Monday, January 13, 2025

01/13 Links Pt1: Hostage deal may be ‘days or hours’ away, Israeli official says; America should declare UNRWA a terrorist organization; How many more attacks before Australia defends its Jewish community?

From Ian:

Hostage deal may be ‘days or hours’ away, Israeli official says
Negotiations for Hamas to release Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for a cease-fire and Palestinian terrorists freed from prison have reached advanced stages, but the deal is not yet finalized, two Israeli diplomatic sources confirmed on Monday.

“There are advances in all components of the agreement,” said one source. “We are certainly in advanced stages … Reaching an agreement could be a matter of hours or of days.”

While the agreement was still not final, the sources said Hamas was showing greater seriousness than it had in the past year, during which “Hamas was not part of the negotiations” that were taking place between the Israeli team, the U.S. and Qatari mediators.

“We are now in a different reality, very similar to November 2023 [when the previous hostage release took place], when there were effective negotiations towards a deal about the details of implementation. This is a very significant change,” a source said.

Both Israeli sources attributed the change in Hamas’ approach to a combination of Israeli military achievements and President-elect Donald Trump’s threats that “all hell will break out” if the hostages are not released by the time of his inauguration next week.

“Why are there cracks now in Hamas’ [resolve]?” one source said. “There was the ground incursion in Lebanon, the assassination of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, the assassination of [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, crazy [IDF] military pressure on the north of Gaza. This isolated Hamas. We struck the Shiite Iranian axis and Hamas is alone. They don’t have Hezbollah or Iran, they only have the Houthis.”

In addition, the source said, Trump began to involve himself in the negotiations, making it clear that he is serious about pushing for the hostages to be released.
Israel, Hamas close to deal with 33 hostages released in phase one
Israel and Hamas are close to a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal that will likely be announced by the end of the day – though it is not fully guaranteed and is subject to change – in which 33 hostages will be released during the first phase, with a staged withdrawal of military forces from Gaza, notwithstanding the maintenance of an undefined security perimeter, diplomatic sources said on Monday.

Israel’s senior delegation in Doha, which includes Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar and Mossad Director David Barnea, will remain in Qatar “for the time being,” potentially until a deal is signed.

A Hamas delegation said Gaza ceasefire talks were progressing well, with the group dealing with developments in a positive manner, it said in a statement following a meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha.

Once 15 days of the ceasefire have passed, on the 16th, negotiations would start regarding the next stages of the deal – with the goal of releasing all the hostages – and IDF withdrawals. The diplomatic sources did not provide a definite time frame, but some expect the first phase will last 42 days.

The source added that, as of Monday, none of the 33 hostages expected to be released in the first phase of a possible deal are confirmed dead. Sources said they believe that most – though not all – of the 33 hostages are alive and that the body of Youssef Ziyadne, whose body was recovered by the IDF last week, was initially on the list.

There is no certainty as to when the deal will be signed. Sources reiterated that the IDF would not fully withdraw from Gaza until every single hostage was released.

Sources said that a cabinet vote and an expected High Court of Justice ruling on petitions to block the deal would also be necessary for the deal to come through.

Should this happen, the first hostages could be released fairly quickly, the source estimated.

The security perimeter is something Israel would retain independent of the withdrawal of troops. It appeared that some soldiers would remain there during Phase 1 but not at some later phases when forces would only be at a security perimeter, which sources emphasized would include the full length of the enclave, not just northern Gaza.

All indications were that the IDF would, broadly speaking, withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, which splits northern and southern Gaza. There would be unspecified “security arrangements” to review those who would be allowed to return to the north.
Israel will not release Nukhba terrorists in possible Gaza hostage deal
Israel will not release any Hamas terrorist belonging to the Nukhba forces, which took part in the October 7 massacre of southern Israel, as part of a possible hostage deal, diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post on Monday evening.

The list of terrorists expected to be released from Israeli prisons as part of the deal's first phase does include some sentenced to life, the source added. However, none are part of the Nukhba forces that carried out the October 7 attacks.

In addition, none of the 33 hostages expected to be released in the first phase of a possible deal are confirmed to be dead as of Monday, as per the diplomatic source.

Israel is expected to retain "territorial assets," which could include the Philadelphi Corridor and an undefined security perimeter, as reported by the Post's Yonah Jeremy Bob.


Hostage survivor press Red Cross on lack of medicine for hostages
Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger met with about five hostages and their families on Sunday night.

During the meeting, a released hostage told Egger about her experience in Gaza and asked her: "How come medicine isn't reaching the hostages?"

Other families were furious, shouting, "Why didn't you do more? What's the point of your organization if you don't bring [the hostages] medicine?"

Red Cross powerless to help
A relative who was present at the meeting told Walla! "She explained that they cannot reach those who they are not allowed to reach and that they do not have enforcement powers; they ask and demand, and it doesn't help."

"The wars in the world have become more complicated," she told them, "It's not a country against a country; terrorist organizations are not under international law and do not necessarily respect it."

She told them, "[The Rec Cross] does not have the ability to know the location of the hostages if they are not given them."


America should declare UNRWA a terrorist organization
The last few weeks have not been good for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). They were, therefore, good for humanity as two senior UNRWA staffers indicated in a New York Times article that the U.N. agency will shut operations in Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman, Yuli Edelstein, welcomed the report. Edelstein’s committee shepherded a new law through the Knesset that declares UNRWA to be a terrorist organization and bans it in Israel. The law is to take effect on Jan. 28.

The United States should follow suit on Jan. 20, the day President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office.

UNRWA crossed the line on Oct. 7, 2023. According to established U.S. criminal law and federal regulations, when UNRWA employees raided, raped, murdered and abducted Israeli civilians, it became a foreign terrorist organization or FTO. The United States should classify it as an FTO, bankrupt it and destroy it.

Let’s review the case:
It is now beyond dispute that UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 massacre, rape and kidnapping of 1,200 men, women and children. In August, the U.N. agency issued a mealy-mouthed admission of this.

Months before, in April, the Israeli government issued a report detailing UNRWA’s participation on Oct. 7. As of the date of the report, Israel identified 12 UNRWA employees for whom they had photographic and other evidence. That does not mean there were only 12 UNRWA employees involved, only that 12 were caught on camera.

Of the 12, seven were teachers, two were school counselors, and the others were humanitarian-aid warehouse managers.

On Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA “social worker” Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami was caught on camera dragging the body of 21-year-old Jonathan Samerano. He murdered Samerano in the rear of an SUV.


Caroline Glick: Desperate Israeli Left PANICS as Trump Inauguration Nears
Israeli leftists continue their long-standing tradition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as they force the Israel Defense Forces to fight with one hand tied behind its back.

On this episode of "In-Focus," JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick examines exactly how they are doing this and why it’s so difficult to stop them.

Also, Glick covers the Israeli media’s latest fake polls; a possible winning strategy; humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip; and opposition leader Yair Lapid’s latest insane comments. All this and more on “In-Focus!”


Hind Rajab urge ICC to arrest Israeli-Druze head of COGAT for 'genocide'
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has filed cases with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Italian authorities, asking them to immediately detain Major General Ghassan Alian - who is currently in Rome, Italy - on counts of "genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes," the organization announced on Monday.

Maj. Gen. Alian, who is Israeli-Druze, heads the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the IDF unit responsible for overseeing civilian policy in the West Bank. COGAT has been responsible for coordinating humanitarian aid delivery into the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including food, medicines and vaccination programs.

HRF claims that Alian has "supervised and enforced a total siege on Gaza, cutting off essential resources such as food, water, electricity, and medical supplies."

This alleged blockade has resulted in "mass starvation, civilian deaths, and the destruction of critical infrastructure, including hospitals," HRF added.

HRF cites United Nations reports that claimed COGAT's constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The foundation added that the ICC should apply the same reasoning behind the arrest warrants against Yoav Gallant and Benjamin Netanyahu to Alian, arguing that he played a pivotal role in supervising the same policies as the other two.

"His presence in Rome provides Italian authorities with an opportunity to uphold international law by issuing an arrest warrant and ensuring his prosecution," HRF said.

“COGAT has been instrumental in enforcing policies that amount to collective punishment, which is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions,” Haroon Raza, an HRF lawyer, wrote.

“Major General Alian has directly overseen these crimes, and the time to act is now.”


Nawaf Salam named Lebanese prime minister
Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice, a U.N. agency in The Hague, has been designated as Lebanon’s next prime minister.

Salam, who previously served as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations for more than a decade, was called on Monday by the office of Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun to form a government. He was endorsed by a majority of the country’s lawmakers during discussions with Aoun.

The judge routinely targeted Israel during his time at the United Nations, voting to condemn the Jewish state 210 times in a period of 11 years. In 2008, Salam, 71, accused the “supreme Zionist leadership” of pursuing a policy of “ethnic cleansing” via “terrorism and organized massacres.”

On several occasions in 2016, he labeled Israel as an “apartheid” state after referring to Israel as a “Triumph of blatant racist and colonialist choices.”

Notably, Salam’s voting record found much more sympathy with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria under its longtime former president, Bashar Assad, who was run out by rebels in December.

This announcement comes just four days after Lebanon’s parliament elected Aoun, a general and former commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, as president, the second in charge after the prime minister. Aoun, a Maronite Christian, finally gets the role after 12 failed attempts in nearly two years.

Both the United States and Saudi Arabia back the 61-year-old army leader.


UN advisor Francesca Albanese suggests that LA fires and Gaza are ‘symptoms of the same disease’
The UN’s top advisor on Palestine has seemingly suggested that the wildfires in Los Angeles and the ongoing Gaza War could be “connected”.

Controversial lawyer Francesca Alabense, amplified an X post which dubbed the fires and the conflict “symptoms of the same disease”.

Mondoweiss, a progressive, anti-Zionist news site based in New York, tweeted on Saturday: “The fires burning in Palestine and Los Angeles today are symptoms of the same disease: a system that values conquest over conservation, profit over people, and expansion over existence.”

The post linked to an article on the website by Ahmad Ibsais, a Palestinian-American student and vocal BDS supporter, which argued that the two crises are “connected catastrophes”.

It went on: “Each bomb that falls on Gaza sends ripples through our collective future, its impact felt in rising seas, warming temperatures and yes, in the fires that now threaten California’s hills.”

Albanese re-tweeted the article accompanied with her own caption, saying: “On our small planet, all injustices are connected.”



Wildfires are not uncommon in California and have occurred long before the current round of military operations in Gaza began.

“Hatred doesn’t require a cause, only a chance to manifest,” wrote Waleed Gadban, a political counselor at Israel’s UN mission in Geneva. “That’s the whole objective of her existence, Francesca Albanese.”

“In the modern incarnation of the Der Stürmer slogan ‘The Jews are our misfortune,’ the U.N.’s Francesca Albanese is actually blaming Israel for the Los Angeles fires. All symptoms of ‘the same disease,’” wrote Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “We call on the US, France, Germany and Britain to take action to expel this antisemite.”

“This is an actual UN employee. Her obsession with the world’s only Jewish state has actually led her to connect it to the Los Angeles fires,” stated Campaign Against Antisemitism. “ Once again, we call for Ms Albanese’s dismissal.”


FDD: Tunnel Vision: U.S.-Israel Cooperation and the Future of Underground Warfare
The character of war is constantly evolving. Those changes are happening not just on land, at sea, and in air – but also in the subterranean realm. The combatant that best understands these ongoing changes and adapts the most effectively is more likely to be successful in future wars.

Few modern militaries know subterranean warfare better than Israel. That’s because terrorist groups such has Hamas and Hezbollah have for years attempted to use tunnels to infiltrate Israel and conduct attacks there. Following the October 7 terror attack on Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah used tunnels in Gaza and Lebanon, respectively, to protect terrorist forces and their arsenals from counterattack, imprison hostages, extend the conflicts, and further political warfare strategies. In response, Israel has developed world-class technologies, capabilities, and tactics to detect and destroy tunnels.

What is the nature of subterranean warfare, how was it used in Gaza and Lebanon, and was this an anomaly peculiar to those wars and places or rather a sign of things to come elsewhere? What lessons should be learned, and how should Israel, the United States, and its allies respond?

To discuss these questions and more, FDD hosts MAJ (Ret.) John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Daphné Richemond-Barak, Assistant Professor in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy at Reichman University in Israel, and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus, Senior Fellow at FDD. The conversation is moderated by Bradley Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power with introductory remarks by FDD Executive Director Jonathan Schanzer.



Five soldiers slain in Gaza, bringing IDF wartime toll to 840
Five members of the Israel Defense Forces’ Nahal Brigade were killed in action fighting Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said on Monday night.

The troops killed on Monday were identified by the IDF as Capt. Yair Yaakov Shushani, 23, from Ma’alot-Tarshiha; Staff Sgt. Yahav Hadar, 20, from Kfar Tavor; Staff Sgt. Guy Karmiel, 20, from Gedera; Staff Sgt. Yoav Feffer, 19, from Herzliya; and Staff Sgt. Aviel Wiseman, 20, from Poria Illit.

All five served in Sayeret Nahal, the brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion. Eight more Nahal soldiers were seriously wounded in the incident.

They died when terrorists activated explosives in a structure in northeastern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun.

On Sunday, four IDF soldiers were killed and six others were wounded when they were likewise struck by an explosive in the Beit Hanoun area.

The death toll among troops since the start of the IDF ground incursion in Gaza on Oct. 27, 2023, now stands at 408, and at 840 on all fronts since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Additionally, Chief Inspector 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.


Houthis fire missile at central Israel, sirens triggered in Samaria
The Israel Defense Forces shot down a missile launched at central Israel from Yemen by Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists on Monday night, triggering air-raid sirens throughout Samaria, the army said.

“Following alerts that were activated a short time ago in several areas of the country, the Air Force intercepted one missile launched from Yemen,” the IDF stated. “The missile was intercepted before it crossed into Israeli territory; the alerts were activated according to policy.”

According to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service, no immediate reports were received of casualties from the missile interception.

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli Air Force helicopter intercepted a suicide drone over the country’s south that had been launched from Yemen.

On Jan. 8, Israeli air-defense systems shot down three Houthi drones launched from Yemen, with the military publishing video of one of the interceptions over the Mediterranean Sea.

Another UAV was intercepted over the Mediterranean earlier in the day, and a drone was shot down by IAF helicopters, triggering air-raid sirens in Gvulot, a kibbutz in the northwestern Negev.

Since the start of the Swords of Iron war on Oct. 7, 2023, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched around 40 surface-to-surface missiles and 320 UAVs toward Israel, according to the military.

In response to the attacks, the IAF hit terror targets on Yemen’s western coast and inland on Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday afternoon that “just as we promised, the Houthis are paying, and will continue to pay, a heavy price for their aggression against us,” according to a translation of his remarks published by his office.


JPost Editorial: How many more attacks before Australia defends its Jewish community?
Australia has a problem. A couple of days after the October 7 attacks, a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on the steps of the Sydney Opera House and chanted, “Gas the Jews.”

To reaffirm, this was weeks before Israel responded militarily against Hamas in Gaza. This was weeks before any accusations of “genocide” could be thrown at Israel, weeks before Israel responded to the barrages of Hezbollah rockets hitting the North, and weeks before Israel was able to return any of the hostages.

“Gas the Jews.” Australia should have known there and then that it had a problem.

Just this weekend, two Sydney synagogues, a home, and cars were vandalized, with one of the houses of worship also targeted with attempted arson as part of the latest in a series of antisemitic incidents in Australia.

The alarming attacks that took place are an “escalation in antisemitic crime,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said.

This comes a week after Ice Hockey Australia announced that a planned international tournament, scheduled to take place in Melbourne in April, was canceled following consultations with police and participating venues.

Australian media reported that safety concerns over Team Israel’s attendance were central to the decision.
Is Australia really facing an antisemitism crisis? The evidence is clearer than some would have you think
It is somewhat mystifying to me, then, that some would seek to downplay the rise in antisemitic incidents. An example is Tory Shepherd’s recent article in the Guardian. It marshals a range of data to suggest that, while both antisemitism and Islamophobia remain at elevated levels since 7 October 2023 (which is true), concerns about antisemitism are overstated (which, I believe, is false).

The article cites the latest statistics on antisemitism from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), which limits itself to those incidents that conform to the definition of “racist violence” developed by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1991:

A specific act of violence, intimidation or harassment carried out against an individual, group or organisation on the basis of race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin.

The ECAJ thus excludes “discourse” such as antisemitic posts and comments on social media that are not specific threats of violence. Using this criterion, the ECAJ captured 2,062 antisemitic incidents in the last year. Had they included the online content which the Online Hate Prevention Institute collected over the same period, that number would rise to almost 6,700.

By comparison, Shepherd’s article refers to the work of the Islamophobia Register which captured 932 incidents in the year after 7 October 2023. Needless to say, both represent an alarming and disgraceful number of instances of discriminatory hate; but it is simply the case that there were far more reported antisemitic incidents than there were reported instances of Islamophobia. Moreover, the data compiled by the Islamophobia Register does include online “discourse” such as social media posts. Hence the numerical disparity is even greater.

The Online Hate Prevention Institute captured both antisemitic and Islamophobic online discourse over the three months immediately following the terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October 2023. Using the same methodology and expending the same resources for sampling online data, we found 2,898 instances of antisemitism and 1,169 instances of Islamophobia that were visible from Australia. While both were at significantly elevated levels, instances of antisemitism occurred 2.4 times more often. Thanks to work carried out in the year preceding 7 October, we know that online antisemitic discourse had risen to five times its pre-7 October level. We continued to monitor expressions of online antisemitism for a further eight months and found it slowed a little but remained four times higher than pre-7 October levels.

Examinations or distractions?
Shepherd’s article in the Guardian cites the work of Kevin Dunn, who heads up the Challenging Racism Project at Western Sydney University. Dunn’s research found that more people in Australia held anti-Muslim prejudice than anti-Jewish prejudice. This is based on a survey which asked how concerned people would be if a close relative married a Muslim or a Jew: 61 per cent reported they would be concerned about a relative marrying a Muslim, compared to 41 per cent if they married a Jew.

While this is an interesting finding, I struggle to see its relevance with respect to the number and severity of antisemitic or Islamophobic hate incidents over the past fifteen months. I therefore question why his findings — along with Dunn’s claim that “Islamophobia is the strongest form of racist antipathy that we have in Australia” — are being included in an article such as this, other than to downplay the threat posed by antisemitism to the safety of Australian Jews.
Australia’s antisemitism problem is ‘only getting worse’
Sky News host Sharri Markson has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of committing a “shocking dereliction of his duty” in tackling the antisemitism crisis in Australia.

Sydney has been hit with another antisemitic graffiti incident just days after CCTV footage captured two individuals spraying Swastikas on the wall of a Newtown synagogue and attempting to burn it down.

“He has never taken racism against Jews seriously,” Ms Markson said.

“And just days into 2025, this is only getting worse.”


Australia entering 'realm of domestic terrorism’ against Jewish community
Executive Council of Australian Jewry Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin says the Albanese government has failed to grasp the “true gravity and severity” of Australia’s antisemitism crisis.

Sydney has been hit with another antisemitic graffiti incident just days after CCTV footage captured two individuals spraying Swastikas on the wall of a Newtown synagogue and attempting to burn it down.

“We are now in a realm of domestic terrorism,” Mr Ryvchin told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“There is no social cohesion; we are now in a point of national security.”


Labor government urged to direct ‘moral outrage’ to Gaza hostage crisis
The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan says the Albanese government has “tremendous moral confusion” and cannot identify Australia’s national interest.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has been accused of “playing domestic politics” and “trashing” Australia’s bipartisan position on peace in the Middle East, as fears grow of a regional escalation in unrest.

“The death in Gaza is a tragedy but there could have been a ceasefire any time in the last 12 months if Hamas released the hostages,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

“Why hasn’t the Albanese government directed its moral outrage at that?”


Politicians ignoring ‘tough discussions and action’ on Islamist extremism
Sky News host Chris Kenny says the horrific terror attack in New Orleans has provided “another tragic wake-up call”.

“We know the terror alert in Australia was elevated last year, we've seen too many attacks here in the past, and ASIO says another is as likely as not," he said.

“But politicians have avoided the tough discussions and action on Islamist extremism for decades.”






Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

Copyright © Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates