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Saturday, December 28, 2024

12/28 Links: Palestinianism is violence against Jewish indigenousness in Israel; Why Israel’s Self-Defense Infuriates Europe; Why Benjamin Netanyahu Must Go to Poland

From Ian:

Palestinianism is violence against Jewish indigenousness in Israel
Over the past 15 years, and especially since the atrocities of October 7, annihilationist Palestinianism has become the rave in some “progressive” circles, especially among hard-left rioters on Western campuses.

This means dismissal of Jewish/Zionist rootedness in the Land of Israel and adoption of the Palestinian campaign to delegitimize and destroy Israel.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Palestinianism is an ideology and an identity invented by the KGB and advanced by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas ever since he rejected John Kerry’s 2014 peace initiative. It makes conflict in the Land of Israel a zero-sum game.

It fabricates Palestinian inhabitance of Israel going back to the Canaanites and Philistines of the Bible; it inverts Arab rejection and invasion of young Israel in 1948 and the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands by claiming a Palestinian “Nakba”; it turns the Temple Mount into al-Haram al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary), denying any Jewish history in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel; and it converts genocidal assaults on the People of Israel, like Hamas’s Simchat Torah attack, into heroic acts that must be celebrated by all freedom seekers.

Palestinianism leads to antisemitism
In short, Palestinianism is violence against Israeli/Jewish indigenousness in Israel. It savages the core identity of Jews and Israelis. It is offensive to deny the most basic building blocks of Jewish connection to Jerusalem and Israel.

It seeks to strip justice and authenticity from Israel’s very existence and to upend its alliance with the human-rights-supporting, democratic world.

And as we have seen over the past year, it directly leads to violent antisemitic battering of Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide.

We got a whiff of what was coming back in 2018 when UNESCO passed – davka on Hanukkah – a series of nonsensical resolutions (proposed by Abbas), declaring Jerusalem an exclusively Muslim heritage city and criminalizing Israel’s custodianship of the holy city.

Most European nations, those great paragons of “peace” and “love” for Jews, went along with that affront, either voting for or abstaining on the denialist resolutions. Then, they doubled down on such perfidy by adopting a similar resolution in the UN General Assembly in 2021.

Then-US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, responded to the UN disgrace by tweeting that “More than 2,000 years ago, Jewish patriots (Maccabees) captured Jerusalem, purified the Holy Temple, and rededicated it as a house of Jewish worship. The UN can’t vote away the facts: Jerusalem is the ancient and modern capital of Israel. Happy Hanukkah from this blessed city!”

Alas, the gangs rampaging today against Jews and Israelis in the streets of Berlin, London, Montreal, and Sydney have swallowed every bit of Abbas’s bile about exclusive Arab rights to Israel.

They ignore the fact that Abbas’s gangs have destroyed Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, sought to destroy Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, have run Christians out of Bethlehem, and have wantonly dug up and destroyed thousands of years of Jewish archeological treasures on the Temple Mount.
Why Israel’s Self-Defense Infuriates Europe
Drawing on the ideas of the French philosopher Pierre Manent, Richard Reinsch II examines why the Jewish state’s battle for survival has provoked such extreme, even unhinged, opposition in the West—from the polite, moralistic condemnations of heads of state to the fury of street protesters.

The proud nation-state [of] Israel represents the opposite lesson of what European humanitarians have drawn from the history of Jews in modern times. Israel has been built by struggle, sacrifice, and pride. The near destruction of the Jewish people by Hitler’s Germany is frequently invoked as the founding impetus for the unifying goals of the European Union. The villain in the EU’s political narrative of unity is the nation, the so-called springboard of naked aggression and warmongering on behalf of the superiority of a people. Brussels promises to bring this to an end with the promise of endless union and unification of peoples.

Israel’s defense of its collective existence could portend not only the defeat of its enemies but also remind a deeply confused and morally troubled West that it cannot hide behind humanity and escape from itself. In a recent lecture in Paris, Manent poignantly offered that a Europe that turns its back on Israel forfeits its soul.
Why Benjamin Netanyahu Must Go to Poland
Every enemy of the West has tried to bring Israel down, but Israel has done what others were too afraid to do. Hamas is crippled. Hezbollah is reeling. Assad’s Syria has collapsed into irrelevance. And the Houthis, along with their Iranian backers, are next. Israel is fighting the battles the West refuses to fight, defending not just itself but the values and security of the free world.

The United States has long opposed the ICC’s outrageous overreach and its obsession with targeting Israel. That opposition must not waver now. This is not just an attack on Israel — it is an attack on the moral foundations of America’s closest ally and, by extension, on America itself.

To allow Benjamin Netanyahu — the elected leader of the Jewish state — to be barred from a Holocaust memorial is to embolden those who seek to delegitimize Israel and the West. Now is the time to act. Diplomatic channels must be mobilized immediately to ensure Netanyahu can attend this memorial unimpeded and unmolested. To do anything less is to send a message that antisemitic agendas dressed up as international law can go unchallenged — and that message must never be sent.

If Netanyahu does not attend, history will record a disgraceful spectacle — the leader of the Jewish state, the only Jewish country in the world, absent from Auschwitz while nations that turned their backs on the Jews, or worse, actively aided their murder, take center stage with sanctimonious speeches and hollow gestures. The optics are not just nauseating — they are a betrayal of memory and truth.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, ignore the threats. Defy the antisemitism masquerading as justice. Show the world that Jews will never again be humiliated — not by violence, not by persecution, and certainly not by the hypocrisy of international institutions hiding behind the veil of legality. Let your presence at Auschwitz declare that the Jewish people have endured, they have survived, they have rebuilt — and they will never be erased.

Light the menorah. Be Judah Maccabee — bold, unyielding, and fearless. The Jewish people — and history — demand nothing less.


Jonathan Tobin: Debunking the Gaza ‘genocide’ blood libel won’t dissuade Israel-haters
The effort to discredit and delegitimize Israel is a project that never allows the facts to get in the way of a fictitious “genocide” narrative. That’s something that is made clear not so much by efforts by the Jewish state’s defenders as it is by that of its critics like The New York Times. But even if the worst smears of Israel are debunked by those who seek to brand its soldiers and leaders as war criminals, don’t expect that to change many minds.

This was amply demonstrated by a major investigative piece published this week by the Times that required the efforts of seven of its reporters who claim to have interviewed “100 soldiers and officials in Israel, dozens of victims of the strikes in Gaza, and experts on the rules of armed conflict.” While the headline promised scandalous findings that might bolster the bogus claim that the Israel Defense Forces were indeed carrying out illegal or even criminal strikes on Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. But the entire article could be summed up in a single sentence. After Hamas terrorists and other Palestinians attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, the IDF responded with greater force and under slightly looser rules of engagement against its foes than it had before that event.

That’s it.

All of the effort and reporting that went into the feature did nothing more than establish the following painfully obvious fact. Once Hamas launched the current war by breaching the border between Gaza and Israel—and engaging in an orgy of murder, torture, rape, kidnapping and wanton destruction—Israel’s military adopted different and more aggressive tactics than it had before its foes ended the ceasefire that existed on Oct. 6, 2023.

The truth about the IDF
Those differences amounted to loosening the rules of engagement that would allow strikes on Hamas leaders that might not have been allowed during a period of relative quiet. That meant that attacks on enemies responsible for not just starting a war but the barbaric crimes of Oct. 7 were permitted, even if up to 20 civilians were present. That allowed the IDF to take out these criminals in their own homes, as opposed to previously when they could only be targeted if they were out in the open with few people around them.

Inevitably, that has led to higher civilian casualties. Then again, if Hamas operatives didn’t want civilians to be endangered, they would avoid using them as human shields. The terrorist group admits to actively seeking not just to hide among and behind non-combatants but to increase the number of those killed and wounded for propaganda and public relations purposes. And, as the Times also reported, when the IDF blundered, officers responsible for mistakes carried out in the heat of an ongoing battle were rightly disciplined. To claim that Israel’s loosened rules are unjustified requires one to accept the idea that terrorists waging an active war with blood on their hands ought to have the impunity to commit as many crimes as they like so long as they keep their family and friends around them.

The genocide claim is again given the lie by the Times reporting, which notes that even with these “loosened rules,” the process by which Israeli commanders are able to order strikes on Hamas targets is still rigorous and far from indiscriminate or intended to mass casualties. This is something backed up by experts on the laws of war like West Point’s John Spencer and Britain’s Col. Richard Kemp.

Indeed, the only real findings back up reports from both Israeli and Palestinian sources that 80% of the casualties in the Gaza Strip have been suffered by Hamas fighters and their relatives. That means the claim that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians in order to supposedly destroy the Palestinian population is an obvious falsehood.

This doesn’t even take into account that the total number of casualties provided to journalists by Hamas sources like the Gaza Ministry of Health, which have been uncritically accepted and broadcast around the world, has been debunked by those who study statistics.

None of this violates commonly accepted notions about what is or isn’t now permitted under international law during a war, which, as the Times conceded, consists of loosely defined concepts and rules.

The upshot of all this reporting is the entirely unremarkable conclusion that when terrorist groups start wars, more of the people they purport to represent and use as pawns are likely to be hurt. Equally unremarkable is the fact that nations involved in wars in which their civilians have been deliberately targeted for barbarous war crimes by terrorists are bound to be less restrained in their efforts to eradicate their enemies than in times of relative peace.

So, while the headline and the framing of the story may have sounded like fodder for those determined to demonize the Jewish state and its post-Oct. 7 efforts to destroy Hamas, the result of all that research and writing was so slender that one wonders why the newspaper bothered to explore the subject in the first place.
Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for casting doubt on a new report claiming that famine has gripped northern Gaza.

The controversial Muslim advocacy group on Wednesday slammed Lew for his “callous dismissal” of the recent Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report accusing Israel of inflicting famine on the Gaza Strip. The organization subsequently asserted that Israel had perpetrated an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza.

“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan,'” CAIR said in a statement.

“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling, and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza,” the Washington, DC-based group continued.

On Monday, FEWS Net, a US-created provider of warning and analysis on food insecurity, released a report detailing that a famine had allegedly taken hold of northern Gaza. The report argued that 65,000-75,000 individuals remain stranded in the area without sufficient access to food.

“Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate” has resulted in mass starvation among scores of innocent civilians in the beleaguered enclave, the report stated.

Lew subsequently issued a statement denying the veracity of the FEWS Net report, slamming the organization for peddling “inaccurate” information and “causing confusion.”

“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” Lew wrote.

“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew continued.


PMO denies claim that Israel, Hamas working on ‘limited’ hostage deal as gesture for Trump
The Prime Minister’s Office denies a report published by Channel 12 in which it claims that Israel and Hamas may agree to a “limited” hostage deal as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the start of US President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in office.

The report claims both sides are interested in reaching a smaller deal in time for Trump’s inauguration on January 20. The report does not provide further details of the supposed deal, claiming they were not cleared for publication.

In a short statement, the PMO calls the report “a complete lie.”

A senior Arab diplomat also denies the report to The Times of Israel.
Report: Assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran almost went awry due to broken AC unit in room he was staying in
Israel waited until after the inauguration of new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian to assassinate former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran to not disrupt the inauguration proceedings, Channel 12 reports, sharing what it says are new details of the intricate operation. Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed for the first time last week that Israel was behind it.

Haniyeh was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in his guest house when he visited Tehran for the inauguration in July.

According to the heavily censored report, the plan — which had been in the works for months — almost went awry at the last minute, when the air conditioner unit in Haniyeh’s room broke in the middle of the night.

After it broke, Haniyeh left the room for an extended time, leading to concerns that he had switched rooms for the remainder of the night.

In doing so, Hanieyh would have inadvertently prevented his own death, as given the small size of the bomb, he needed to be present in the room when it was detonated.

However, staff ultimately managed to fix the air conditioner unit, and Haniyeh returned to his room, the report states. The bomb was then detonated at around 1:30 a.m.
Syria will never be unified Western busybodies should be wary
The foreign busybodies in the State Department, Foreign Office and the French foreign ministry, who are already now pressing for the reconstruction of a unitary Syrian state, should reflect on the country’s history. Syria was never meant to function as a unitary state. Nor under Sunni Arab majority rule, as it is likely to now.

The distinct national identities of its Alawite, Arab Christian-Orthodox, Druze, Kurdish, Armenian, Ismaili and Arab Shia populations were all recognised under Ottoman rule. And when France obtained the territory in 1919, it strove to accommodate plural identities by creating two separate states: an Alawite one in north-west Syria and a Druze one in the south-east.

But when the French gave up their attempt to control Syria in 1946, a Sunni Arab, Shukri al-Quwatli, became the country’s president. He did not discriminate against the minorities, but he did send troops with Transjordan and Egypt to invade Israel in 1948 in the name of Sunni Arab solidarity. He had high hopes of conquering the Galilee, because the Syrians had tanks and artillery left behind by the French, while the Jews only had rifles, some machine-guns, and a couple of antique 1906 howitzers.

The ensuing Arab defeat came as a terrible humiliation, which prompted the first of Syria’s many coups. The next president, General Husni al Zaim, only ruled for 137 days but set enduring precedents: although he had been in charge of the fighting as the Army Chief of Staff, he blamed civilian politicians for Syria’s defeat, and second, he was not an Arab but a Kurd — the first of a series of non-Sunni Arab rulers, found in no other Arab country.

During the next 21 years, 17 presidents followed one another. And three of those years were under Egyptian rule. In 1958 Gamal Abdel Nasser, then the very embodiment of Arab nationalism, had been invited to rule Syria as well, in what became the United Arab Republic. The Syrian elite, desperate for stability, had simply given up on independence.

This experiment in Arab unity lasted for three years and 219 days, long enough to teach the Syrian elite both civil and military that the rule of much larger but much poorer Egypt was very costly. A military coup dissolved the United Arab Republic on 29 September 1961, and six more presidents tried to rule Syria. But stability would come in November 1970 when Hafez al-Assad took control as military dictator before naming himself the president in February 1971.

With Hafez al-Assad there was no more beating around the bush on the question of ethnicity, never even mentioned by all his predecessors. He was an Alawite, therefore only a very nominal Muslim (they drink wine and believe in the transmigration of souls), and he relied very largely on fellow Alawites to control the levers of power, from the command of air force squadrons and every armoured unit within reach of Damascus, to the customs service that generated revenue much more reliably than taxes, and the police which recruited informants in every part of Syrian society.

It was Hafez-al Assad’s father, Suleiman, who had laid the basis of subsequent Alawite power over Syria. In June 1926, along with other notable Alawites, he sent a letter to the French Prime Minister Leon Blum, to explain why his people — mostly peasant farmers in those days — could never live under Muslim rule. “The spirit of hatred and intolerance plants its roots in the heart of Muslim Arabs toward everything that is non-Muslim,” he wrote, warning of the risk to Syrian minorities if France granted independence. At the time the French were organising their colonial army for Syria, and thought it prudent to favour Alawite applicants along with Druzes, Ismailis and a few Christians, all much more likely to be loyal to France against majority Arab Sunni demands for independence.
FM Gideon Sa'ar: The regime in Damascus is 'a gang – not a legitimate gov't'
Earlier this week, while we sat in front of the very new Foreign Minister MK Gideon Sa’ar, he shared that he was tired, working on fumes, after a night of votes in the Knesset plenum.

He opened the drawers in the Jerusalem office of the foreign minister, which he had yet to get used to. Since he had only slept two hours the previous night, he asked his staff if they had chocolate or energy bars. In this exclusive interview, he assured the Magazine that since he has decades of experience as a politician, the fatigue won’t affect his ability to speak about all the threats and opportunities for Israel in the near future.

He is not one to shy away from the complex realities of diplomacy. He has tackled pressing issues with a pragmatic approach, ranging from Iran’s nuclear ambitions to regional instability in Syria, relations with the US, and delicate diplomatic ties with Europe. In a candid interview, Sa’ar shared his vision, laying bare the challenges and opportunities ahead for Israel on the international stage.

Trump’s second term, ‘an opportunity’
Sa’ar began by expressing optimism about Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency, highlighting the alignment between the two nations on key strategic issues. “First and foremost, there is a shared perspective on the Iranian issue, which has the potential to lead to strategic understandings at the highest level,” Sa’ar remarked.

He reflected on Trump’s first presidency as a period of significant breakthroughs for Israel, citing the Pompeo Doctrine on settlements, the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem. “These were groundbreaking steps that were not standard policies, even by American terms,” he said.

Acknowledging that disagreements with Washington are inevitable, Sa’ar nonetheless emphasized the strategic importance of shared views. “When there’s no clear gap between us and America, Israel becomes diplomatically stronger,” he explained. This alignment, he added, serves as a deterrent to Israel’s adversaries, who often look for fissures between the two nations. “Our adversaries are always searching for rifts in the US-Israel relationship,” he stated.

While flexibility will be required to navigate differences, Sa’ar is confident that the foundation for collaboration is strong. “You can’t expect to always get exactly what you want, but flexibility is essential in diplomacy,” he said.
The Trump Administration Must Demand More Effort from Qatar toward Releasing Hostages
In the past ten days, there have been renewed reports of possible progress in hostage negotiations, which are once again being brokered by Qatar. According to the most recent news, Hamas is still refusing to provide a list of which hostages are alive, which implies something about the seriousness with which it takes negotiations. There is nonetheless some reason to hope that the Trump administration will exert greater pressure on Hamas and its enablers. One of the new administration’s priorities in this regard should be rethinking the alliance with Doha. Natalie Ecanow explains how:

First, Doha must be made to divorce Hamas once and for all. If a hostage deal isn’t secured before inauguration day, the Trump administration should compel Qatar to shutter Hamas’s Doha office and extradite any senior Hamas leaders left in the emirate. Trump should also consider revoking Qatar’s major-non-NATO-ally status if Doha fails to exert sufficient pressure on Hamas. The House and the Senate are already weighing bills to do just that.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration reached an agreement with Qatar to extend for another ten years the U.S. military presence at Al Udeid airbase, the largest American military base in the Middle East, located southwest of Doha. . . . Al Udeid is another source of leverage. The Trump administration should draw up contingency plans including alternatives to Al Udeid, with an eye toward Saudi Arabia.

Next, the Trump administration should force the U.S.-based Al Jazeera Plus to register as a foreign agent of Qatar. Al Jazeera Plus is a subsidiary of the state-controlled Qatari network. The U.S. Department of Justice ordered the network to register as a foreign agent in 2020, but it has yet to comply.
'I wasn't sure I could survive' Israeli attack on Sana'a Airport, WHO chief says
The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he was going to survive the Israeli airstrike on Yemen's main airport on Thursday.

Israel conducted the strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi terror group who have frequently launched aerial attacks against Israel and attacked international shipping in alliance with Hamas.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the explosions that rocked the building were so deafening that his ears were still ringing more than a day later.

Tedros continued to say it became quickly apparent the airport was under attack, as he described people "running in disarray" through the site after approximately four blasts, one of them "alarmingly" close to where he was sitting near the departure lounge.

"I was not sure I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were," he told Reuters. "A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit."

Tedros said he and his colleagues were stuck at the airport for the next hour or so as, what he thought were drones flew overhead, feeding concern they could open fire again. Among the debris, he and colleagues saw missile fragments, he said.


IDF downs Houthi missile from Yemen, as sirens blare in J’lem
The Israel Defense Forces overnight Friday intercepted a missile fired by Houthi terrorists in Yemen that triggered air-raid sirens across the Jerusalem, Judea and Dead Sea areas.

The missile was downed outside of Israeli airspace, according to the military, and there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Sirens sounded in dozens of Israeli communities. I was the first time air-raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem since the Iranian attack on Oct. 1.

The previous night, sirens blared in the greater Tel Aviv area as the IDF intercepted another Houthi missile fired from Yemen. A U.S.-made THAAD anti-missile battery assisted in the interception, in the first such instance since the system was deployed to Israel in October.

On Thursday, the Israeli Air Force conducted strikes on the western coast of and deep inside Yemen, including at Sanaa International Airport in the Houthi-controlled capital.

The targets included the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, in addition to terror infrastructure in the Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports. An Israeli Air Force fighter jet positioned shortly before takeoff on a mission to target Houthi terror infrastructure in Yemen, Dec. 19, 2024. Credit: IDF.

“These military targets were used by the Houthi terrorist regime to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. This is a further example of the Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” the IDF said.

“The Houthi terrorist regime is a central part of the Iranian axis of terror, and their attacks on international shipping vessels and routes continue to destabilize the region and the wider world. … The IDF will not hesitate to operate at any distance against any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens,” added the statement.
IAF downs two Gazan rockets fired towards Jerusalem
The Israeli Air Force on Saturday downed two rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip towards Jerusalem.

The attack triggered air-raid sirens in the capital, the Western Negev and the the Judean Foothills (the Shfela).

There were no reports of injuries.

Following the rocket fire, the military again called on Palestinians to evacuate parts of the northern Strip.

“Urgent warning to all those who have not yet evacuated the area specified in the map, and the Beit Hanun area [in the Strip’s northeast] in particular,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, posted to X.

“This area has been warned many times in the past. The IDF is operating in this area with force. You must evacuate the area immediately and move south towards Salah El Din Road. Moving via another road exposes you to danger,” he added.
Soldier KIA in Gaza, bringing IDF wartime toll to 823
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed on Friday while battling Palestinian terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip, the military announced.

The slain man was named as Maj. Hod Shriebman, 27, of the elite Multidomain Unit, from Moshav Tzofit, near Kfar Saba.

On Wednesday, an IDF reservist was killed in combat in the central Gaza Strip. He was identified as Capt. (res.) Amit Levi, 35, from Shomria, a religious kibbutz in the northern Negev.

Two days earlier, three Israeli soldiers were killed in action fighting Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza. The soldiers were named as Capt. Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, 22, from Kiryat Motzkin; Staff Sgt. Netanel Pessach, 21, from Elazar; and Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Hillel Diener, 21, from Talmon. All three men served in the Kfir Brigade’s 92nd “Shimshon” Infantry Battalion.

The death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 27, 2023, stands at 391, and at 823 on all fronts since the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.

Additionally, Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, a member of the Israel Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded there in May.
In Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor, IDF establishes temporary bases for an indefinite stay
Everything the Israel Defense Forces has established in the Netzarim Corridor is temporary, military officials have said. But the reality on the ground in this zone bisecting the Gaza Strip indicates that the IDF will remain here for the foreseeable future.

The army does not know when it will leave the corridor, which according to some officials is intended to serve as a bargaining chip in a hostage deal with Hamas. As the months have passed, and the prospect of an agreement with the terror group to release the remaining 100 hostages it holds grows and then recedes, the military has been steadily expanding its presence in the corridor.

The corridor — which is now known internally by the military as the Be’eri Corridor, after the Israeli border community that was attacked on October 7, rather than after the former Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip — is currently controlled by the 99th Division’s Harel Reserve Armored Brigade and the 551st Reserve Paratroopers Brigade.

The Harel Brigade is responsible for the southern portion of the corridor and the entire road, while the 551st Brigade is tasked with the northern section.

This week, The Times of Israel was given exclusive access to the corridor during an escorted visit by the military.

At the start of Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas in late October 2023, the corridor was just the tracks left behind by IDF tanks and armored personnel carriers, as the military’s 36th Division pushed into Gaza from the east and reached the coast, south of Gaza City.

Over the following months, the IDF established a four-mile road running along the corridor, as part of efforts to block Palestinians seeking to return to northern Gaza after fleeing south.

The IDF had ordered northern Gaza residents to evacuate and head to the Strip’s south as it focused the beginning of its offensive against Hamas on the top half of the Strip. Not all of the estimated one million residents heeded the orders. Some of those who remained were Hamas fighters, some faced threats by Hamas not to evacuate, others feared the seemingly no-less-dire conditions of the coastal humanitarian zone, and some reported coming under IDF fire while trying to evacuate.

The road along the corridor was eventually paved — dubbed Route 749 after the 749th Combat Engineering Battalion that constructed it — and the surrounding area turned into a buffer zone to secure the thoroughfare from Hamas attacks.

The military has also periodically enabled humanitarian aid organizations to use the road to deliver crucial supplies to the war-torn north of Gaza.

As time went on, the IDF expanded the buffer zone, from just a


IDF destroys 100-meter Radwan Force tunnel in southern Lebanon
The IDF dismantled a 100-meter-long underground tunnel that hid the entrance to a Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist hideout in southern Lebanon, the military confirmed Saturday afternoon.

The tunnel was discovered during operational activities by the 300th Brigade under the command of the 146th Division and was destroyed in cooperation with the engineering forces. The IDF's 300th Brigade operates in southern Lebanon. December 28, 2024. (Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit) Hezbollah weapons discovered

After the Yahalom United cleared the tunnel of explosives and other threats, the soldiers of the 300th Brigade discovered a trove of rifles, machine guns, anti-tank missiles, and observation systems.

In the Radwan command center, the soldiers located rocket launchers and a huge number of explosives, the military said.

The equipment found in the tunnel was confiscated and destroyed.

An anti-tank missile stockpile and heavy machine gun positions aimed at IDF posts were also found in the vicinity of the tunnel.


Less than a mile away: Lishay Miran revisits Nahal Oz as her husband remains in Gaza
Driving into Kibbutz Nahal Oz, it is hard to imagine stepping outside the car. You watch the heavy security gate close in the rearview mirror after IDF soldiers waive you through as you begin a short drive to your final destination.

Your mind begins to imagine what it was like here 448 days ago as Hamas terrorists took over the same street, beginning a deadly rampage. The horror stories you heard from this kibbutz begin to play inside your head. As your car winds through the road, you think about the 15 murdered and seven kidnapped from here on October 7.

But the sharp contrast immediately takes over when you finally open your door and step outside. Your feet hit the grassy ground, and the sound of birds chirping is like a canopy over your head. The silence carries an echo as you realize the sound of nature surrounds you, and the wind gently brushes your face.

“It’s a place that I really love,” said Lishay Miran. “But terrible things happened here.”

As your mind begins to imagine the peace that exists in this place, you notice a faint humming sound in the background. The humming sound of planes is interrupted by a large boom that lightly shakes the ground. It’s hard to escape the reality of war when you realize it’s right next to you – when you’re divided by a fence, and you’re less than a mile from Gaza.

“Every time, it’s difficult to come here. It’s the closest place I can be to Omri. He’s right here… he’s not so far from here,” said Miran.

It is hard to wrap your mind around what Miran experiences when coming back to this kibbutz, a place where she created a life with her 47-year-old husband, Omri, and their two young daughters.

But it’s the last place she saw him alive, after she and her family were held hostage inside a home for hours here, later watching Omri taken away, kidnapped in front of their eyes.

What separates Miran from Omri is a fence and the Hamas terrorists holding him hostage just miles from their home.

“This is the feeling… I’m here, and he’s really close to here, but on the other side. He’s really far, and I can’t do anything,” she said.


Erin Molan: “To the Pope… my Pope… we need to talk…”
A message for the Pope… from a Catholic… in response to your recent commentary regarding the Middle East… with the utmost respect ๐Ÿ™ Erin Molan




Dems Are So Antisemitic Even Elected Jewish Dems are Switching
Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Florida legislator, announced that she was switching parties.

“As a proud Jewish woman, I have been increasingly troubled by the Democratic Party’s failure to unequivocally support Israel and its willingness to tolerate extreme progressive voices that justify or condone acts of terrorism,” she posted on Twitter. “I’m constantly troubled by the inability of the current Democratic Party to relate to everyday Floridians.”

“For eight years, I was the only Republican Jew in the Florida Legislature. As I passed into law the most pro-Israel, combatting antisemitism agenda in the country, I could never understand how the Democrat Jews felt comfortable in a caucus with many members that clearly hated them,” Sen. Randy Fine tweeted. “Proud of Hillary for seeing the light.”

Even Florida Democrat Chairwoman Nikki Fried was openly talking about Jews moving away from the Democrats before the 2024 election.

“Nikki Fried, the Jewish chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, told Jewish canvassers in her state that the party was losing Jewish voters because of the robust Republican response to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

Fried said that, “what has happened since then in American politics has made a lot of our Jewish brothers and sisters start to question the Democratic Party.”

Fried said doubts about Democrats have spread beyond “Republican Jewish friends” who have historically been the “outliers” in a constituency that has long been reliably Democratic.

These are really bad signs for the party.

You’re going to see the same “79% of Jews voted for Kamala” nonsense spammed everywhere and if you’re intellectually lazy, you’ll echo it. The facts on the ground though are that the Jewish Democrat vote is collapsing and even the party’s elected officials and elites are aware of it.

Actual precinct-level vote numbers show a Jewish shift. Including in Florida.

In Surfside, the most ‘Jewish community’ of the Miami area, where Jews make up a third of the population, Trump won 61% of the vote. In Aventura, Miami, a melting pot of Jews from Latin America, the former USSR and the Middle East, where the majority of the population is Jewish, Trump won 59% of the vote.

The times they are a changin’.


Cori Bush Bashes AIPAC On Her Way Out, Says Pro-Israel Group ‘Cheated’ St. Louis Voters
Outgoing Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) blasted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) during a radio interview, accusing the foremost pro-Israel lobbying firm engaging in practices that “cheated the people of St. Louis”

While chatting with St. Louis Public Radio on Dec. 23, Bush argued that her August election loss was the result of a rapid influx of pro-Israel money.

“The amount of money that was spent against me made my race the second most expensive House race in U.S. history. You know, not in the last decade. Not, you know, several years. In U.S. History,” Bush said.

“So, the fact that they spent 15 times as much—people like me have to understand this. I spent around $1.4 million when I unseated my predecessor, $1.4 million. And I won by a little less than 5,000 votes,” she added.

She lamented that AIPAC reportedly spent a staggering $15,000,000 against her “to win by 6,800 votes.”

“So this is the thing that really bothers me about this. If someone wants to run, I have no problem with that,” she said, conceding that political opponents might have better “ideas” than her.

However, Bush fretted that her opponent, U.S. Representative-elect Wesley Bell, supposedly entered the race out of frustration over her anti-Israel positions. She suggested that AIPAC hand-picked Bell to run against her because she called for a “ceasefire” between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 slaughters in the Jewish state.
Leeds condemn fans for 'unacceptable' anti-Palestine song at Stoke
Leeds United have condemned fans for singing anti-Palestine lyrics in a chant about the club’s Israeli forward Manor Solomon.

On Boxing Day videos circulated showing supporters at Stoke City‘s bet365 Stadium – where Leeds won 2-0 – singing: “Manor Solomon’s on my mind, and he hates Palestine.”

A Leeds spokesperson told The i Paper: “Discriminatory language or chanting is not acceptable and supporters could be breaking the law.

“The club condemns this behaviour and has a zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination abuse of all kinds.

“Tough measures and sanctions are in place across all English football leagues to tackle illegal behaviours within football grounds, and this involves but is not limited to, discriminatory behaviour and tragedy chanting.”

It is understood the English Football League is also aware of the incident.

Solomon signed for Leeds on loan from Tottenham Hotspur towards the end of the summer transfer window and has since scored three goals and contributed a further three assists in the Championship.

Two of those goals came in the 4-3 win over Swansea City in November, while he added another and two assists in the 4-0 win over Oxford United on 21 December.

In 2023, Solomon, who was born in Kfar Saba, posted a number of messages on social media relating to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, but his representatives were adamant they were pro-Israel statements as opposed to anti-Palestine.


BDS vs. Snow White and Captain America: PCACBI demands boycott
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PCACBI) movements called on Saturday for people to boycott Marvel and Disney over the companies's "whitewashing - and therefore enabling - Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people."

PACBI took issue with Marvel's Captain America: Brave New World and Disney's Snow White remake. Both movies are set for release in early 2025 and, according to PACBI, "normalize anti-Palestinian racism and cover up Israel’s ongoing carnage in Gaza." Antisemitism is at a record high. We're keeping our eyes on it >>

The Israel-Hamas War being fought in Gaza began when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, breaking an existing ceasefire, and murdered some 1200 people. In the terrorist organization's cross-border attacks, during which the terror organization engaged in murder, sexual violence, and looting, Hamas abducted some 250 people - many of whom remain hostage in Gaza.

Casting Israelis
In Captain America: Brave New World, PACBI took particular issue with the character Ruth Bat-Seraph, aka “Sabra.” Sabra was created by Marvel in the 1980s and has consistently been written as a Mossad agent.

Sabra is set to be played by Shira Haas, a famed Israeli actress known for her roles in Shtisel and Unorthodox. PACBI took issue with her casting - claiming Haas's military service would only make Sabra's character "more racist."

PACBI also described Israel's intelligence agency Mossad as "criminal."

In a similar stance against Snow White, PACBI decried the casting of famed Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, taking issue with Gadot's past service in the Israeli military.

"We amplify the growing calls of Palestinian filmmakers 'to do everything humanly possible to stop and end complicity with this unspeakable horror; and stand against working with production companies that are deeply complicit in dehumanizing Palestinians, or whitewashing and justifying Israel’s crimes against us,'" The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel said in its petition against Marvel and Disney. "The decision of Marvel and Disney leadership to platform ambassadors to Israel’s settler-colonial regime makes both Captain America and Snow White complicit in violations of Palestinian human rights."

The petition has thus far gained a little over 2000 signatures.


Seth Frantzman: As Iraqi militias turn their eyes from Israel, they continue pledging allegiance to Tehran
The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units continued to swear allegiance to Iran, according to a new article in Iran’s state media IRNA.

“The head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – known as Hashd al-Shaabi – says the group remains faithful to their brothers in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the article read.

The statement was made by Faleh Al-Fayyad, the head of the PMU, at a meeting in Diyala province in Iraq. The meeting was held to commemorate the defeat of ISIS in this area in December 2014. ISIS invaded Iraq in June 2014 and was not expelled from most of Iraq until 2017.

“Al-Fayyad said the PMU remains loyal to its Iranian brothers, particularly to Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani who played a key role in defeating Daesh and was assassinated in a US drone attack in Iraq in January 2020.”

Fayyad also mentioned the late leader of Kataib Hezbollah Abu Madhi al-Muhandis. Muhandis was killed alongside Soleimani in the US airstrike in January 2020.

The comments by the PMU leader come as Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have taken a step back from attacking Israel. They are now more concerned about Syria.

The new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa met with an Iraqi delegation on Thursday, including Hamid al-Shatri, the head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service.

Meanwhile, in Iraq Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization which is part of the PMU, has said “we’re not afraid of the new Syria,” but he said there are concerns that it could influence Iraq. He also indicated Syria should not be divided.
Seth Frantzman: Jerusalem sirens from Houthi missile raise Iran's morale
The IDF intercepted a Houthi missile threat overnight on Friday, which set off sirens in the Dead Sea area, the southern West Bank, and Jerusalem, appearing to indicate that the Houthis are attempting to target a new portion of Israeli territory.

It’s also possible that the interception occurred in an area that caused the sirens in these places to go off.

What matters is that the Houthis are not deterred despite recent IDF airstrikes. They appear ready to continue to attack Israel almost every night. They usually fire one missile at a time, meaning they would need to have a stockpile of dozens or hundreds of these missiles to keep this volume up for the next months.

Meanwhile the head of the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami praised the Houth “resistance and their support for Palestine,” saying that they will eventually emerge victorious, Iranian state media said. “The Yemenis [Houthis] will continue their resistance, as they have so far resisted with dignity, and they will ultimately win,” Salami said in an interview with the Houthis Al-Masirah TV Network on Saturday.

Iran claims "resistance axis" is as strong as ever
The IRGC leader claimed that Iran’s “resistance” axis has not been weakened. He is referring to Hezbollah and the fall of Assad. He is thus putting on a brave face as Iran invests in the Houthis as a kind of “last man standing” in the Iranian map of proxies in the region. Iran wants the Houthis to continue their attacks to keep pressure on Israel.

“He also hailed the Yemenis for their weekly rallies, which they have been holding on Fridays in support of the Palestinians in Gaza since the Israeli regime unleashed its war there in early October last year,” IRNA wrote. Iran is watching the Houthi attacks closely and hopes that they can keep them up for the next months. Iran knows that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, that caused Hezbollah to stop its attacks, could end in the next weeks. Iran is watching closely what happens next.


The gaming site Slither.io says it is addressing complaints about antisemitism
It’s been a year since I stopped playing the popular online video game Slither.io with my cousins. We had bonded while competing against each other but it got too uncomfortable after we noticed the game was littered with antisemitic usernames, including “Jewish scums,” “JEWISH SCUMBAGS” and “Zionist Murderers,” an issue I wrote about for JTA.

Business ethicists, including Philip M. Nichols and Chuck Gallagher, and First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh, told me that the issue was unfortunate, but there wasn’t a lot that could be done. Volokh explained that, legally, Slither.io had no obligation to remove hateful usernames.

“There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment,” Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA, told me in my previous article. “Whether the company should — as a matter of its own judgments rather than the law — try to ban antisemitic usernames is a different issue, which I leave to others.”

I wanted to hear Slither.io’s side of things. Why weren’t they doing the right thing and moderating usernames? Over the 12 weeks it took me to report the story, I reached out to the company twice. I wasn’t surprised that I never heard back. Why would a company with 500 million downloads take the time to respond to a teen journalist? Before publication, I gave Slither.io one more chance to respond. Nothing showed up in my inbox so the story went live.

Imagine my surprise when 10 months after my original email to the company, the creator of the game, Steven Howse, popped up in my inbox.

“Hi James,” Howse wrote. He explained that he already had a word filter for the game, but some people were able to get around it.

“It made it very easy for bad people to get around the filter through trial and error and find just the right creative combination of letters and wording that would bypass the filter,” he wrote. “I fixed the glitch that enabled this extension to work, so it is much harder for anyone to determine if they are being censored anymore or to come up with new combinations to bypass the filter.

“I have blocked the bad names you mentioned in your article, along with many other variations.”

His response thrilled me. My cousins and I could spend time together again playing Slither.io, without encountering hate speech.




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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

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