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Saturday, January 18, 2025

01/18 Links: Shoah Revisionism After Gaza; Israel’s Prisoner’s Dilemma; Israel-Hamas truce to begin Sunday at 8:30 am; 70+ arrests at anti-Israel London protest

From Ian:

Dr. Dave Rich: Shoah Revisionism After Gaza
Still, any misleading equivalences or flawed comparisons made by supporters of Israel are as nothing compared to the unrelenting avalanche of bad faith, malign and ignorant distortions and abuse of the Holocaust that have become entirely normalized within anti-Israel discourse. Every anti-Israel demonstration features countless placards comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, Israeli politicians to Hitler, and Gaza to Auschwitz. You’ll hear it on radio phone-ins and TV debates, while #GazaHolocaust trends repeatedly online. Even Holocaust museums and archives have been targeted: “Gaza” was daubed on the sign of Lon- don’s Wiener Holocaust Library in November 2023, and a pro-Palestinian demonstration was called outside the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, although that was subsequently cancelled after an outcry. You find it at the highest levels of Palestinian politics: Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel for “fifty Holocausts” in 2022, and the following year in a speech at the United Nations he compared Israel to Nazi propa- ganda chief Joseph Goebbels. The Hamas charter accuses Israel of “Nazi treatment” of Palestinians. It is difficult to convey just how ubiquitous this is, and how much it goes unchallenged in anti-Israel circles. It would be banal were it not so grotesque.[5]

There are lots of reasons why people do this. Some of it reflects a well- meaning, if perhaps naïve, effort to use the idea of “Never Again” as a rallying cry for peace and humanity in today’s world. However, this is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time when people invoke the Holocaust to criticize Israel, they do not have such admirable motives. For some, it is an exercise in finger-wagging at the Jewish people, as if they failed to learn the right lessons from their own near miss with exter- mination. For others, there is gleeful relief that they no longer need to listen to Jews going on about the Holocaust, because now those same Jews are behaving just like the Nazis did. There’s a sense of bringing the Jews down a rung or two on the hierarchy of competitive victimhood, allied to a belief that any political or societal benefits derived from this will transfer on to other, more deserving, groups. Then there is the sheer taboo-busting pleasure of doing something so monumentally offensive in the name of anti-racism and human rights. The one place a person of the left can wave a swastika around without worrying about losing their progressive status is, with no irony at all, on a march against the world’s only Jewish state. It’s how self-identifying anti-racists get to experience the transgressive thrill of pretending to be Nazis for a day.

There is a much less vulgar version of the widespread accusation that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. This has, of course, reached the status of a formal case at the International Court of Justice, which will presumably follow due process in adjudicating on that case. In that respect, it is worth noting that talk of a genocide in Gaza began within just a few days of the October 7 attack, and often came from people who had already been arguing for some years that the Palestinians were being subjected to a ‘slow genocide’ by Israel. The alacrity with which so many of these anti-Israel voices began to proclaim a genocide in Gaza so soon after October 7 almost gave the impression of a ghoulish anticipation that events seemed to be catching up with the discourse, rather than the discourse following and describing events.

Buried within this world of Nazi comparisons and genocide allegations lies an intellectual effort to construct an argument that Israel’s sins are so egregious, the Jewish people—or at least, those Jews who have been seduced by Zionism—have lost the moral standing to continue as the guardians of Holocaust memory. Perhaps the most serious and thoughtful example of this came in a 7,500-word essay in the London Review of Books in March 2024, written by the author Pankaj Mishra, titled “The Shoah after Gaza.”6 Drawing on the writings of Holocaust survivors such as Primo Levi and, especially, Jean Améry, as well as Israeli intellectuals and writers including Boaz Evron and Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Mishra sketched a portrait of an Israel in thrall to paranoid victimhood and “a pitiless national ethos” that is replicating the darkest episodes of human history. According to Mishra, Israel has “turned the murder of six million Jews into an intense national preoccupation.” He quotes Leibowitz accusing Israel of “Nazification” and Evron warning that Israel is displaying “racist Nazi attitudes,” and Mishra himself con- demns “the liquidation of Gaza”—a form of words that seems to mimic the Nazi liquidation of Jewish ghettos during the Holocaust. At the same time, Mishra argues, diaspora Jewry since the 1960s, especially but not only in the United States, has willingly gone along with the instrumen- talization of Holocaust memory in the service not only of Zionism but of the Western post-war political order.
Matti Friedman: Israel’s Prisoner’s Dilemma
Facing the hostage dilemma in 1985, some figures in government had to publicly, and embarrassingly, reverse earlier positions. Seven years before, for example, Yitzhak Rabin, had criticized a deal to free one Israeli soldier for 76 prisoners: By releasing terrorists guilty of killing Israelis, he raged, the government had “crossed the red line.” But at the time of that statement, Rabin was in the political opposition. When the Jibril deal came up for a vote in 1985, he was in power, and he said yes. One of the prisoners released was Ahmed Yassin, who later became the spiritual leader of Hamas.

Having leaders say one thing when in opposition, and another when in power, would become familiar to Israelis confronting the hostage dilemma in subsequent decades—and indeed this week. One outspoken critic of the Jibril deal, as it happens, was the young politician Benjamin Netanyahu. The future prime minister positioned himself as an expert on counterterrorism with books like A Place Among the Nations, from 1993, where he castigated the deal as a fatal blow to Israel’s efforts to forge an international front against terrorism. (The lone fatality of the heroic Entebbe raid that freed the hijacked hostages was Netanyahu’s brother Yoni, who led the rescue mission.) Netanyahu wrote that the Palestinian uprising known as the First Intifada, which began two years later, in 1987, was due in part to the irresponsible release of more than 1,000 prisoners by Israel’s leaders.

Just a year after the trauma of the Jibril deal, however, Israelis were presented with a tragedy that illustrated the opposite danger—that of failing to make a deal. In 1986 an air force navigator, Ron Arad, had to abandon his fighter jet after a technical malfunction over south Lebanon, and was captured by Lebanese Shia fighters. Arad was alive, and his captors named their price, but public opinion was still stinging from the previous year’s asymmetrical bargain. Attempts to win Arad’s release through military means failed, talks dragged on, and by 1988 the navigator had vanished, never to be found. To this day, the name Ron Arad is familiar to most Israelis, including millions who weren’t even born when he was taken prisoner. It’s one you hear frequently right now: Many Israelis say they fear that some of today’s hostages will become “Ron Arads,” the worst fate of all—people whose fates are never known.

Several decades and hostage swaps later, in 2011, Netanyahu was prime minister, and found himself facing the same dilemma he had written about with such assurance as a younger man. A tank crewman, Gilad Shalit, had been captured by Palestinian fighters on the Gaza border five years earlier. Nothing Israel had done brought him any closer to release, and his captors wouldn’t budge on the price. Public sympathy grew for the soldier and his parents, who conducted an effective campaign in favor of a deal with the backing of most of the Israeli press. Netanyahu found, as others did before, that it’s easier to stand on principle when you’re not facing public opinion or fainting mothers—and also understood that the majority of citizens, then and now, want to see their captives home even if the price seems reckless. With the support of most Israelis (though not all), Netanyahu made a deal that freed 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the crewman—an exchange even more lopsided than the 1985 deal he had opposed.

Among the dangerous prisoners freed in Netanyahu’s deal was Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar went on to mastermind the October 7 attack, including the taking of the current hostages. He led Hamas in Gaza until, a year later, he was killed by Israeli troops amid the carnage of the war he started.

The first stage of the current deal, slated to last 42 days, is meant to release 33 hostages—although “release” is the right word only for the ones who are alive, and not all are. According to reports, Israel will release upwards of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. The rest of the hostages are to be returned in a planned second and third stage, accompanied by Israeli withdrawals from Gaza and ultimately by the end of the war, but skepticism about these later stages is in order. Much can and will happen before then.

Israelis face the current deal with hope that at least some of the familiar faces from the hostage posters will finally return to their families after 15 months of horror, and also with relief at a pause in the Gaza fighting, which seems to be sinking into a war of attrition, exhausting our military reserves and delivering high Israeli casualties with diminishing returns. But the regional war that began on October 7, 2023 isn’t over, and neither is the terrible dilemma that faces Israel every time hostages fall into enemy hands. Yahya Sinwar might be dead, but the tactic that freed him, and which will now free his comrades, lives on.
Jake Wallis Simons: The Gaza cease-fires is the first win for Trump’s ‘big stick’ dimplomacy
The suffering borne by Palestinian civilians and Israeli families as the war has ground gruesomely on has been immeasurable. The end to all that is welcome. But it’s a coin toss whether this marks an end to Hamas or simply removes the boot from their necks.

The jihadi gang has certainly been dismantled as a coherent military force. It has lost 80% of its men and 90% of its fighting capacity at the hands of the IDF. But as Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz remarked last March, there’s no point extinguishing 80% of a fire.

This week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Hamas has been coming back hard. Its new recruits may be untrained and underage, but in the continued absence of a plan for the postwar Gaza governance, they will help Hamas retain its grip.

If Hamas keeps quiet and awaits the reconstruction phase, could it build back for another October 7? Perhaps. This time, however, things are different. Hezbollah is castrated in Lebanon, Assad is history and the Ayatollah of Tehran is mourning the smoking ruins of his air defenses, awaiting the coup de grace – which Trump may well deliver – to his nuclear program.

Which brings us to Biden. If this deal had been struck in May, as he had intended, Israel’s Gaza success would have been far more modest.

Rafah would still be a Hamas garrison town, Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh still alive, and the smuggling tunnels from Egypt still ferrying armaments, personnel, and cash into the Strip.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, would not be dead, his pagers and walkie-talkies would not have exploded, Tehran would not have lost its S-300 air defenses and Assad may not have been deposed. This war would have ended with a bruised but belligerent Hamas ready to strike again.

So it was hard to take Biden seriously as he faltered through his statement at the White House.

“It’s America’s support for Israel that helped them badly weaken Hamas . . . and create the conditions for this deal,” he bragged.

American weapons shipments were welcome, but Kamala Harris and Blinken had tried to block these Israeli achievements every step of the way.

It’s not that Biden gave off small-stick energy. It’s that he often had no stick at all. His administration’s craven addiction to the status quo — which presented “de-escalation” as the only legitimate response to every bad guy everywhere — led the world into its most dangerous state since the end of the Second World War.

What began with the shameful Afghan withdrawal ended with missiles on Tel Aviv. Along the way, Biden eased Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy on Venezuela and Iran — look how well that went — and war returned to Europe. Then Trump was elected. And he began to swing that stick.


Netanyahu: Israel has full Trump, Biden backing to resume ‘not over'
Both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have given Israel full backing to resume the war in Gaza if Israel concludes that talks with Hamas on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement prove “futile,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night.

The hostage-terrorist exchange agreement “is the result of Israel’s cooperation with the outgoing administration of President Biden and the incoming administration of President Trump,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language televised address.

“As soon as he was elected, President Trump joined the mission of freeing the hostages. He talked to me on Wednesday night. He praised the agreement and rightly emphasized that the first step of the agreement is a temporary ceasefire. This is what he said—‘a temporary ceasefire,’” the prime minister continued.

Netanyahu stressed that Israel had retained “significant assets” to be used to return all remaining hostages from Gaza, as well as to accomplish all of the Jewish state’s war goals.

The first stage of the ceasefire accord with Hamas, set to begin at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, stipulates the release of 33 Israeli hostages out of a total of 98—including 94 taken on Oct. 7, 2023—not all of whom are alive, in exchange for Israel releasing up to 1,904 Palestinian terrorists.

The second phase would see the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli jails, and an Israeli army withdrawal from almost all of the Gaza Strip—although these terms are projected to be finalized in further negotiations.

“I also appreciate President Trump’s decision to remove all remaining restrictions on the supply of essential weapons and armaments to the State of Israel,” the premier went on to say.

“If needed the fighting will continue, and we will do this in new ways and we will do it with great force,” Netanyahu said.

“This agreement is first and foremost the result of our brave fighters in combat, and is the result of our steadfast insistence of the vital interests of Israel,” he stressed.


Shin Bet chief: 'There are no good deals, but Israel is right to go for this deal'
While there "are no good deals," Israel is "right to proceed with this deal," Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar reportedly said in a cabinet meeting on Friday night, N12 revealed on Saturday.

Bar told ministers to approve the deal during the deliberation meeting on Friday, which culminated in Israel choosing to accept.

"Hamas is a terror organization that has suffered severe blows and is in shambles," Bar said, adding that "Israel is a strong state."

"Personally, as someone who heads a counterintelligence organization, we are well used to arresting and thwarting terrorists," Bar said, adding that some of the Palestinian prisoners being exchanged for hostages starting Sunday he arrested himself.

"We have a very difficult time releasing terrorists and murderers," he continued.

"Israel, even with a difficult deal, is a strong country - it was right to go for this deal."

"There are no good deals," he concluded.

Mossad chief David Barnea expressed similar views, telling the cabinet that it is "a bad deal, but there is no choice," according to Ynet.

"We must pay this moral debt," he added. "This deal is morally, ethically and humanly correct. It has leverage to continue if Hamas does not fulfill its part. Our mission is to return everyone home and we will not stop until we achieve our goal."
Hamas has not provided Israel list of hostages for release Sunday
Hamas is reportedly set to hand over the list of hostages to be released on Sunday within the next few hours, sources told Al Arabiya/Al Hadath on Saturday night.

The sources added that Hamas told the mediators that it would hand over the names of the hostages as soon as they had been transferred to a safe place. It is expected that three female soldiers will be released.

A Hamas source told Ynet that the group is delaying the release of the names because of technical reasons. He said that "communication between [Hamas] operatives is done physically by messengers, and it takes them time to agree on the names and location of the hostages, while IDF jets are still overhead."

He added, "The list will only be released after approval from Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar."

This comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Saturday evening that, at the time of his words, Israel has not yet received the list of the hostages to be released by Hamas on Sunday.

Netanyahu said that Israel "will not move forward with the outline [of the deal] until we receive the list of hostages to be released, as agreed upon.

"Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement," he continued. "The sole responsibility lies with Hamas."

In a statement on Saturday, Hamas revealed that it would publish lists of names the day before each exchange day.

An Israeli source told KAN that they knew "Hamas would be manipulative" in not providing who would be released on Sunday.

Schedule of releases
On the seventh day of the deal, four more hostages are expected to be released, and this procedure is expected to occur every week on Saturday for the next six weeks, leading up to the release of more hostages.

A source familiar with the details of the negotiations said that the next 24 hours are critical for the beginning of the implementation of the deal and that Israel feared that Hamas would try to violate it. A spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that "there has been no violation of the agreement."
Israel-Hamas truce to begin Sunday at 8:30 am
The ceasefire with the Hamas terrorist organization will come into effect at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, with the first three hostages—women—set to be freed from Gazan captivity sometime after 4 p.m.

Israel estimates that 25 of the 33 people on the list of hostages to be returned in the first stage of the ceasefire agreement are alive.

According to the Justice Ministry, Israel will release 1,904 Palestinian terrorists in the first stage: 737 prisoners and administrative detainees—among them killers with blood on their hands—and 1,167 residents of the Gaza Strip not involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

As of Saturday evening, Israel had yet to receive the names of the first three hostages that Hamas will release on Sunday, in an apparent violation of the agreement that requires the terrorist group to inform Israeli authorities of the names 24 hours in advance.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We will not move forward with the outline until we receive the list of the abductees to be released, as agreed upon. Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement. The sole responsibility is on Hamas.”

In a joint statement on Saturday, the Israeli Defense and Justice ministries, IDF, National Insurance Institute and Israel Police said, “As directed by the Israeli government, starting this evening, personal notices will be delivered to families of terror attack victims, informing them that the terrorists involved in the murder of their loved ones are expected to be released as part of the hostage return framework approved by the government.

“The notices will be delivered to parents, spouses or family representatives through the National Insurance Institute, IDF, Israel Police, and other security agencies. The Israel Ministry of Defense will coordinate this activity, and professional rehabilitation staff will accompany the families during this period. We stand with the bereaved families during these complex times.”
Hamas: 'Al-Aqsa Flood' brought Palestinians closer to 'end of occupation, liberation, and return'
Hamas claimed that the ceasefire deal has brought them closer to “the end of occupation, liberation, and return” in a Saturday statement.

The statement said that “the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood” has “shattered the arrogance of the enemy” and has “forced the occupation to stop the aggression against our people and withdraw, despite [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s attempts to prolong the war and commit more massacres.”

Hamas then claimed that “the occupation” had failed to achieve its “aggressive” war goals and that its only success was to commit war crimes that “shame humanity.”

“The sacrifices of our people in the genocidal war will not go in vain, won’t be forgotten, and the enemy’s leaders and soldiers will be pursued and tried for their crimes, no matter how long it takes,” the statement continued.

Hamas then iterated that its priorities are to immediately end the war, provide relief and shelter to Gazans, return the displaced to their homes, and reconstruct Gaza.

The terrorist organization claimed it has been working on these goals since “day one,” however, it did not specify when day one began.

“The humanitarian aid protocol that was agreed upon under the supervision of the mediators guarantees the implementation of relief, shelter, and reconstruction procedures,” the statement concluded.
Abbas: PA ready to assume ‘full responsibility’ in Gaza
The Palestinian Authority is ready to govern the Gaza Strip in the wake of Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas, P.A. chief Mahmud Abbas said on Friday.

“The Palestinian government, under President Abbas’ directives, has completed all preparations to assume full responsibility in Gaza,” including the return of displaced Gazans, providing basic services, crossings management and reconstruction of the war-torn Strip, the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah quoted Abbas as saying.

Israel withdrew in full from the Gaza Strip in 2005 as part of the disengagement, evacuating some 8,000 Jewish residents and all military posts in the process.

Hamas seized power in the Strip in June 2007 by ousting the P.A. in a weeklong civil war.

Ever since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has been engaged in an ongoing war in the Gaza Strip after Hamas carried out the deadliest single-day attack in the Jewish state’s history, murdering around 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 more into the enclave.

Some 94 hostages from Oct. 7 remain in captivity today, though it is not known how many are still alive.

With the ceasefire set to take effect on Sunday morning, 33 abductees are expected to return in weekly groups in exchange for up to 1,904 Palestinian terrorists in the first stage of the truce agreement spanning 42 days.

And while it is unclear whether the war will resume following the first and second stages—if the ceasefire makes it that far—the “day after” in the Gaza Strip has been discussed in diplomatic circles for months.


Guidelines for hospitals set to receive hostages include STD checks, pregnancy tests
The Health Ministry issued new guidelines Thursday for hospitals preparing to receive hostages released during the upcoming Gaza ceasefire agreement, including administering tests for sexually transmitted diseases as well as pregnancy tests for female hostages.

Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, head of the Health Ministry’s General Medicine Division, said the updated protocols differs “significantly” from those implemented for hostages released during the temporary ceasefire deal of November 2023, when 105 hostages were released.

Returnees will be emerging from more than 15 months in captivity.

“There is a risk that returning hostages may develop Refeeding Syndrome,” Dr. Mizrahi explained. “This condition arises when individuals deprived of food during captivity attempt to compensate by consuming carbohydrates, potentially leading to serious harm.”

Mizrahi said there will be documentation and collection of forensic evidence from any cruelties hostages have suffered. Among other things, hostages will undergo tests for sexually transmitted diseases, with female abductees given pregnancy tests.

The protocol advises a minimum hospital stay of four days for returning hostages. Mizrahi noted that some of the previously released hostages eventually regretted leaving earlier than recommended, suggesting extended stays could better support their recovery.

The guidelines emphasize the need for heightened attention to hygiene, due to concerns of potential exposure to pathogens during captivity.

The ministry also urges families and visitors to avoid taking photos or posting updates on social media from hospital premises, warning such actions could inadvertently harm the recovery process of those freed from Hamas captivity.

Earlier in the week, before the agreement was signed, Dr. Noa Ziv of Schneider Children’s Medical Center said there was a major difference between the condition of the hostages returning now and the 105 civilians released during a week-long truce in late November 2023.

“We saw that the hostages then were in a difficult state, although they faced few medical issues,” Ziv told The Times of Israel this week. “That was after about 50 days of captivity. One can only speculate about the complex health and mental states the hostages will be in after 466 days in captivity.”


Noa Argamani speaks of her time in Hamas captivity at Nova exhibit
Noa Argamani publicly stated the full story of her time in Hamas captivity for the first time on Thursday in Miami at a Nova Music Festival Exhibition event.

The 27-year-old woman was captured by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7 alongside her partner Avinatan Or. She was rescued from captivity by the IDF in Operation Arnon on June 8, 2024, after 245 days in captivity alongside Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40).

At a Nova Music Festival Exhibition event in South Florida, Argamani told attendees about her entire time in captivity. N12 reported it was the first time she had publicly stated her entire story.

"A little over a year ago, no one knew my name," Argamani stated. "I was just a software engineering student. I loved traveling the world, celebrating life, and going to parties — and then I was kidnapped from a party."

Noa's story
"At 6:30 a.m., when the rockets began, we thought it was just another routine round from Gaza," the rescued hostage told the crowd. "I got into our car, but the terrorists started shooting at us no matter which way we turned. Suddenly, our car got stuck. We jumped out, ran into the forest under rocket fire, and hid for hours until a group of terrorists found us."

N12 reported that during her remarks, Argamani played videos of her kidnapping, which was one of the first videos released by Hamas on October 7.

"One of the terrorists grabbed me, and I begged him, 'Please don’t kill us.' They threw me onto a motorcycle and separated me from Avinatan," Argamani said while pointing at the video.


Hillel Fuld: The lump in my throat
You know I am an optimistic guy, or at least I am in the public sphere. I definitely have my moments, but I try not to bring others down with me. Usually, I snap out of it quickly. It is 5:38 a.m. as I write these words after I was woken up by the pit in my stomach. I can’t shake the feeling.

Now, I know I’ve shared multiple posts expressing the nuance in this deal and specifically the joy we will all feel seeing live hostages hug their loved ones again. That is true. I await that moment. We all do. We’ve waited for that moment for a year and a half.

Usually, with most events, that positive thought will outweigh the negative. I’d write a post focusing on the positive, hope for the best, and move on. This time is different. I know from past experiences that I should never watch those videos of our enemies celebrating what they call a victory. I know how deeply it disturbs me to see those things. I also know that their celebrations are baseless and that they won nothing.

This time is different.

I do badly want to believe that with this deal, there is more than meets the eye. I so badly want to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was given a massive incentive to agree to this. Perhaps, there was a guarantee of an Abraham Accords 2.0. Maybe a guarantee that the United States will join Israel when it attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities. Or, maybe, it was a large financial or military incentive. Maybe, if one of those things is part of this deal, then I’d understand why Netanyahu agreed to this deal.

The thing is, I am told by someone in the know that there is no such incentive. I am told that Netanyahu agreed to this months ago, and now that Hamas agreed to it, the pressure was on him to accept “His plan” that he offered all those months ago. I am told that my brother Ari’s murderer could be part of this deal. (I am not saying we know he will be, but it is a possibility.) I find it hard to believe that there is nothing else going on behind the scenes, and I told that to my “source.”

He told me, again, that there aren’t any incentives.

I refuse to believe it. But chances are I am wrong, and I’m being optimistic where there is no room for optimism.


Who are the American-Israeli hostages set to be released in phase one?
American-Israelis Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen are set to be released from Hamas captivity in phase one of a ceasefire-hostage deal.

The agreement comes as President-elect Donald Trump readies to resume his presidency in the White House. Trump warned Hamas against further delaying a deal - promising there would be “hell to pay” should the terror group continue holding hostages once he takes power.


Israel to free up to 1,904 Palestinians in 1st stage of hostage deal, including killers
Israel is set to release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murder, in return for 33 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip during the first, 42-day phase of its deal with Hamas, according to a government decision made early Saturday morning.

The government approved the hostage and ceasefire deal after an eight-hour full cabinet meeting.

Among the Palestinians to go free are 737 jailed detainees and security prisoners, some of whom are serving life sentences for murder.

They include members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, along with women and children being held in Israeli jails. Some prisoners were released in 2011 in return for captive soldier Gilad Shalit later and re-arrested.

The Justice Ministry had, as of Saturday morning, published the names of 735 Palestinian prisoners to allow petitions against their release to be submitted to the High Court.

Israel will also be releasing 1,167 Palestinians detained in the Gaza Strip during the IDF’s ground offensive, who did not participate in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

The numbers could fluctuate depending on how many of the 33 hostages are alive. Hamas has not yet provided the information, although Israel believes that most of them are.


UN unveils action plan to monitor, combat antisemitism worldwide (not satire)
The United Nations introduced its Action Plan to Enhance Monitoring and Response to Antisemitism, the international body announced on Friday.

Developed by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), the initiative establishes a comprehensive framework to address antisemitism while promoting human rights, diversity, and inclusion, the UN stated.

Central to the Action Plan is the creation of a Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group to measure the effectiveness of antisemitism-related policies. This group will work with Jewish organizations to ensure a victim-centered approach.

Regular surveys will track antisemitic attitudes, with results integrated into existing UN anti-racism programs. Education is pivotal to the plan, with the UN planning to train personnel to recognize and combat antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and distortion.

Training materials will incorporate input from Jewish communities and resources such as the UN Holocaust Outreach Programme and UNESCO’s Addressing Antisemitism Through Education guidebook.

The plan also emphasizes the use of technology to counter hate speech and disinformation. Partnerships with digital platforms aim to promote transparency and accountability, while safeguards are proposed against the misuse of generative Artificial Intelligence to amplify antisemitic narratives.

Public advocacy is another cornerstone of the action plan, which details collaborations with Jewish cultural institutions and influencers to amplify campaigns countering antisemitic stereotypes.

Events like International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the UNAOC’s PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival will be expanded to highlight the dangers of antisemitism and promote inclusivity.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the persistence of antisemitism, emphasizing its deep historical roots.


Guterres: More than 100 arms caches found in Southern Lebanon
Peacekeepers have found more than 100 weapons caches in Southern Lebanon since the Israel-Hezbollah truce went into effect on Nov. 27, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday.

“The presence of armed personnel, assets and weapons that do not belong to the Lebanese government or UNIFIL between the Blue Line [border with Israel] and the Litani River constitutes a flagrant violation of [Security Council] Resolution 1701 and undermines the stability of Lebanon,” the Beirut-based National News Agency as saying.

The U.N. chief, who arrived in Beirut on Thursday, accused Israel of ceasefire violations, saying that the Israel Defense Forces attacks in Southern Lebanon were “unacceptable.”

“Attacks against U.N. peacekeepers are completely unacceptable. They violate international law and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime,” he was quoted as saying.

Israel has been attacking terrorist targets in the area, some of which operate near U.N. posts.

In a meeting with Guterres on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the IDF must immediately withdraw from Southern Lebanon. He also expressed concerns over recurring Israeli attacks in the country.

Aoun said via the Lebanese Presidency account on X, “The continued Israeli violations on land and in the air, especially in terms of blowing up houses and destroying border villages, completely contradicts what was stated in the ceasefire agreement and is considered a continuation of the violation of Lebanese sovereignty and the will of the international community.”

The Lebanese Presidency account quoted the U.N. secretary-general as saying, “We will do everything in our power to secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the south within the specified deadline [in the ceasefire agreement, i.e. Jan. 26] and work to secure the international community’s support for what Lebanon requires in the process of revival and removing the repercussions of the events of recent years.”

The Israeli military has carried out attacks in Southern Lebanon as part of its commitment to enforce the terms of the ceasefire agreement.


Terrorist stabs man in Tel Aviv
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a man at the intersection of Levontin and Mikveh Yisrael streets in Tel Aviv on Saturday afternoon, a police spokesman said.

The 27-year-old victim was taken to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) with a wound to the head area. His condition was variously described as moderate and serious.

A passerby shot and killed the attacker, reportedly Salah Yahya, 19, from Tulkarem in Samaria, who was within the Green Line illegally.

Magen David Adom emergency medical service paramedic Itay Atias was quoted by Ynet saying, “We arrived quickly to the scene in large numbers and observed a man in his late 20s lying on the road fully conscious with a stabbing wound to his upper body. We immediately provided him with lifesaving treatment [as] he communicated and talked to us; we carried him into an ambulance and evacuated him [to the hospital] for further treatment in moderate condition.”


IDF downs two Houthi missiles fired from Yemen
The Israeli Air Force on Saturday morning intercepted a missile launched by Houthi terrorists in Yemen at central Israel, the military confirmed.

The missile attack set off air-raid sirens in Tel Aviv and the capital Jerusalem, among other places.

Hours later, the Israel Defense Forces downed a second Houthi missile that triggered sirens in the southernmost city of Eilat as well as in the Arava. The missile was intercepted before entering Israeli airspace, according to the military.

Iranian-backed terrorist militias in Yemen and Iraq said on Thursday that they would cease their attacks against Israel following the agreement on a ceasefire with Hamas.

Mohammed Abdul Salam, the Houthi spokesperson, declared the group’s “battle [is] reaching its conclusion with the declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza.”

The Israel-Hamas truce is set come into effect at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday (0630 GMT), the Qatari Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday.

A Houthi ballistic missile triggered sirens across central Israel early on Tuesday morning, in the second such attack within hours.

The sirens, which sounded just after 3 a.m., startled millions of residents in the Gush Dan, Judean Foothills (Shfela) and Sharon regions. Landings and takeoffs at Ben-Gurion International Airport were briefly suspended.

According to the Israel Police, missile debris hit private homes in Moshav Mevo Beitar and Tzur Hadassah in the Jerusalem area. Police released an image of a large cylinder, identified as part of the Houthi missile, embedded in the roof of a home. Bomb disposal experts and other police forces were deployed to the affected sites.
Hezbollah chief: Israel-Hamas truce proves ‘persistence of resistance’
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem congratulated Hamas on Saturday for achieving a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, arguing the development demonstrated the “persistence of resistance.”

“This deal, which was unchanged from what was proposed in May 2024, proves the persistence of resistance groups, which took what they wanted while Israel was not able to take what it sought,” he said.

In October, Qassem was elected to replace Hezbollah terror master Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sept. 27.

The Israel-Hamas truce is set come into effect at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry.

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect on Nov. 27, ending nearly 14 months of hostilities.

Hezbollah launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terror organization’s massacre in the northwestern Negev.

Nearly 70,000 residents of northern Israel have been internally displaced due to the cross-border attacks from Lebanon.

During “Operation Northern Arrows,” 45 Israeli civilians and 79 IDF soldiers were killed, according to data from the Alma Research and Education Center, which monitors Israel’s northern fronts.


‘Selective indignation’: Rome’s chief rabbi criticizes Pope Francis over Israel remarks
Rome’s chief rabbi sharply criticized Pope Francis over the pontiff’s recent ramping up of criticism against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, in an unusually forceful speech during an annual Catholic-Jewish dialogue event.

Francis has unfairly focused his attention on Israel compared to other ongoing world conflicts, including those in Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia, Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, spiritual leader of Rome’s Jewish community since 2001, said Thursday.

“Selective indignation … weakens the pope’s strength,” said Di Segni.

“A pope cannot divide the world into children and stepchildren and must denounce the sufferings of all,” he said. “This is exactly what the Pope does not do.”

Francis, leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian terror group Hamas. Last week, he called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “very serious and shameful.”

A complex ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas emerged on Wednesday, and is scheduled to start on Sunday.

The war in Gaza was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages as thousands of Hamas-led terrorists rampaged across Israel’s Gaza border communities.

Relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism have improved in recent decades, after centuries of persecution. The event on Thursday, held at a Catholic university, was organized to mark the 36th annual World Day of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue.

One of the organizers, Rev. Marco Gnavi, a Catholic priest, expressed surprise at Di Segni’s comments.

He said he felt “discomfort” because of the rabbi’s words. “You can’t ask us not to suffer both with you and with others,” said the priest.
While Canadian food banks collapse, Ottawa offers $3k each to Gaza ‘refugees’
Liberals claim that they care about other people, but the real mark of Liberal Party governments is how little they care about their own people.

Times are hard in Canada under the corrupt radical Trudeau government.

As Canadians grapple with astronomical grocery prices, troublingly high numbers of people are flocking to food banks to feed their families. Last March alone, two million Canadians visited food banks—a staggering 90 per cent increase from 2019—and the most recent figures estimate that 12,000 new users access them every month. Food banks aren’t just frequented by unhoused and precariously employed folks anymore, either: now, one in five users has a steady job.

Faced with the deluge of need, community food programs across the country have begun closing their doors due to empty shelves

That means it’s the right time to bring a whole bunch of freeloading “refugees” from terrorist Gaza to Canada.

The Liberal government will provide tax-free grants of $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per child to Gazan refugees arriving in Canada, the Department of Immigration announced Thursday…

Thus far, 4,782 applications have been approved, and 616 Gazans have arrived, typically as relatives of Canadian residents.

“While it is extremely difficult for people to exit Gaza at this time, Canada is making sure necessary support is in place for Gazans as they start to arrive in our country,” the department said.

The government has not disclosed the total cost of the refugee program.

“Canada is the only country in the world with a dedicated pathway for extended family members of its citizens or permanent residents in Gaza,” the department stated in a May 27 briefing note.

That’s not something to be proud of.
The Palestinian Flag Has Become The New Red Flag - Einat Wilf
The Visegrad24 team met up with Einat Wilf in Tel Aviv to ask her about why there is no peace with the Palestinians, who the Arabs of the Levant are and why she thinks that the Islamic Regime in Iran is the new Soviet Union.

Einat is a former Member of the Knesset (Israel's Parliament) and a former Intelligence Officer of the IDF's famous Unit 8200.

She was born in Jerusalem and raised in a Labor Zionist family. After completing her military service with the rank of Lieutenant, she graduated from Harvard University with BA in government and fine arts, before earning an MBA from INSEAD in France, and subsequently a PhD in political science at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.

She served as a Foreign Policy Advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres before becoming a Member of the Knesset herself in 2010.

According to Wilf, the core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not primarily territorial, but revolves around the issue of Palestinian refugees. Wilf has consistently emphasized the imperative of taking action in the UN to dissolve UNRWA, contending that it perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem. In the 2020 book The War of Return, Wilf and Adi Schwartz argue that the Palestinian right of return is not a right, but a thinly-veiled attempt for the destruction of Israel, and is the most salient reason there has not been peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

00:00 - Introduction
01:49 - War With the Arab World
04:08 - No Palestinian State
09:21 - Arabs of the Levant
14:36 - Abraham Accords & Peace
21:29 - Qatar & Antisemitism
26:00 - Iran, the new USSR
29:33 - Left-Wing Antisemitism
34:39 - Left-Wing Jews
43:23 - Birth rates in Israel
45:13 - The PR War




Defeated ‘Squad’ members Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush to host pity party with far-left nonprofit before Trump returns to office
As Washington gears up for a weekend of inaugural galas and balls marking President Trump’s return to the White House — his haters are having a pity party.

Newly unemployed House “Squad” members Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush will be headlining their own inaugural celebration, sponsored by the far-left nonprofit, CodePink.

Bowman and Bush — who were both ousted in primaries last year by moderate Democrats — will be joined by a murderer’s row of far-left propagandists including Angela Davis, DEI scholar Ibram X. Kendi, and Mehdi Hasan, a Qatari state-media asset and a known plagiarist who has in the past openly supported radical Islam. Rep. Summer Lee, a newer Squad member from Pennsylvania, will also be there.

The “Peace Ball: Voice of Justice and Liberation” is scheduled for Saturday night at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington D.C. Tickets are $375 a person.

The event promises “live music, inspiring speeches and captivating performances” along with food and an open bar.

Codepink, a nonprofit catering to the progressive cat-lady wing of the Democratic party, is most famous for ambushing members of Congress and peppering them with far-left demands. The group has taken a particularly vocal stance in support of Hamas — and even went to a synagogue to harass Jewish CNN journalist Dana Bash in November.

The nonprofit receives significant support from groups close to the Chinese Communist Party and now regularly promotes China’s agenda, a New York Times investigation found last year.

“As American Jews face an unprecedented surge in antisemitism, it is alarming and deplorable to see groups like CodePink celebrating those who justify terror against Israel. The so-called ‘2025 Peace Ball’ platform includes voices that justify Hamas’ atrocities, demonize the Jewish state, and embolden extremists,” said Lizzy Savetsky, a former Real Housewives of New York star and among those in contention to serve as Trump’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.


More than seventy arrested after Palestine protestors defy Met’s calls for calm
The Metropolitan police have arrested 77 people after pro-Palestine protestors breached police orders to stay away from the BBC and central London synagogues.

The march, which contained protestors carrying placards emblazoned with swastikas and antisemitic tropes, took place after organisers Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) chose to defy police restrictions on the location of the march.

Police said the demonstration amounted to the most “significant escalation in criminality” in the nearly 16 months of regular pro-Palestine marches.

Defying a police mandate against the march entering an area covering the BBC’s New Broadcasting House and the nearby Central Synagogue – where congregants have been attending services throughout the day – a few hundred of the approximately 5000 demonstrators were stopped by rows of police officers and vehicles.

A large group of demonstrators who forced their way through the line of police were then held by a second blockade at the northwest corner of Trafalgar Square.

A statement from the Met said a “persistent group intent on continuing to breach the conditions tried to leave Trafalgar Square by other routes but were ultimately contained by officers. More than 60 of the group were arrested.”

Commander Adam Slonecki, the Met officer who led the policing operation, said: “We have policed more than 20 national protests organised by the PSC since October 2023.

"This is the highest number of arrests we have seen, in response to the most significant escalation in criminality.

“We could not have been clearer about the conditions put in place.”


NY’s anti-Zionist protesters celebrate ceasefire as victory, hail the ‘resistance’
On October 8, 2023, while the blood was still wet in southern Israel and long before Israel launched its offensive in Gaza, hundreds of anti-Israel activists gathered in New York City’s Times Square to celebrate the Hamas invasion and rail against the Jewish state.

On New Year’s Day 2025, before a Gaza ceasefire agreement was announced, the same groups gathered in the same location beneath the plaza’s enormous, illuminated American flag. And on Thursday, after the hostage deal was announced, they were there again.

Regardless of the shifting landscape in the Middle East and spiraling toll in Gaza, the rallying cry at all three events was the same: “Long live the intifada.” The protesters vow to continue on the same path.

The standard-bearers for New York’s anti-Israel activist network nominally backed a ceasefire in scattered statements they made throughout the conflict. The overriding goal, though, was always the eradication of Israel and remains so now. “Smash the settler Zionist state,” one of their chants says.

Within Our Lifetime, the most prominent anti-Israel protest group in the city, hailed the Hamas attack the day it happened.

“We must defend the Palestinian right to resist zionist settler violence and support Palestinian resistance in all its forms. By any means necessary. With no exceptions and no fine print,” the group has said.

Columbia University’s anti-Israel student coalition, which instigated a protest encampment movement that spread across the US and abroad, marks October 7, 2023, as part of the “heroic struggle for Palestinian liberation.”

Both groups also celebrated the ceasefire announcement, not as a cessation of violence, but as a step forward in their struggle. Within Our Lifetime put out a statement that said, “Gaza has won, Palestine has won, resistance has won.” Columbia University Apartheid Divest, led by the campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, said, “We must fight and escalate.”


Historians’ Council Vetoes Gaza Scholasticide Condemnation
The American Historical Association’s top elected body has shot down a resolution opposing scholasticide in Gaza, after members who attended its annual convention approved the statement early this month by a 428-to-88 margin.

The association’s elected council, which has 16 voting members, could have accepted the resolution or sent it to the organization’s roughly 10,450 members for a vote. Instead, the council rejected it as the official position of the association.

Jim Grossman, the association’s executive director and a nonvoting member of the council, said the Thursday afternoon vote was 11 to 4, with one abstention. He said the meeting was over Zoom.

The rejected resolution had condemned the U.S. government’s funding of Israel, saying it “has supplied Israel with the weapons being used to commit this scholasticide” and that Israel “has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system.” Scholasticide is defined as the intentional eradication of an education system.

The resolution also called for a permanent ceasefire and for the association to form a committee to help rebuild Gaza’s “educational infrastructure.”

In a written explanation of the veto, the council said it “deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities and archives in Gaza.”

However, it considers the resolution to be a contravention of AHA’s “constitution and bylaws because it lies outside the scope of the association’s mission and purpose.” The constitution, the council noted, defines that mission and purpose as “the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of research, teaching and publication; the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts; the dissemination of historical records and information; the broadening of historical knowledge among the general public; and the pursuit of kindred activities in the interest of history.”


Biden aides admit they mistakenly targeted 2 US citizens immune from settler sanctions
Two US officials acknowledged to The Times of Israel that Washington didn’t properly vet some of the settlers it sanctioned last year, leading to the designation of two Israelis who also have US citizenship, which should have made them ineligible for targeting under an executive order signed by US President Joe Biden aimed at curbing rampant settler violence in the West Bank.

Issachar Manne, who was sanctioned in July, and Levi Yitzchak Pilant, who was sanctioned in August, are both US citizens, but they were identified in the US Treasury Department announcement as “foreign persons.”

The two US officials acknowledged to The Times of Israel that the administration’s vetting process failed to identify the pair as US citizens. The Treasury Department and State Department did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Manne and Pilant have sued the US government, arguing that the sanctions violated their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. They also note that they should have been ineligible for sanctions by virtue of their US citizenship.

The settlers’ legal team maintained in their lawsuit that by imposing the sanctions without a trial, the administration violated the dual citizens’ right to due process, as guaranteed in the US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. They further suggested that the executive order itself could violate that provision, citing a 1972 ruling by the US Supreme Court that “vague laws may trap the innocent by not providing fair warning.”

In addition, the lawyers disputed that the accusations against their clients are true, and suggested that by mistakenly labeling Manne a “foreign person” — a term they argued is inconsistent with US citizenship — the administration demonstrated it can’t be trusted to ascertain the facts of the matter in this case.
PA makes deal with Jenin Battalion, ending standoff in West Bank city and camp
The Palestinian Authority has reached an agreement with the Jenin Battalion that will end a six-week standoff in the northern West Bank city and adjacent refugee camp, a Palestinian official confirmed to The Times of Israel on Friday.

The West Bank-based PA has been targeting the so-called Jenin Battalion, made up of operatives affiliated with terror groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a bid to show incoming US President Donald Trump that Ramallah can maintain order in the West Bank, amid its push to take the reigns of Gaza from Hamas after the war there.

According to the official, the truce was reached Friday evening, a day after negotiations resumed following a rupture earlier this week, said to have been caused by Israel’s resumption of airstrikes on Jenin.

The truce deal requires specific members of the Jenin Battalion to hand over their weapons and allows the PA to operate freely in the refugee camp, the official said.

PA vehicles were already filmed entering the refugee camp on Friday evening with bomb-squad units to detonate explosives that the Jenin Battalion placed throughout the area to harm Israeli and PA forces. Palestinian media reported that as PA vehicles entered the camp, dozens of people gathered to chant slogans in favor of the armed groups.

Ramallah has accused Iran of funding and arming the Jenin Battalion and other armed factions throughout the West Bank. The armed groups have gained significant prominence in the northern West Bank over the past several years.


Gunman shoots dead 2 judges in Iran’s capital tied to 1988 mass executions
A man fatally shot two prominent hard-line judges in Iran’s capital Saturday, officials said, both of whom allegedly took part in the mass execution of dissidents in 1988.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shootings of the judges, clerics Mohammad Mogheiseh and Ali Razini. However, Razini’s involvement in the 1988 executions had likely made him a target in the past, including an assassination attempt in 1999.

Their killings, a rare attack targeting the judiciary, also come as Iran faces economic turmoil, the mauling of its Mideast allies by Israel and the return of Donald Trump to the White House on Monday.

Both clerics served on Iran’s Supreme Court, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. A bodyguard for one of the judges also was wounded in the attack at the Palace of Justice in Tehran, which also serves as the headquarters of the country’s judiciary and typically has tight security.

The attacker, who was armed with a handgun, killed himself, IRNA said.

“According to initial investigations, the person in question did not have a case in the Supreme Court nor was he a client of the branches of the court,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said. “Currently, investigations have been launched to identify and arrest the perpetrators of this terrorist act.”


'Surviving Mengele’s Auschwitz' is seminal Holocaust document of the banality of evil
Richard K. Lowy’s Kalman & Leopold: Surviving Mengele’s Auschwitz is a harrowing and meticulously detailed account of two Holocaust survivors whose paths crossed in Auschwitz II-Birkenau under the shadow of Dr. Josef Mengele’s notorious experiments. This work is more than a historical record; it’s a testament to resilience, friendship, and the imperative of preserving Holocaust memories as the generation of survivors dwindles.

The book is set to be released amid preparations for the January 27 commemoration in Poland of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The event is in the news over Poland’s controversial decision to grant immunity to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court. A must-read for anyone who cares about Holocaust remembrance, this is a reminder that Auschwitz resonates far beyond the vulgarity of the quotidian. Politics dominate the news cycle, but Lowy’s work calls for a deeper engagement with the memory of genuinely unimaginable horror.

Author Richard K. Lowy, a Jewish Canadian, is the son of Holocaust survivor Leopold Lowy, one of some 3,000 twins subjected to genetic experiments by the notorious SS doctor Josef Mengele at Birkenau’s medical barracks during the Holocaust.

In 2022, his efforts to record his father’s experiences yielded an unforeseen link to Kalman Bar On, another Mengele twin, who was in Israel (the story was first presented by Lowy that year, at the Enav Cultural Center in Tel Aviv).

Lowy pieced together the fragments of his father’s life through personal interviews, archival footage, and firsthand accounts – resulting in a document that serves as a voice for both Leopold and Kalman, two men who survived the unimaginable and maintained their humanity in the face of the relentless inhumanity that beset them.

The forward of the book, which will be available on Amazon on January 27, is written by Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum, who emphasizes the urgent need to document survivors’ experiences before they are lost forever. The reason is well known: With each passing year, fewer survivors remain to bear witness, making the preservation of their stories through books such as Kalman & Leopold an indispensable endeavor.
Israeli businessman alleges family ejected from Swiss hotel in frigid night due to antisemitism
Yaniv Bender, an Israeli businessman and former CEO of Psagot Investment House, claims he and seven family members were evicted from a luxury hotel in the Swiss ski resort town of Arosa in an incident he describes as severe antisemitic discrimination.

Bender, 36, who visibly identifies as Jewish by wearing a kippah and tzitzit, reported that the manager of The Tschuggen Collection hotel ordered them to leave late at night in freezing temperatures, allegedly saying, "You and your children are barbarians."

At the start of the vacation, during a skiing session, Bender's brother-in-law dislocated his shoulder and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Additionally, Bender’s wife came down with the flu and remained in their room with a high fever. Due to her condition, Bender requested to postpone a scheduled spa treatment by two days, but the hotel refused and demanded payment. When Bender went to the reception desk to speak with the manager, the situation quickly escalated.

“The manager arrived, and the incident began to spiral into absurdity,” Bender recounted. “The manager spoke to me terribly. He said, ‘You are a barbarian. Your children are barbarians. How do you raise your children? My children don’t behave like this.’”

At that point, the manager informed Bender, “I want you out of the hotel today. Get out of here.” Bender explained that he could not leave in the middle of the night, as his brother-in-law had a dislocated shoulder and his wife was severely ill. He asked to stay until the morning, but the manager insisted that they leave the hotel immediately.

“We didn’t understand his aggression,” Bender said. “We asked him if he had a problem with us being Jewish. The manager replied, ‘Yes.’ At that moment, he became vulgar and hostile. He called the police. We were in complete shock. We hadn’t done anything wrong. We were just a family with three small children who hadn’t made any excessive noise. We couldn’t understand where this was coming from.”

A Swiss police officer arrived but did not speak English, so two English-speaking officers were summoned from a nearby city. The officers entered the room, saw the family with their young children, and asked them to leave. “We requested time to pack and leave. We asked, ‘On what grounds are you doing this?’ The officers explained that under Swiss law, if a hotel owner wants to evict a guest, they can.”
Nazi flag-bearing man gets 8 years in jail for crashing truck near White House
A Missouri man who crashed a rental truck into barriers protecting the White House was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison for an attack that prosecutors said was inspired by his fascination with Nazi ideology, court records show.

Sai Varshith Kandula, then 19, nearly struck two people standing next to a park bench when he steered a U-Haul box truck onto a sidewalk and toward metal bollards that prevent vehicles from entering Lafayette Square, which is located north of the White House. He retrieved a Nazi flag from a backpack after the May 22, 2023, crash, which didn’t injure anybody.

Kandula wanted to “attack and destroy” the United States government, prosecutors said.

“He wanted to eliminate the democratic process in America and replace the government with a Nazi-style dictatorship,” they wrote.

US District Judge Dabney Friedrich also sentenced Kandula to three years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay nearly $57,000 in restitution, according to court records.

Defense attorney Scott Rosenblum said Kandula was suffering from schizophrenia and was overwhelmed by delusional thoughts, including his belief that “a reptilian race had installed a puppet regime to operate the US.”

“He’s amenable to treatment, understands its necessity, and recognizes an illness produced the acts that led to his current circumstances,” Rosenblum wrote.

Prosecutors recommended an eight-year prison sentence for Kandula, who pleaded guilty in May to a property damage charge. He has remained in custody since his arrest.

Kandula planned the attack for weeks before he took a flight from St. Louis to Washington, DC, only hours before the crash, prosecutors said. He rented the truck in Herndon, Virginia approximately three hours before he crashed it into the barriers.




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