Monday, January 20, 2025

01/20 Links Pt2: How the left’s missteps shaped Israel’s struggles; Poll: 21% of US voters support Hamas over Israel in conflict; Palestine Red Crescent Spokesman Photographed with Terrorists

From Ian:

How the left’s missteps shaped Israel’s struggles
The 2025 hostage deal: A tragic moral dilemma
In the Israel-Hamas hostage deal, two good values are pitted against each other and are mutually exclusive. On one side is the profound Jewish value of redeeming captives (pidyon shvuyim), based on deep compassion for victims and their families. On the other side is the equally compelling need to prevent future murders, deter further hostage-taking and avoid another Oct. 7 tragedy. The left has championed the former value—redeeming captives—at the expense of the latter, which it has made sacrosanct. They have pressured for a deal at almost any cost.

The success of the left’s marketing campaign has been striking, wielding the same PR machinery that rallied relentless domestic and global pressure for the Shalit deal and more recently against judicial reform. The influence blitz turned the hostage issue into an untouchable ideal; it was a PR triumph, practically transforming the hostage issue into a form of worship. It succeeded in swaying many Jews in Israel and abroad to focus on one value while inadvertently sidelining the other and thereby pressuring for a hostage deal even at a very high price.

Yet, the costs of this deal are staggering; not only an IDF withdrawal from strategic areas that will allow Hamas to rebuild and restock, but in the first stage alone, Israel is expected to release 1,904 Palestinian prisoners—many of them mass murderers and attempted murderers. These include 737 individuals serving life sentences for heinous crimes, such as one responsible for six murders and another for forty-five. Disturbingly, 47 of these prisoners are repeat offenders—terrorists previously released in the 2011 Shalit deal who later committed additional attacks. The numbers paint a grim picture. Hard evidence from too many past deals provides hard evidence of what we can expect: for one Israeli saved, Gilad Shalit, well over 1,000 were murdered. Eighty-two percent of the 1,000 terrorists freed in the Shalit exchange returned to terrorism, according to the Israel Security Agency. Applying similar math to the 2025 deal sends chills down the spine.

The deal forced upon us by the left considers the deep, real and tragic pain of the hostages and their families. But what of the unspeakable anguish of those whose loved ones were murdered by the terrorists now set free? What of the grief of the families of soldiers who died heroically—who fought to eradicate Hamas, to make evil pay and to prevent another Oct. 7, only to see their sacrifices undermined as the terrorists grow emboldened?

And what of the pain of the civilians and families who will inevitably suffer when these released monsters strike again—those who will be murdered or abducted because of this decision?

The pattern of mistakes
The left’s idealism, while rooted in genuine desire for peace and justice, has repeatedly ignored the harsh realities of the region. These decisions have not only cost lives but have emboldened those who seek Israel’s destruction. The right has consistently warned against these dangers, often standing alone as the defenders of Israel’s security. The right has been consistently and unmistakably right since 1993. The left has consistently left reality behind and led the Jewish people to multiple disasters.

Maybe there is something we don’t know; I hope so. But our people and leaders need to exercise better judgment, using wisdom and humility to ensure that critical decisions reflect both practical reality and higher moral principles.

The way forward
Stopping the left’s destructive influence requires an honest reckoning. Strategic decisions are always complex and filled with difficult moral calculations, but security must always trump sentimentality and naivete. As history shows, Israel’s survival hinges on pragmatic, hard-headed policies that prioritize the safety of its citizens over fleeting hopes of appeasement driven by the blind idealism of one side that ignores the antisemitic reality of the other. It is time to learn from the past, to stop repeating the mistakes that have cost so much and to stand united as one people in the face of an enduring threat.

Our children have now paid the price for the mistakes of the older and unwise generation. Israeli youth rose to the occasion as Jewish lions. As Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “We saw how the ‘TikTok Generation’ emerged as a generation of historic strength, whose bravery will be etched in the annals of Israeli history.” But now we grapple with whether the superhuman sacrifices of the soldiers and their families, while unquestionably heroic, will achieve the lasting impact they fought for.

While it’s too early to definitively label this deal a disaster—especially since there’s a strong likelihood that Hamas will undermine the agreement—it is both scary and deeply unsettling to consider what may lie ahead. While the prospect of bringing hostages home is incredibly heartening, decisions must ultimately be guided by calculated probabilities and strategic foresight.

At this time, our whole people is in a collective state of trauma brought on by the Oct. 7 massacre, almost a year and a half of war, missiles and hostages, and the devastating antisemitic response and betrayal of so much of the world.

Will the left at last fulfill another Jewish value, that of having the humility to admit its mistakes and stop pressuring for dangerous policies? If they do, two critical outcomes will be achieved: Jewish lives will be safer, and peace with our neighbors will be closer.
Cary Nelson and Joe Lockard: The Decline and Fall of Katherine Franke
When Columbia issued its correction, Franke had a clear professional responsibility as a faculty member to withdraw her claim about Israeli students. Instead, she ignored an ethical imperative to withdraw a false accusation that placed Israeli students under a cloud of suspicion and possibly endangered their physical safety. It is no accident that Franke decided to post her statement on the AAUP’s Academe blog, which has long been a committed vehicle for pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel opinion.

Threats to academic freedom in the United States arise largely from structural causes. These include the casualisation of academic labour, deterioration of faculty governance provisions, corporatisation of research enterprise, dismissal of humanities and arts studies, and so on. That is not the picture one gets from the Academe blog, where the primary obsession has been campus reaction to the Gaza war.

Readers of the blog in 2024 will have learned that a Holocaust-themed campus opera production embodies Zionist silencing over a “genocide” in Gaza, that there is no difference between free speech and campus building take-overs and obstruction, and that a university’s study of and proposed action against antisemitism not only suppresses political speech but undermines “the legitimacy and autonomy of democratic institutions, including universities, public K-12 schools, and unions.”

In short, browsers of the official AAUP blog will discover that Jewish forces manipulate campus life and pose the most pressing threat to US academic freedom. It is an old conspiracy in new clothes. The Academe blog has published dozens of articles that constitute a false martyrology of campus free speech over Gaza. The uncritical republication of Katherine Franke’s statement alleging her forced retirement is simply the latest example of this dispiriting trend—a consequence of lax editorial scrutiny and insufficient critical thought.

The question then turns to why an organ of the American Association of University Professors would publish a falsification of such an easily discernible record. That editorial credulity speaks to an a priori willingness to believe some preferred voices rather than ask searching questions. This same credulity led Franke to both endorse and intensify anti-Zionist myths that have proliferated on campuses since 7 October 2023. The editorial credulity represents a collective delusion; Franke’s represents a more personal one.

Franke first attracted international attention in 2018 when she was denied entry to Israel on the basis of its law allowing the government to bar entry to BDS leaders. Israel later reversed its ruling and no other faculty members were affected. But in the way that all anti-Israel news acquires an infinite lifetime, her initial denial stands as permanent evidence of her alleged martyrdom. It was evidently time to breathe new life into this self-serving legend.
Poll: 21% of US voters support Hamas over Israel in conflict
Twenty-one percent of American voters say they support Hamas over Israel in Jerusalem’s ongoing war against the U.S.-designated terrorist organization, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll published over the weekend.

Harvard/Harris surveyed a representative sample of 2,650 registered voters on Jan. 15-16. (The reported margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points at a confidence level of 95%.)

Asked “Do you support more Israel or more Hamas?” in the war, 75% of Democrats backed the Jewish state, while 25% expressed more approval for the Palestinian terrorist group. Among Republican voters, 81% said they supported Jerusalem more, compared to 19% for Hamas.

Support for Hamas polled the highest among the 25 to 34 age group, where almost one-third said they favored the terrorists over Israel.

The Harvard/Harris survey also found that a majority of the American public believes that the negotiations led by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump led to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that Hamas “agreed to the deal because of negotiations” led by Trump’s team, compared to 43% who thought that outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden made it happen.

Eighty-four percent of Republicans said Trump was responsible, compared to 75% of Democrats who thought that Biden’s negotiations led Hamas to accept the truce. Among independent voters, 60% credited Trump and 40% Biden.

The vast majority of respondents, 82%, said they backed “the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas which aims to end the war in Gaza and release hostages.”

Support for the deal was higher among Democrats, 87% of whom said they backed the deal, with 81% of Republicans expressing approval.


Palestine Red Crescent Spokesman Photographed with Apparent Terrorists
A new Jewish Onliner investigation has found evidence linking Raed Al-Nams, a spokesman for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Gaza, to Palestinian terror organizations, including Al-Nams appearing alongside armed members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and glorifying their actions.

His actions and affiliations raises serious concerns about the conduct of the PRCS and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which works closely with the PRCS in Gaza on all matters relating to medical care, humanitarian aid, and relief. This concern is amplified as the ICRC plays a key role in facilitating the ongoing hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas, a process requiring complete neutrality.

A Spokesman for Humanitarianism—or Violence?
Al-Nams’ Facebook features photos of himself standing alongside armed terrorists such as Abdul Raouf Qadan, a member of the U.S.-designated terrorist group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Al Nams has posted other images glorifying violence, including children holding AK-47s. One of his prior cover photos celebrates Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who was convicted of murdering six Israelis, and is slated to be released as part of the current ceasefire arrangement between Israel and the Hamas terror group.

Mocking Tragedy, Praising Terrorism
After the Iranian regime shot down a Ukrainian airliner in 2020, killing 176 innocent people, al-Nams published a Facebook post mocking the tragedy and sarcastically writing "Iran accidentally bombed a Ukrainian plane, killing 81 ‘poor’ passengers, in revenge for the blood of Qassem Soleimani."

Soleimani was the former head of Iran’s covert operations branch, the Quds Force, and was a key figure in developing Iran’s proxy network, the “Axis of Resistance.”

Al-Nams appears to be a strong supporter of Fatah, a secular nationalist Palestinian party currently led by Mahmoud Abbas. The military wing of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization, and continues to claim responsibility for deadly attacks on Israeli civilians. Al-Nams’s Facebook page features multiple photos of him attending Fatah events, including one where he and other PRCS personnel are seen wearing PRCS vests.


Hamas' Favorite New Media Outlet Shouldn't be Funded by American Taxpayers
The 501(c)(3) framework continues to be exploited by extremist entities that support U.S.-designated terrorist organizations and employ individuals with ties to terrorism. A recent example of this troubling phenomenon is Drop Site, a project founded by former Intercept staffers Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim.

Beyond their generally pro-Hamas coverage and “exclusive interviews” with senior Hamas officials, the outlet utilizes the services of several individuals with concerning connections to U.S.-designated terror groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Additionally, some associated individuals have openly expressed support for terrorism and the Hamas-led massacre on October 7th.

The sections below detail these individuals, their affiliations, and their concerning statements.

I’m publishing this on Substack, rather than limiting it to a thread on my X account, because it’s just been brought to my attention that Drop Site—which currently benefits from 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship through the Social Security Works Education Fund—is now applying for its own 501(c)(3) status. I am hoping this format will make it easier to send this to relevant parties so that this potentiality can be avoided.

Below is a breakdown of the terror-tied individuals associated with Drop Site:
1. Hossam Shabat
Drop Site runs articles by Hossam Shabat, confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to be a Hamas sniper.

Seeing as the IDF has already confirmed Hossam’s Hamas membership, I will not break down my own findings. However, some of Hossam’s glorification of terror can be found on this thread I previously published.

2. Mujahed al-Saadi
Another Drop Site contributor, Mujahed also writes for Palestine Today TV, which belongs to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization (as confirmed by the State Department as well).

You can see my full breakdown of Mujahed’s apparently close relationship with Islamic Jihad officials, including the infamous (now deceased) leader Khader Adnan, in this thread I published several months back.
Anti-Israel Wikipedia editors face bans after spreading hate, misinformation
Multiple anti-Israel Wikipedia editors are likely to be topic-banned after spreading misinformation and hate across the site, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced on Friday.

The users have been under investigation by the Wikipedia arbitration board following 'disruptive behavior' surrounding their edits on the discussion of Israel and Palestine, according to the Jewish Journal.

Two Pro-Israel editors face being topic-banned as well, the Jewish Journal noted, adding that the bans have yet to be voted on, but will likely occur within the next few days.

The ADL said it welcomed this potential decision, as the multiple users also enacted a 'bad-faith' campaign against the organization, undermining their credibility by editing their page on Wikipedia and claiming they were 'generally unreliable' when it came to the Middle East topic.

"We're pleased that the Wikipedia arbitration board has taken disciplinary action against some editors who, in our view, have spread malicious, false, and biased information about Zionism and Israel across the platform,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director, said.

Greenblatt continued, “It's worth noting that several of the chief instigators of the campaign against ADL are among those now facing topic bans or outright bans for their behavior” Imperative to 'undo the harm'

"In light of this, it is now imperative for Wikipedia to begin work immediately to undo the harm caused by these rogue but prolific editors who literally have wreaked havoc across the platform, causing untold harm to potentially hundreds of entries about Israel, the Oct. 7 massacre, Zionism and topics relating to antisemitism.

"As we have said before, Wikipedia needs to wake up to the reality that this is a systemic problem across the platform that needs immediate action. There is still a lot more that must be done to ensure that Wikipedia can live up to its policy around the encyclopedia holding a neutral point of view.”
Why Jewish timidity must end: lessons from October 7 and beyond
We are living in a dangerous time for Jews. A “global emergency” is how Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt described the current climate last week following the release of an ADL report noting that 46% of the world’s population harbors antisemitic views.

But cases like Coates – and the endless other encounters I’ve had with American Jews too timid to speak out at the hate right in front of them – are only making things worse.

Believe me, I get it. White people taking on Black literary giants like Ta-Nehisi Coates within a culture overwhelmed by identity politics and “cancel” fears is a fraught and terrifying prospect. Particularly for Jews, continuously labeled as “privileged” by a punitive and overreaching DEI system that denies our ethnic distinctiveness, along with the violence and discrimination being waged against us.

TRUMP HAS committed to taking on – if not taking out – DEI on his first day in office. Indeed, even before he assumed office, Trump’s DEI threats saw companies ranging from Walmart to Facebook end their DEI programs.

Government action, even from the top, can change policy, but it cannot necessarily change minds – at least not immediately. It will take far more than an executive order to dismantle the conformity and coerciveness that has made DEI so fearsome for those, like Jews, who fall outside its purview.

But the recognition that race-based ideologies like DEI have failed many of America’s most imperiled presents an opportunity for Jews to unshackle themselves from timidity and speak up for their own. In a sense, we have no other choice. Jews were also among the most “secure” during Weimar Germany, yet many were mired, understandably, by timidity as Hitler implemented policy after policy that resulted in their extermination.

This is not about assigning blame, particularly to victims of Hitler’s horrors, but acknowledging that inaction ultimately leads to impunity.

Coates may have missed his Miami engagement because of a natural disaster, but he went on to appear at countless other public gatherings where he freely spewed his antisemitic agenda.

He might not have been allowed to had the Jews in Miami taken a stand last October or if the Jews who contacted me worried about a subsequent Coates event in New York had also not caved into fears of being branded a racist.

Regardless of our personal views of Trump, the president has made clear that this climate of intimidation and self-censorship must end, even if his primary focus is not on its impact on Jews. But as the post-October 7 silence of so many minority groups that we have supported makes clear today, Jews must be focused on Jews. And timidity is the enemy of this effort.

There has been nothing timid about Jews like Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who crossed the globe to secure the release of her son, Hersh, ultimately murdered by Hamas. Nor are the parents of teenage Israeli soldiers timid as they send their children to defend the Jewish nation.

Whether in Teaneck or Tel Aviv, we are all part of this Jewish nation, compelled by a shared sense of history to display equal levels of bravery. The arrival of Trump to the White House offers an opportunity to end this atmosphere of timidity, accusations of racism or privilege be damned.Because if not now, when?
In hearing, Kristi Noem pledges to prevent domestic terrorism and counter antisemitism
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, committed at her confirmation hearing on Friday to prioritize efforts to prevent domestic terrorism and counter the surge in antisemitism nationwide.

“We must remain vigilant against terrorism and against others who wish to do harm to our Country and its great people. I will ensure that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are working together, hand-in-hand, fully equipped to detect, prevent, and respond to threats from radical ideologies or foreign adversaries,” Noem said in her opening statement. “This requires resources, coordination, and collaboration across all levels of government. Once again, I will seek your wisdom and you input in the months ahead. For the sake of the people we both represent, we must get this right.”

Members of the committee grilled Noem on her plans to address border security issues, prevent homegrown and foreign terror attacks and oversee one of the federal government’s largest departments – which employs over a quarter million people across 22 federal agencies including the Coast Guard, Secret Service, TSA, FEMA, Customs and Border Protection and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, among others.

Asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) if she was tracking the surge in attacks against American Jews since Oct. 7 and if she planned to try and address antisemitism in her role, Noem responded affirmatively.

“I’m very concerned about what we’ve seen in this country as far as antisemitic violence that has happened. In fact, last year during our legislative session I brought legislation to more clearly define it [antisemitism] so that we could fight it in our home state,” Noem said. “I’m hopeful I can work with you to continue to do what we can to make sure that we are addressing this rising threat and not facilitating it in this country.”

Republicans mostly focused their questioning on how Noem planned to execute Trump’s border security crackdown and deportation efforts, while several Democrats pressed the South Dakota governor on her counterterrorism and disaster management experience. On the immigration front, Noem vowed to bolster security at the northern and southern borders and support Trump in his deportation efforts.


Biden admin rushes agreements in Jew-hatred probes to shield schools from Trump, experts say
The U.S. Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights announced more resolutions of complaints about “shared ancestry” against schools and districts under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the past month than it did in the prior six months.

Even when taking into account that it sometimes resolved multiple allegations in the same announcement, the federal government resolved two-thirds as many Title VI complaints for bias, including Jew-hatred, since Dec. 19 as it had done from June 17 to Dec. 18.

Experts told JNS that the Biden administration sought both to rush “wins” in its 11th hour and to protect schools and districts from what they perceived as harsher investigations under the new Trump administration.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus, legal director of the Deborah Project, a public interest law firm that focuses on Jew-hatred on campus, told JNS that there is no question that schools are going to try to use the agreements “as a shield.”

“They are going to make their best arguments, and anyone representing a plaintiff during the next administration is going to make their best argument,” she said. “It just depends on whether a court will say, ‘The agreement either is insufficient or it doesn’t address these particular issues that you’ve raised in court.’”

Lowenthal Marcus thinks that the Biden administration has issued so many agreements of late “because the Department of Education under this administration is trying to have as much control as it can or reach as widely as it can, because it has a particular ideological viewpoint, and the next administration has a very different one.”

If a defendant could prove in court that a university or school district had violated an agreement with the federal government, that “would be powerful,” according to Lowenthal Marcus. “But the defendant university would argue that it hadn’t violated the agreement, and the court would have to examine the facts to make a determination.”

“The incoming administration is widely anticipated to be far more demanding of defendant universities to be responsive to complainants, such as most of the Jewish students and teachers who have brought claims over the past 15 months,” she said.

By entering an agreement with the federal government, a school or district essentially admits that it failed to take certain steps, according to Lowenthal Marcus. (The agreements that the federal government has announced note that schools haven’t admitted to wrongdoing in curbing Jew-hatred.)
Adam Schiff Re-Hires Former Radical Pro-Palestinian Staffer Maher Bitar
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has re-hired Maher Bitar, a former White House staffer who spent his student years as a pro-Palestinian radical in Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and played a major role in the Biden administration.

Bitar’s new job is confirmed by Legistorm. He also previously worked for Schiff during the first impeachment effort against then-President Donald Trump, who will return to office on Monday.

As Breitbart News reported last year:
Maher Bitar, the White House Coordinator for Intelligence and Defense Policy at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC), was a radical pro-Palestinian activist and a leader within Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

The SJP is one of the most prominent groups involved in the pro-Hamas, antisemitic “encampment” protests that have taken over dozens of university campuses. Its parent group is also the target of a lawsuit by survivors and families of victims of the October 7 terror attack that alleges SJP is a propaganda front for Hamas in the U.S.

In addition, conservative author Daniel Greenfield wrote about Bitar’s record for the Jewish News Syndicate:
At the PSM [Palestine Solidarity Movement] conference in Georgetown [in 2006], Bitar had run a session describing how to best demonize Israel. Next year, he facilitated a Palestinian Student Society summit addressed by Joseph Massad, who had called Israel a “Jewish supremacist state” and praised terrorism.

A few years later, Bitar could be found presenting at a Sabeel conference featuring some of the worst bigots like Rebecca Vilkomerson of JVP, who had invited a terrorist to address the BDS hate group, and Richard Falk, who had endorsed a book which wondered whether “Hitler might have been right after all.”

Bitar went to work for UNRWA, interned at the misnamed and militantly anti-Israel Foundation for Middle East Peace and studied at Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, writing papers on the so-called “Nakba” and on “Palestinian” activism. He appeared to describe Israel’s security barrier as a “segregation wall.”
Israeli FM mocks ICC prosecutor’s trip to meet Syrian rebel
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Saturday criticized the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, after his meeting in Damascus with the de facto leader of Syria, an Islamist who used to be part of Al-Qaeda.

“Karim Kahn [sic] didn’t find the time to come to Israel, a democratic country governed by the rule of law and with an independent judiciary, before issuing arrest warrants against its democratically elected leaders,” Sa’ar tweeted.

“Yet he already ran to Damascus to meet with al-Julani, head of HTS (designated as a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council), and former al-Qaeda operative. So much for ‘international legal institutions.’ Show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are,” Sa’ar wrote.

Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the non de guerre of Ahmed al-Sharaa, hosted Khan in Damascus on Saturday, and the two men shook hands while posing for photographs.

“Birds of a feather flock together,” Sa’ar wrote under the picture on X in Hebrew.

Under al-Julani, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist militia perpetrated numerous attacks on civilians and carried out many executions of dissidents without trial, including after it became the predominant military force in Syria last month, following the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime.


Dutch diplomat Sigrid Kaag appointed UN Middle East envoy
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has decided to appoint Gaza aid coordinator Sigrid Kaag as the world body’s interim special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and the personal representative of the secretary-general to the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.

Kaag will continue in her current role as U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, spokesman Farhan Haq said on Saturday.

Kaag will replace Norway’s Tor Wennesland, who has held the post of special coordinator for the Middle East peace process since 2021.

In April, Kaag told the Security Council that her team has had “very constructive cooperation” in dialogue with the Israeli government.

On June 11, Kaag announced she would be moving her residence and offices to the war-torn coastal enclave later that month. However, two months later, a spokesperson for Kaag told JNS she had yet to do so.

In September, she sat down with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly annual debate to discuss the situation in Gaza. Kaag’s office did not respond to messages seeking comment on how the U.N. views the Islamic Republic’s role in improving the humanitarian situation in the Strip.


Delusional Media Paints Heartwarming Picture of Violent Palestinian Terrorists’ Release in Confused Hostage Coverage
The release of three hostages—Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari—by Hamas in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners dominated international headlines on Sunday. Despite other significant events, including the inauguration of President Donald Trump for his second term and the (brief and anticlimactic) shutdown of TikTok in the United States, the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas unsurprisingly remained at the forefront of global media coverage.

While much of the reporting rightly focused on the emotional reunions between the hostages and their families after 15 months of captivity, several high-profile outlets fell short, displaying a troubling tendency to gloss over the reality of what the Palestinian prisoner release actually entails: the release of hundreds of criminals, many convicted of violent crimes—including murder—and members of proscribed terrorist organizations.

Rather than confronting this inconvenient truth, their coverage instead leaned into framing the event as a cause for celebration.

Sky News, for example, quoted Islamic Jihad terrorist Firas Hassan lamenting the difficulties of life in prison after he was, according to them, repeatedly jailed for mere “opposition to the occupation.” Sky further reassured readers that Hassan was only a member of the group’s “political wing.”

This is despite the fact that no country in the world makes a distinction between Islamic Jihad’s so-called “political wing” and its military arm. Notably, a previous BBC article identified Hassan as “‘active’” in the terrorist organization—responsible for some of the deadliest attacks on Israeli civilians—without entertaining the claim that his involvement was confined to vague political activities, as Sky News implies.

Meanwhile, Reuters chose to publish an “explainer” profiling the “prominent” Palestinian prisoners set to be released—a stark reminder that in journalism, words matter. Referring to convicted, unrepentant murderers as “prominent” is not just a choice but one with consequences. Adjectives like “notorious,” “deadliest,” or “unrepentant” would certainly be more fitting for those who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children. Instead, Reuters bestowed a veneer of celebrity on these individuals, turning what should have been an informative piece into an exercise in whitewashing terror.

Similarly, The New York Times’ so-called explainer fell short of providing any meaningful context when it vaguely informed readers that some Palestinians listed in the deal were “serving life sentences,” without elaborating on the crimes behind those sentences.

For example, Mahmud Abu Varda is serving 48 life sentences for masterminding multiple terror attacks, including a 1996 bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 45 people. Another prisoner set for release is Zakaria Zubeidi, a notorious Fatah terrorist and former Jenin commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Zubeidi, arrested in 2019 for his involvement in shootings near Beit El in the West Bank. He played a role in numerous attacks, including a bombing that killed six people at a Likud party branch in Beit Shean during the Second Intifada. Yet, these critical details were conspicuously absent.


Palestinians cheer as dozens of terrorists freed to Judea and Samaria
Crowds of cheering Palestinians late overnight Sunday greeted 90 terrorists in Beitunia in Judea after they were released by Israel as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, AFP reported.

Earlier on Sunday, three Israeli female hostages were released from the Gaza Strip after 472 days in captivity and were escorted by the Israel Defense Forces to reunite with their families.

The Israel Prison Service said in a statement just before 1:30 a.m. that “All the terrorists were released from Ofer prison and the Jerusalem detention center.”

AFP reported that members of the crowd climbed on the lead bus and unfurled a Palestinian flag, later being joined by others who waved the flags of the Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist factions.

The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee issued a warning on X against participation in riots or armed marches supporting terrorism.

“Anyone who participates in such terrorist acts exposes himself to danger,” Adraee said in Arabic.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan harshly criticized the ceasefire agreement, expressing his concerns over the consequences of releasing Palestinian terrorists to Judea and Samaria.

“Releasing terrorists into Judea and Samaria is a clear danger to the country! This is a dramatic and negative change on the ground,” Dagan was quoted as saying by Israel National News.

“Sadly, we are now witnessing celebrations of terror supporters in Judea and Samaria and around the world,” he went on to say.


Sir Keir Starmer: Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of Auschwitz
Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have seen in this place. It is utterly harrowing.

The mounds of hair, the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that was so meticulously kept, except for human life.

As I stood by the train tracks at Birkenau, looking across that cold, vast expanse, I felt a sickness, an air of desolation, as I tried to comprehend the enormity of this barbarous, planned, industrialised murder: a million people killed here for one reason, simply because they were Jewish.

My visit today has also shown me more clearly than ever before, how this was not the evil deeds of a few bad individuals. It took a collective endeavour by thousands of ordinary people who each played their part in constructing this whole industry of death. To build the tracks, drive the trains, extract the hair and teeth, conceive the method of mass murder – each stomach-churning step rooted in the hatred of difference. The lessons of this darkest of crimes are the ultimate warning to humanity of where prejudice can lead.

My wife was equally moved by what she saw today. It was her second visit, but no less harrowing than the first time she stepped through that gate and witnessed the depravity of what happened here.

Time and again we condemn this hatred, and we boldly say "never again". But where is never again, when we see the poison of antisemitism rising around the world in aftermath of October 7? Where is never again, when the pulse of fear is beating in our own Jewish community, as people are despicably targeted once again for the very same reason, because they are Jewish?

The truth that I have seen here today will stay with me for the rest of my life. So too, will my determination to defend that truth, to fight the poison of antisemitism and hatred in all its forms, and to do everything I can to make “never again” mean what it says, and what it must truly mean: never again.
Scholz: Germany must not ‘turn the page’ on the Holocaust
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that Germany has a responsibility to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

“I am against turning the page, saying ‘that was long ago,'” Scholz told a gathering of the Jewish community in Frankfurt to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Scholz also highlighted the “worrying and alarming normalization” of antisemitism amid Israel’s 15-month war against Hamas in Gaza.

“The internet and social networks in particular often become a hotbed for extremist positions, incitement and hatred,” the German leader warned.

He noted that such incitement puts citizens’ lives in danger, adding that the authorities have a responsibility to protect them.


The Power of a Circle: Standing Hand-in-Hand to Overcome Discrimination
In 1958, a year before I was born, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue, the Reform congregation in Evanston, Ill., where I am now a member. He was invited by Beth Emet’s then-rabbi, David Polish, to kick off a series of events featuring “distinguished personalities in the religious, educational, and entertainment world.” King spoke about the state of civil rights at the time, calling for social action and change. Tickets were $1.75.

Just a few years later, in 1963, the year that King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, my parents moved from Philadelphia to Winnetka, Ill., a village five miles north of Beth Emet. That year, a rally to protest plans for the building of a whites-only residence was taking place in nearby Deerfield. My father, a Jewish businessman who was not then affiliated with Beth Emet or any synagogue, had been moved by King’s mission to end racial discrimination and segregation. Social action was my father’s religion. He attended that rally, and for reasons likely related to giving my mother a break on a Saturday morning (she had just given birth to my baby brother), he brought me along. I was 4 years old.

The rally was held by members of the Congress of Racial Equality. According to the Deerfield Review, 50 members had marched from Morton Grove to Deerfield to Pear Tree Park, where 150 people gathered to protest the village of Deerfield, which was trying to block construction of integrated housing in the park. Clergy from the nearby Congregational Church and St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church spoke, as well as the reverend from Pilgrim Congregational Church in North Carolina. It was a mixed-race, mixed-faith affair.

I remember wondering why my father had taken me to a park, as he often did, but we weren’t near the swings or slide. Instead, my father reached for my hand and all the people there formed a circle. I looked up at him and his eyes were fixed on the crowd. A brown-skinned man took my other hand and I looked up at my father again for translation. Silence was his approval. My little-girl fingers warmed in two strong men’s hands. Then the circle began to sway and voices began to sing:
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome
Someday.

The pulse of warm palms moved through my fingers, into my arms, up to my shoulders to my mouth. The vibration of voices made my body tremble. I was transfixed. I didn’t understand why we were all together in that park, but the feeling took over. We had arrived at this park by foot and were now connected by hands and the sights and sounds imprinted on my heart as my earliest memory.

That day marked the beginning of my father’s involvement in CORE, the civil rights movement, and in Democratic politics that a few months later would land him and 35 others in a Chicago jail cell. In October of 1963, he was arrested for his part in a sit-in, protesting a Chicago School Board meeting that had included the building of segregated schools on the agenda. A photograph of my father being dragged off by police to jail made the front cover of the Chicago Daily News.




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

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