very happy that the dictator, the murderer of the people, is no longer in power. They hope there will be a new Syria of peace, humanity and human rights.”

Concerns heightened in Majdal Shams after the terrorist atrocities of October 7, 2023. “Until October 7, the civil war in Syria did not pose a significant threat to residents of the Golan,” Abu Saleh said. After that date, people worried about possible infiltration from Syria. “Hezbollah operated freely in Syria under Assad,” he noted, explaining why residents feared that violence could spill over the border. “All this time, we saw cooperation between Hezbollah and Assad,” he said.

The fall of Assad also brought the Druze community’s historical questions of loyalty and identity into sharper focus. When Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981, it offered Druze residents Israeli citizenship, but many continued to identify as Syrian.

Today, Druze in the Golan remains eligible for Israeli citizenship, and the number of applicants has grown in recent years. Data from 2022 show that around 20% of Majdal Shams residents hold Israeli citizenship, while the rest have permanent residency without citizenship. Abu Saleh described himself as “a proud Israeli citizen,” explaining that Israel provides security and a high standard of human rights.

“I love this place very much. I love to be part of society in the State of Israel,” he added. “Both personally and as a community, we want to feel an indivisible part of the State of Israel, not only in name, but also through receiving budgets and sharing resources from the state, and that this feeling will be mutual and not one-sided.”
New Syrian government bans Iranians from flying over country
The rebel regime in Syria, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has decided in recent days to prevent Iranians from flying over Syrian skies, Walla learned on Sunday.

Initially, the decision included flights for military missions such as the transfer of weapons or the withdrawal of forces from Syria, and now the decision includes any passage of Iranian aircraft over the country's skies.

According to security sources, this is the deepest expression of the change from the 'Axis of Evil' to the regime that is emerging in Syria with the encouragement and support of Turkey and Qatar and the implications that it will have in the foreseeable future on foreign policy - not only towards Iran but towards the entire 'Axis of Evil' that includes Shiite forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Security sources also said that the rebels' decision will make it very difficult for Hezbollah to restore its military capabilities.

Restricting the movement of Iranians
The decision will make it difficult for the Iranians to move freely in the Middle East, transporting weapons, ammunition, and operatives from the Revolutionary Guards and Shiite militias.

This process joins the Air Force's effort to prevent the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon through smuggling routes on the border Syria-Lebanon.

There is also growing concern in the security establishment that the new regime emerging in Syria has not yet formulated a clear position towards Israel.
Why the UK Should Be Applauding Israel's Bombing of Syria after Assad's Fall
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has declared that he wants to see "chemical weapons stockpiles secured, and not used, and we want to ensure that there is no continuing violence" in Syria.

That's why we should applaud Israel, which shares a border with Syria and is clearly taking no chances, inflicting preemptive strikes on any remaining threats to its security by destroying leftover military hardware such as missiles and chemical weapons factories.

The Syrian fleet has been destroyed, as have former Iranian bases in the country.

In taking such incisive, immediate action, Israel once again does the world's dirty work.

In the case of Syria it is doing us all a favor. Remember that the Syrian militia group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which toppled Assad is an offshoot of al-Qaeda.

Precisely because it is an alias of al-Qaeda, HTS was proscribed as a terror organization in the UK.

Britain is only safe to interact with Syria because its new rulers don't have access to Assad's military machines or chemical hand-me-downs.
Why Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Should Stay on U.S. Terrorist List for Now
Now that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) controls most of Syria, there is a huge scramble to determine whether and how the group and its top officials should be removed from U.S. and international terrorist lists. As officials look back at the group's convoluted presence on various terrorism lists, they should consider why it has appeared on so many of them.

In July 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - then the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), previously known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) - sent Abu Mohammed al-Jolani to spearhead his group's entry into Syria. This was the same Jolani who, as head of HTS, appears to be Syria's next leader.

In 2011, Jolani was named the leader of ISI's new Syrian offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra (JN). According to the U.S. State Department, JN "claimed nearly 600 attacks" in Syria in its first year of operations, "ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations."

Delisting from the U.S. terrorist list should be earned, not gifted. The nascent HTS-led government has much to prove to the country's citizenry, to Syria's neighbors, and to the international community.


Call me Back Podcast - with Dan Senor: 1929: A harbinger of October 7th - with Yardena Schwartz
Was 1929 a harbinger of October 7th, 2023?

August 23rd, 1929, nearly 100 years ago, marks the day of what is referred to in history as the 1929 Arab Riots: a wave of pogroms waged against the Jews living in British Mandatory Palestine. These pogroms began in Jerusalem and quickly spread to other cities and towns, including Hebron, Safed, Jaffa, and Haifa. The riots had largely subsided by August 29th, after 113 Jews were murdered.

Just a few months ago, we at Call me Back released a special series of episodes wherein we spoke with thought leaders about the lasting impact of October 7th on Israelis, on Jews, and on the geopolitics of the Middle East and beyond. (Watch the special series here on our YouTube channel: • Special Series: One Year Since Octobe... )

Today, we examine the 1929 Arab Riots taking a broad view at how they shaped the following 100 years.

Our guest is Yardena Schwartz, author of the recently published book: “Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict” - a meticulously researched work that examines the 1929 Hebron massacre, where nearly 70 Jewish residents were killed by their Arab neighbors and friends, and that explores its impact on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist, an Emmy-nominated producer, and author of “Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict.” Her reporting from four continents has been published in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, New York Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Time, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and Foreign Policy. She has also worked at NBC News, and she reported from Israel for 10 years.

Yardena’s newly released book, “Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli conflict”

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
06:50 What happened on August 24 1929?
12:07 What is the Al-Aqsa Mosque?
21:05 What was so singular about Hebron?
28:53 What was the response of the Haganah?
33:48 Proportion of Arabs who participated in the massacre
40:28 How did the world learn about what had happened?
46:10 How did the paradigm shift in the Jewish world post-1929?
52:09 Was it always a holy war?


Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and the Danger of the Woke Right | The Quad Interviews
Israeli innovation envoy Fleur Hassan-Nahoum interviews The Epoch Times’ Karys Rhea on the woke right.

Rhea points out that although antisemitism on the left poses a greater threat, there is a dangerous trend among isolationist, America First “conservatives” such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens of conspiracy theories and Jew hatred


South Africa, Anticipating Trump, Backs Away from Anti-Israel ‘Megaphone’
South Africa is preparing to “put the megaphone away” when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, anticipating that President-elect Donald Trump might not look kindly on that country’s anti-Western foreign policy stances.

The new South African ambassador to the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool, told South Africa’s Daily Maverick that the country had to consider its trade interests and therefore had to scale back some of its rhetoric on issues like the war in Gaza.

The Daily Maverick reported earlier this month:
In an interview with Daily Maverick, Rasool said he was very aware that being SA ambassador to the US would be much more difficult this time round with a president who is “probably populism perfected. So I’m not going there thinking of business as usual… I understand the need to completely recalibrate.”

That required the government to rebalance its values with its interests in foreign policy.

While South Africa would continue its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of “genocide,” Rasool said, there was a need to bear the possible consequences in mind:

“[W]e have taken it to the point in which others are accusing us of overreaching. And therefore we will stick by the case, but let us now trust our legal team, trust the evidence that we have placed in front of the judges of the ICJ, trust the judges of the ICJ to come to a sustainable, just solution – but that we need to put away the megaphone now.”

As Breitbart News has noted, South Africa is seeking a renewal of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), under which it is among a group of African countries that enjoy privileged access to U.S. markets. But its foreign policy stances — including support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, and backing for various African tyrants — have often clashed with American interests and values. Both Democrats and Republicans have suggested that AGOA could be in trouble the next time it comes up for renewal before the end of the 2025 fiscal year in September next year.

Rasool said that he would seek to convince Trump, and Americans, that AGOA is in their interests. He said that South Africa preferred the U.S. to China as a trade partner, and that there was potential common ground with Trump in that South Africa, too, opposed war in general — whether in Eastern Europe or in the Middle East.


CAIR Sues US State Department Over ‘Failing To Evacuate American Citizens’ From Gaza
The Council for America-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that purports to advocate for Muslim Americans, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department for “failing to evacuate American citizens, American legal residents, and the family members of Americans trapped under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.”

According to CAIR, the plaintiffs in the case have “ tried, for months, to exhaust non-legal means to escape Gaza.”

“Each plaintiff in the lawsuit is eligible to be evacuated but has been summarily ignored by the State Department and other Biden administration officials,” CAIR wrote in a statement.

The organization claims that the State Department has been sluggish in extracting American citizens caught in the crossfires of the Israel-Hamas war. In contrast, CAIR contends that the agency has responded with more urgency to evacuate American citizens caught in previous conflicts.

CAIR claims that the State Department has run afoul of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which “guarantees equal protection for citizens and legal residents abroad under federal law.”

“The law requires the U.S. government to protect Americans wherever they may be. With every passing day, the danger of our clients dying from Israeli bombardment or the starvation and disease now rampant in Gaza only goes up,” CAIR attorney Maria Kari said. “The State Department must do the right thing and save these people from certain death.”

The State Department has cited the closure of the Rafah Crossing as the reason for the slowed evacuations of Americans from Gaza. However, the plaintiffs have called for evacuations to be conducted from the Kerem Shalom crossing, arguing that evacuations have been carried out from this site in previous conflicts between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group.


World Medical Association calls for student group to reverse suspension of Israeli members
The World Medical Association (WMA) on Tuesday called on the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA) to reverse its August suspension of an Israeli member organization.

WMA said it was concerned that the “extraordinary suspension” of the Federation of Israeli Medical Students (FIMS) for alleged harassment lacked evidence and due process.

“We believe that in the absence of clear evidence and due process, the suspension of FIMS from the IFMSA remains unjustified,” said WMA. “We therefore urge immediate readmission of FIMS without prejudice.”

While WMA welcomed IFMSA’s November 24 statement, promising to conduct a review of its suspension procedures, it noted that IFMSA did not acknowledge that its actions may have been improper and did not present a timeline for readmission.

At its August 6 IFMSA General Assembly meeting in Finland, a motion to suspend FIMS for constitution and bylaw violations was proposed by the organization’s National Member Organizations (NMOs). The motion passed with a two-thirds majority.

“Due to the dire nature of the allegations against the FIMS, which included threats against medical students, online harassment, and hate speech, NMOs decided to proceed with a vote for the suspension of FIMS,” IFMSA said on August 9.

FIMS president Miri Shvimmer said in an August 12 statement that the process for the vote was deeply flawed, in which IFMSA allegedly voted to suspend due process, forgo an investigation, and not allow FIMS time to prepare a response.
The Ethics of a ‘Good Jew’ on College Campuses Today
How does one become a “Good Jew?” What is the ideal response in the face of hatred? Should one choose silence and appeasement to avoid conflict, or express unapologetic pride and deter one’s enemies? Should we remain in the confines of our Jewish communities, or spread our wings beyond them? These questions, reflecting contrasting philosophies in the Jewish ethical wills of Eleazar of Mayence (1357) and Judah ibn Tibbon (1160-1180), resemble the questions we ask ourselves today.

In the Middle Ages, Jews typically left statements of inheritance to their children; beyond such wills, Jewish ethical wills — known in Hebrew as Tzevaot — conveyed values and guidance for learning and living to their descendants. Penned widely across Ashkenazi and Sephardic worlds, from al-Andalusia and the Levant to Germany and France, ethical wills show us what Jewish priorities and principles of character were valued at the time, and what we can contemplate in the modern age.

Judah ibn Tibbon, a successful physician and scholar, lived under Islamic rule during the Middle Ages. Medieval Islamic society was relatively tolerant toward Jews under the Pact of Umar; yet, there were restrictions under protected status, or dhimmi status, which provided conditional protections and required additional tax payments known as the jizya. In al-Andalusia, Jews including Tibbon, Maimonides, Abraham ibn Ezra, and others, lived enriching lives as public Jewish figures.

In contrast, Christian Europe had no such pact with its Jews. Elazar of Mayence, writing from Germany, lived through the Black Death and experienced pervasive Blood Libels and other chimerical myths that inspired mobs to massacre Jews with no government retribution. From this analysis, it is understandable why Elazar would advise his sons and daughters to reside among Jews and keep a low profile by remaining silent and avoiding any confrontation. At the same time, it makes sense that Tibbon prescribed his son to excel in medicine, philosophy, and science, and to build a good name for himself as a deterrence method.

The insights from these two authors — and noting the very different environments in which they lived — can inspire how Jewish college students would contemplate an ethical will for their descendants (i.e., future generations of Jewish students). I hope that, just as Jewish scripture and helping others were critical for both authors, knowledgeability about Judaism and Israel, and playing a role in the campus community, manifest as priorities for every Jewish student.


NYC Jewish school leaders boycott, call for resignations after ‘antisemitic’ conference
After a recent National Association of Independent Schools conference devolved into a “festival of Jew hate,” Jewish leaders are boycotting future events and calling on its board to resign.

Earlier this month, the NAIS — an organization of 1,300 private schools that includes the posh Dalton, Brearley and Collegiate schools in NYC as well as 60 Jewish day schools — held its annual People of Color Conference for educators, alongside its Student Diversity Leadership Conference.

Approximately 8,000 adults and adults from schools across the country attended.

Dalton sent a delegation of 48 administrators, faculty and staff, according to its website, some of whom even led workshops there.

But keynote speakers Dr. Suzanne Barakat and Ruha Benjamin were accused of using their platform to spew antisemitism, accusing Israel of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and downplaying the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.

OESIS, a network of teachers from over 600 independent schools, is now calling for the POCC to be canceled.

“It’s a breeding ground for hate and division,” its president, Sanje Ratnavale, wrote in a scathing letter to NAIS President Debra Wilson.

He also called for the NAIS board to resign after keynote speakers gave tirades accusing Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

“They deserve to be called to account in front of Congress just like the College Presidents,” he said.
Stunned Massachusetts educators, ADL call for MassCUE apology after ‘hateful’ anti-Israel and Holocaust rhetoric at conference
Local educators and the ADL are pushing for an apology from MassCUE after the group’s recent “jarring” conference when speakers reportedly spewed “hateful” anti-Israel and Holocaust rhetoric.

MassCUE’s fall education tech conference — held in partnership with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents at Gillette Stadium — apparently went off the rails during a panel on equity in education. That’s when the discussion reportedly delved into the current Middle East conflict in Israel and Gaza.

“Speakers leaned very heavily into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a very one-sided, dangerous rhetoric,” Uxbridge High School Principal Michael Rubin told the Herald.

That included references to “Israeli genocide” and “Israeli apartheid.”

A panelist also suggested that the teaching of the Holocaust has been one-sided, and “two perspectives needed to be taught,” recalled Rubin, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, during which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews.

“It was jarring, unexpected, and unprofessional,” added Rubin, who’s also the president of his synagogue.

Following complaints from several shocked conference attendees, the Anti-Defamation League’s New England chapter recently wrote a letter to MassCUE, as the ADL pushes for a public apology.

“It is difficult to understand why an organization dedicated to education and technology would allow a panel discussion ostensibly focused on school equity to instead veer into a complex and controversial foreign conflict,” ADL New England’s deputy director Sara Colb wrote to MassCUE’s leaders.

“It is all the more concerning that once the conversation veered in that direction it was not stopped or redirected to the advertised topic,” Colb added. “Allowing a presentation purporting to be about equity and inclusion in the classroom to include a one-sided narrative of a foreign conflict, replete with hateful, biased rhetoric, does a disservice to attendees by leaving them with a biased and misinformed account of the conflict.”

MassCUE (Massachusetts Computer Using Educators) is the Bay State affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education.

More than two months after the fall conference, the organization has not addressed the Israeli-Palestinian discussion.

“At MassCUE we take feedback very seriously and work hard to ensure we take any and all necessary steps to address concerns that are brought to our attention,” said MassCUE Board President Casey Daigle. “This process takes time. Please know we are working through our procedures internally.”
University Of Toronto Education Lecturer Chandni Desai Calls Palestinian Terrorist Group Part Of A “National Liberation Struggle” In Online Column
A December 15 opinion column in The Conversation presented itself as a discussion on the so-called “erasure of Palestine,” but in actuality, it was a thinly veiled apologia for Palestinian terrorism.

The commentary entitled: “Reel resistance: Netflix’s removal of Palestinian films adds to the erasure of Palestine,” written by Chandni Desai, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Toronto, argued that the removal of a group of Palestinian films from Netflix’s collection is not because of the “expiration of three-year licenses,” as the company claims, because as Desai, who evidently knows better, stated authoritatively, it is actually a form of “anti-Palestinian racism.”

Desai’s reasoning is reminiscent of the Law of the Instrument, phrased by psychologist Abraham Maslow as, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” In other words, as expressed in her column, Desai’s outlook is heavily reliant on a childlike tendency to view the world through a simple yet easily understood framework of victim and victimizer, colonizer and colonized, even if her comfortable narrative flies in the face of documented truth.

Desai’s column read as a jumble of pseudo-intellectual babble, so outlandish that it almost read as a parody of itself, though it is consistent with her persona on social media.

She wrote that Israel has targeted Palestinians since the “Nakba” of 1948, a term used to describe Israel’s success in not being destroyed after Arab armies sought to annihilate the Jewish State that year. For what purpose? As Desai sees it, Israel has persecuted Palestinians in order to “maintain Zionist colonial mythologies about the establishment of Israel.”

This is a truly puzzling comment. Israel, built upon three thousand years of documented Jewish history, needs no “colonial mythologies” to justify its existence, for its proof exists in literature, archaeological findings and much more.


Phyllis Chesler: Fair and balanced?
Here’s what “fair and balanced” coverage means today.

The cover of the Dec. 22, 2024 New York Times magazine features the Pieta-like figure of a Gaza mother holding her son. It’s a carefully crafted “Pallywood” version of Michaelangelo’s sculpture. The photograph appears in somber black and white and titled: “Escape From Gaza.” The subtitle is: “The war is nearly impossible to flee—except for a small number of sick and wounded who are offered a dramatic path to safety.”

This actually goes beyond the pope’s keffiyeh-clad baby Jesus because, inside, in addition to the cover photo, are 22 pages (!) of additional photos, also in black and white, documenting the slow and weary flight of “grievously wounded Gazans” on their way to Abu Dhabi. The accompanying texts damn Israel in monstrous ways. That Gazan civilians were purposefully put in harm’s way by Hamas/Iran is never mentioned. The entire offering is entirely without context and is meant to inflame public hatred for Israel ever further.

Here’s one example:
In a full-page photo, a hijabbed woman sits in a wheelchair, her hands clasped. There is no mention of what happened on Oct. 7, no reference to Israelis murdered, wounded, traumatized, hospitalized, and/or internally displaced.

Here’s what the caption tells us: “Each patient arrives not only not only with injuries but with a chapter of this ugly war’s history. On Jan. 24, Reem Elian says, Israeli soldiers shot up her home in Khan Younis, killing her son, a pharmacist, and injuring her, her other sons, and sister-in-law. After the attack, Elian says, soldiers interrogated the survivors for hours, but when she asked for an ambulance, they refused. She made it to a hospital on foot, bleeding and hopping on one leg.”

I cannot even begin to quote from the other captions, which concern children who lost their parents and had to have a leg amputated without anesthesia, reference to “new Palestinian diasporas,” at least two children without arms, etc. Any normal person is meant to hate the country that chose—chose!—to inflict such suffering on so many women, children and elderly people.
New York Times Tackles ‘The Plight of the Palestinian Scientist’
An astounding feature of anti-Israel bias in the New York Times is the way it infects nearly every corner of the news organization—not only front-page foreign coverage or the opinion pages, but even the movie reviews, the food section, the dance criticism in the arts section. The latest department of the newspaper to join the anti-Israel chorus is the Times‘ Science section.

That section of the Times is usually a mixture of two main things. There’s rare-animal and outer-space photography destined for middle-school science class bulletin boards. And there’s exercise and wellness tips aimed at prolonging the longevity of, and subscription revenue from, the Times‘ aging readers.

Yet under the online headline “The Plight of the Palestinian Scientist,” a recent Times science section featured profiles of “four Palestinian researchers” who “describe how conflict in Gaza and the West Bank has hindered their careers in science and medicine.”

This is a fine example of how instead of writing a straight-down-the-middle, evenhanded article describing how the conflict has adversely affected both Israeli and Palestinian scientists, the Times is instead emphasizing articles that are designed to be clicked on and shared on social media by sympathizers to one side of the conflict or the other. The Times may argue that altogether its coverage presents a balanced and complete picture of the costs on both sides of the war. But because many people consume the coverage “off platform” — going directly to an individual story via social media or email sharing, rather than reading all Times coverage on a topic — the decision to highlight four Palestinians instead of, say, two Palestinian scientists and two Israeli scientists, gives readers only part of the story.

Israeli scientists, too, after all, have had their work disrupted by military obligations, by incoming rocket, drone, and missile attacks, by having students and family members kidnapped and killed in battle and called up for military service. The Times article mentions none of that, focusing only on the problems of the Palestinians.

For people whose careers have supposedly been “hindered,” some of the Times-interviewed scientists seem to be doing fairly well for themselves. One is a surgeon who the Times says studied and researched at Oxford and Harvard. Maybe without all the hindering he could have made it to train at some more genuinely impressive institution, like Yeshiva University?

The Times coverage is remarkably naive, and seems to think Times readers are, too. The paper writes that “experimental tools can be difficult to import into the West Bank and Gaza, because some equipment needed for research can also be used for military purposes. Israel classifies such goods as ‘dual use’ and requires special permission for civilians in the Palestinian territories to procure them.”


Seth Frantzman: Trouble in West Bank: Is the Jenin Camp undergoing ‘Gazafication'?
On December 14, the head of UNRWA wrote that the UN organization “has been forced to suspend services in Jenin Camp, in the northern West Bank, for yet another day, as violent clashes between Palestinian Security Forces and Palestinian armed actors continue. Children remain out of school, and camp residents are unable to access primary healthcare & other critical services.”

The Palestinian Authority security forces had launched an offensive in Jenin in order to crack down on the slow takeover of the area by various terrorist groups.

Over the last several years, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups have slowly sought to take over Jenin and other areas of the West Bank. This is fueled by a large flow of smuggled weapons, primarily M-16 style rifles, to the northern West Bank.

Today, many young men throughout areas near Tulkarm, Jenin, and elsewhere have access to recently smuggled rifles with the latest sights and other equipment.

They are often better armed than the Palestinian Authority security forces and pose a clear and present danger to Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

This is an attempt to turn the northern West Bank into another Gaza, using the same model as what was done in Gaza two decades ago.

Even under Israeli control, Gaza was an armed camp with terror groups controlling large parts of it.

The terror groups smuggled weapons and made their own. They began the processes that led to October 7 back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before Disengagement.

The Gazafication is clear from the statements by UNRWA, which mirror similar statements about Gaza and “armed groups.” The UN has never mandated that its organizations report on which “armed group” is present, enabling terrorists to hide behind this anonymity.

Nevertheless, the evidence is clear that terrorist groups are taking over.


PMW: Palestinian Authority leader calls for precise systematic terror plan, as in the first Intifada
Jibril Rajoub yearns for the good old days of united Fatah-Hamas terror like during the first Intifada, when more than 200 Israelis were murdered from 1987-1993. He said that back then, there was proper organization and scheduling, even for a month ahead of time when "every civilian knew his role":
"The first Intifada was characterized by tight organization, the timing of daily activities, and the provision of a framework for all sectors of society. There were clear plans for 10 days, 20 days, and even a full month, during which every civilian knew his role. This planning helped the continuity of the popular movement and created a balance with the armed occupying power (i.e., Israel)."

[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, December 11, 2024]

Rajoub hopes that Palestinians will reinstitute such a golden age of organized violence and terror, saying that such an achievement is not out of reach:
"Today, in the shadow of various methods of oppression, the same approach is still possible if the [Palestinian] factions (i.e., Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc) will agree on a comprehensive national plan and clear plans... When the coordination between the factions will return and a clear plan of action will be provided to the people, we will be able to replicate the model of comprehensive popular resistance that gained international support and embarrassed the occupation (i.e., Israel) in the face of global public opinion..."

[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, December 11, 2024]

The Palestinian term "popular resistance" refers to individuals who murder Israelis using knives, rocks, Molotov cocktails, car rammings, and even shootings, as long as those responsible are not organized units. Hence the word "popular."

What must be done then, in Rajoub's view, to get to that point? Palestinians must focus on what unites them—violence against Israel:
"To revive this [first Intifada] model, the forces must agree on a common basis and focus on what unites and not what separates, and then the public will unify, and the leadership will restore the confidence of the street..."

[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, December 11, 2024]
Palestinian Authority: Jews Have No Religious Connection to Israel — They Came to Become Rich
One of the classic antisemitic libels is that Jews will do anything for money.

This old libel was propagated recently on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV by a PA advisor. He claimed that since Jews have no religious connection to the land, they were enticed to come to Israel with the promise of higher salaries than in the West (spoiler: salaries are not higher in Israel).

This is part of the PA’s ongoing denial of the history of the Land of Israel, in order to deny Israel’s right to exist. Put simply, the PA says that Jews came to Israel not because of the right to self-determination in their historical homeland, but because they just wanted money:
Advisor to Head of The Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Ayed Morrar: “If an opportunity was given to the expansionist occupation [i.e., Israel] to settle in Egypt and Jordan, they would not miss the opportunity…

There is no religious or emotional connection between a resident (i.e., Jews) of the occupation state and this state. They told him: “You earn $1,000 in France. In Palestine, you can earn $1,200 or $1,500,’ and therefore he came for this reason, with international support, to be a military base for the West in the Middle East.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Dec. 12, 2024]

Morrar is using classic antisemitism to dismiss thousands of years of Jewish religious, historical, and cultural history and ties to the Land of Israel, all while perpetuating the lie that Jews are a foreign, invasive force.

This antisemitic libel comes as no surprise, considering the way that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas himself has explained Hitler’s hatred as the result of Jews having “worked based on usury and money — in other words, they caused ruin in his opinion.”

Morrar’s libel is just another attempt to use ancient antisemitic hate to justify modern political narratives aimed at delegitimizing Israel.


NYTs: Iran's Energy Crisis Forces Industries to Shut Down
Iran finds itself in a full blown energy emergency as government offices are closed or operating at reduced hours, schools and colleges have moved to online only, highways and shopping malls have descended into darkness, and industrial plants have been denied power, bringing manufacturing to a near halt.

Faced with a gas deficit of 350 million cubic meters a day, the government either had to cut gas service to residential homes or shut down the supply to power plants that generated electricity. It chose the latter. By Friday, 17 power plants had been completely taken off line and the rest were only partially operational.

In February, Israel blew up two gas pipelines in Iran as part of its covert war with the country, exacerbating the energy crisis. As a result, the government quietly tapped into emergency gas reserves which it has not been able to replenish. Natural gas accounts for 70% of Iran's sources of energy.

"Iran is not able to produce as much electricity as it needs, and at the same time it is not able to reduce its consumption," said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, chief executive of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a London-based economic think tank. "It's very difficult to keep this going."


Seth Frantzman: Iran's Khamenei downplays need for proxies across Middle East
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that Iran does not need proxy forces. “If we decide to take action [against the enemy] one day, we don’t need proxy forces,” he said during a speech on Sunday. He also posted the claims on his social media account on X/Twitter.

The claim contradicts the actual actions of Iran in the region, as the Islamic Republic backs groups such as Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Houthis, as well as a plethora of Iraqi militias.

Iran’s Supreme Leader made the comments in the context of Iran’s recent setbacks in the region. Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power by Syrian rebel groups on December 8. This was a major blow to Iran.

However, Tehran wants to put on a brave face and make it seem that Iran has accepted Assad’s fall. In fact, part of the reason why Assad fell was because Iran was unable to provide much assistance to Assad and decided to cut its losses.

This temporarily cuts off Iran’s land route to its Hezbollah proxy, which used to go through Iraq and Syria.

It is not clear if Iran will find a new route to supply weapons to Hezbollah, which has been greatly weakened by Israel’s actions.

The Iranian Ayatollah discussed the issue of proxies more broadly. “They say that the Islamic Republic has lost its proxies in the region. [The] Islamic Republic doesn’t have proxy forces. Yemen fights due to their faith. Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad fight because their beliefs compel them to do so.”


Etsy asks Israeli seller to remove Jewish, Israeli descriptions, later cites 'mistake'
Sara Attali, an Israeli designer who sells head scarfs on the online platform Etsy, was requested to remove any Jewish or Israeli descriptions from her products, Israel's public broadcaster KAN News reported on Sunday.

Attali received the directive after she had inquired why two of the items she was attempting to sell had been removed.

Attali spoke to KAN of her mixed feelings regarding Etsy's message.

"I’ve been a long-time seller there and have never received hostile treatment. It seemed strange to me," said the Israeli designer. "I sell to the entire world and have many clients, and my best customer is Muslim."

Etsy says it is investigating incident
In response to an inquiry by the Israeli news outlet, Etsy stated there had been an error.

"The assistance provided by the service representative did not align with our policy, and we are investigating the incident," Etsy stated. "We have reached out to the seller regarding the products in her store, which were mistakenly flagged by the systems we operate to ensure the safety and security of the marketplace."


Former Soviet Prisoner of Zion Eduard Kuznetsov dies at 85
Eduard Kuznetsov, a prominent Soviet-era dissident and former Prisoner of Zion who endured imprisonment for anti-Soviet activities, died Sunday at age 85.

Born to a Jewish father and a Russian mother, Kuznetsov established himself as a journalist, writer, and editor before his activism led to his first arrest by Soviet authorities in 1961. He served seven years in prison for publicly reading protest poetry and anti-regime literature in Moscow's central square.

In June 1970, after being denied permission to leave the country, Kuznetsov joined fellow activist Mark Dymshits in a bold attempt to hijack an empty aircraft bound for Israel. The escape plan failed, and both men were sentenced to death. Their sentences were later commuted to 15-year prison terms following intense international pressure, while Kuznetsov's wife received a 10-year sentence.

Kuznetsov finally gained his freedom in 1979 through a US-negotiated prisoner exchange that released him and four other dissidents. He subsequently immigrated to Israel.

Today, his daughter Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov shared an emotional tribute on Facebook: "At 1 a.m., Eduard Kuznetsov, the man, the legend, and my father, passed away. I can't write these words without breaking into tears."

She recounted a meaningful moment from 2018 when they shared the stage, where he received recognition for his contributions to Russian-language journalism in Israel. "I knew this was a defining moment in my relationship with my father, one I would return to again and again throughout my life," she wrote. Despite his reluctance to accept the honor, claiming, "I don't deserve it. I haven't been involved in journalism for many years," she insisted on his worthiness.

"Even at the award ceremony for his own achievements, he focused solely on me," she continued. "Dad, how much I love you. We always said we had a unique understanding of each other. In his final days, though he couldn't speak, his eyes communicated everything. I understood precisely what he needed – whether it was a drink, an explanation of what was happening, or just wanting me to stay longer. When I realized it was the end, I kissed him and expressed my love. My tears seemed to startle him slightly. On our final journey to the emergency room last night, I prayed for more time with him, but an inner voice reminded me that such a wish was selfish, that extending his life would only prolong his suffering. He departed this world with dignity, having lived an extraordinary life that truly changed the world."
Archaeologists discover possible ancient Israelite palace in Jordan
Tulul adh-Dhahab, the site where a group of 10 incised ashlar blocks were found in Jordan, can be used to identify the area with the biblical city of Mahanaim, according to research conducted by the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University.

The research article detailing the discovery, “An Israelite Residency at Mahanaim in Transjordan?,” was published last month in Tel Aviv, the peer-reviewed journal of TAU's Institute of Archeology.

In a post on social media, researcher Israel Finkelstein wrote that he and co-author Professor Tallay Ornan from the Hebrew University “propose that the site of Tulul ed-Dhahab in Transjordan may be the biblical Mahanaim."

“We analyzed exceptional carved stone slabs featuring lions and banquet scenes, suggesting they were part of a monumental structure built during the Kingdom of Israel’s rule in the region around 2,800 years ago,” Finkelstein wrote. The 10 blocks likely date back to the first half of the eighth century BCE.

Mahanaim, meaning "two camps," was allegedly named by Jacob after he wrestled with an angel, later thought to be God, near Jabbok, per Genesis 32:30.

Seven of the blocks revealed “iconographic features or themes that are to be considered elements of public architecture of either a palace or an elaborate gate, most probably component/s of a governmental compound,” the researchers noted.

During their analysis, the researchers also found the three blocks seem to belong to a banquet scene.

Hints at Israeli residency
The researchers added the biblical verses connected to the region “may hint at the existence of a north Israelite residency” at the site of Tulul adh-Dhahab al-Gharbi in the valley of the az-Zarqa River, the biblical Jabbok, in Jordan.

The small size, rectangular layout, and possibly the existence of an elevated platform of the site Tulul adh-Dhahab ash-Sharqi appear to show it may have been not a town but a temple compound, according to the report.

The researchers noted that the region of Tulul adh-Dhahab al-Gharbi/Mahanaim was under Israelite rule during the prosperous periods of the northern kingdom.

This included the reign of the Omrides in the ninth century BCE and the Nimshides, Joash and Jeroboam II, in the eighth century BCE.

Several textual references support this, such as mentions of Minith and Abel-shittim as the southernmost Israelite towns in Transjordan and the identification of Mizpah, located at Tall al-Maṣfā, as an Israelite site in the Bible.


Ex-Sky News Australia Presenter: I Support Israel Because I "See Right from Wrong"
Former Sky News Australia presenter Erin Molan spoke to Israel's Channel 12 during her first visit to Israel in an interview aired on Saturday.

Molan explained that she became an outspoken supporter of Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught in Israel.

"I can see good versus evil, and I don't think it's complicated at all. I think that every death, every casualty, every single life that's been lost in the Middle East since Oct. 7 lays squarely and solely on the hands of Hamas and the people who fund them."

"How could anyone see what occurred on that day to children, to adults, to women, and not collectively as a world wrap their arms around Israel?" she asked.

"It's not rocket science to understand where the terror comes from, where the evil comes from, where the death comes from. So how others can't see that blows my mind."




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