Sunday, February 09, 2025

02/09 Links: No one can now deny the evil that is Hamas; Trump creates task force to prosecute October 7 perpetrators; Erin Molan: Failure on a global scale

From Ian:

Stephen Pollard: No one can now deny the evil that is Hamas
The only difference was the presence of their Hamas captors; the Nazis had fled the camps by the time they were liberated.

Hamas, on the other hand, stood proudly by as the emaciated, almost crippled bodies of the hostages were forced by their captors on to a stage to take part in the latest of the terrorist organisation’s sick propaganda stunts.

I am not religious. But I know that evil exists and we have once more seen it on display.

Or Levy is just 33 years old. His only crime was to have gone to a music festival and to have been Jewish. Hamas murdered his wife and starved him for 491 days. There is only one word for the people that did this to him: evil.

Ever since October 7 we have heard glib platitudes from around the world about “peace”, about reaching an accommodation with Hamas and about Israel needing to accept a “two-state solution”.

But there will be no peace – indeed, there should be no peace – when that necessitates accepting the presence of evil.

As Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog put it: “This is what a crime against humanity looks like. The entire world should look at Ohad, Or and Eli – who returned from the hell of 491 days in captivity, painful, emaciated and wounded, and were used in a cynical and evil ritual by damned murderers.”

Throughout the war brought on by Hamas’s massacre we have been told by much of the media – and by Hamas’s useful idiots protesting on the streets and on campus – that the real criminal is Israel.

Look at the aid shortages! The simple fact is that, far from blocking aid, Israel has gone out of its way to facilitate its arrival in Gaza.

But just as Hamas deliberately uses Palestinian civilians as human shields for its propaganda so it can accuse Israel of targeting civilians, so too it both blocks aid from being distributed (often destroying it) and seizes it for its own use.

If you want to see what real targeted starvation looks like, look at the pictures of the Israeli hostages.
Brendan O'Neill: Who really wants ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Middle East?
What’s exasperating about all this is that we’ve just come through 16 months of shameless agitation for the end of the Jewish State. Modern anti-Israel activism, at root, is a dream of ethnic cleansing. Consider Columbia. Its woke students are fuming over Trump’s Gaza idea. Yet this is a campus where apocalyptic Israelophobia has run riot since Hamas’s pogrom 16 months ago. Campus activists referred to Israel as ‘the pigs of the Earth’ and fantasised about a future when it would die. ‘We don’t want no two states / We want ’48!’, they cried, referring to 1948, when the modern state of Israel did not yet exist. Plainly put, they want the obliteration of the Jewish homeland.

‘Crush Zionism!’, the West’s activists cry. ‘End Zionism!’, their banners demand. They want the very belief in a Jewish homeland – which is all that Zionism is – killed off and buried. You should be grateful we’re not ‘going out and murdering Zionists’, said a spokesman for Columbia’s Gaza encampment last year. Trump might want to put up some plush condos in Gaza but at least he hasn’t raised the prospect of murdering everyone who believes in Palestinian statehood. Hostility to Israel’s right to exist is entirely commonplace on demonstrations in the West. That’s what ‘From the river to the sea’ means – the complete excision of the Jewish nation and its replacement by Palestine.

Anti-Israel agitation is the first ‘peace movement’ in history where the aim is not just to stop a war but also to stop the existence of a country. People have even chanted in favour of the Houthis, whose flag literally says ‘Death to Israel’. In polite society too, at literary soirees, at dinner parties, the question goes out: ‘Should Israel exist?’ These dreams of cleansing are incredibly influential. Hence, headlines like ‘Most young people think Israel should not exist’, after a poll of youthful Brits found that 54 per cent of them thought Israel should be brought to an end. And its people? What happens to them? Fuck off back to Poland?

Imagine the gall it takes to accuse others of ‘ethnic cleansing’ after you’ve spent more than a year mingling with people who lust after the wholesale dismantling of Jewish nationhood. If I had attended protest after protest at which people waved placards saying ‘Keep the world clean’ alongside an image of the Jewish flag being put in the bin, I’d probably stay quiet about Trump’s dream of making a holiday resort in Gaza. At least his proposal has proven controversial. In contrast, hatred for Zionism, and even calls for its ideological annihilation, have been mainstreamed these past 16 months. That terrifies me far more than Trump’s Gaza bluster.

Not one Palestinian should be forcibly removed from Gaza. Gaza is not America’s plaything and its people are not America’s property. They have a right to live in the towns they built over the decades, many of them sadly now destroyed in the war Hamas started with its pogrom of 7 October. But the West’s opinion-formers can’t have it both ways. They can’t treat Gaza’s inhabitants as a fundamentally homeless people, as permanent refugees, as the generational victims of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, and then reach for the smelling salts when Trump proposes rehousing them. Both the Israelophobic activist class and blundering Trump seem to think Gazans don’t truly belong in Gaza, and that is not conducive to the building of a free state there post-Hamas. For that’s what really needs to be wiped out: not Gaza, not Israel – Hamas.
Seth Mandel: The Conflict in Three Images
The third image is blood-boiling but important, and it was easily missed in the chaotic scene in Gaza. It is of a Red Cross official shaking hands with a Hamas terrorist in front of a banner that reads “We’re the flood,” which is both a celebration of Oct. 7, 2023, and an acknowledgement that so long as Hamas is in power, Oct. 7 is its North Star. The handshake is taking place in the presence of an emaciated Israeli hostage, a monument to the failure of the International Committee of the Red Cross to uphold its founding and guiding principles—or what we were told were its guiding principles.

The Red Cross did not so much as feign interest in the fate of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. When one hostage’s mother pleaded with the Red Cross to try and deliver medicine her daughter needed daily, the Red Cross officials scolded her: “Think about the Palestinian side. It’s hard for the Palestinians, they’re being bombed.”

During the current ceasefire, the Red Cross has played a highly visible role as Hamas props. Its officials continue to willingly participate in Hamas’s pre-release ritual humiliation ceremonies—itself a violation of the rules governing the treatment of detainees. During the war, its employees had access to the hospitals where Hamas was holding hostages and between which Hamas fighters were moving freely. Despite this, the Red Cross denounced Israel’s attempts to clear those terrorists out of the medical complexes.

The scenes from the hostage releases reinforce what we already know, and why Israel exists: “Never Again” is an empty slogan to everyone but the Jewish people. If a nation wants a future, it must secure that future for itself.


Melanie Phillips: The West has rewarded ‘Palestinian genocidal aggression’ against Israel
The Times of London columnist Melanie Phillips says the West has rewarded “Palestinian genocidal aggression” against Israel.

Ms Phillips told Sky News Australia that the West had made promises the Palestinians will have a “state of their own”.

“By telling them in terms that they’re entitled to a state of their own.”


Erin Molan: Failure on a global scale… more hostages freed but the sh_t show rolls on… Erin Molan’s take!
The world has failed… again.

The reckoning will come… it always does… but what then?

If the Holocaust wasn’t enough to prevent the global ‘buy in’ to October 7 then how the hell will October 7 be enough to stop the next one?

My take on the three hostages just released… and the sh_t show that got us here…


Video: Trump's Gaza Plan Is "Not Forcible Eviction, Not Ethnic Cleansing" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interviewed by Mark Levin

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Feb. 8: "We got the Abraham Accords because we went around the Palestinians. Because the Palestinians - whether they are Hamas or their competitors, the Palestinian Authority - they both want to see the end of Israel. The only difference is Hamas says, let's do it immediately by terror and military means, and the other guy says, no, let's do it by lawfare, by the ICC, let's put pressure on Israel to withdraw to the indefensible lines where we're nine miles wide."

"We are not going to have an organization committed to our destruction nine miles from the sea. All they have to do is cut us in half and we're dead....After Oct. 7, after the massacre, that's gone. Nobody is going to do that. Nobody is going to give them a Palestinian state. They just had one. It's called Gaza. Under Hamas. That was in effect a Palestinian state. What happened with that? It was used as a springboard in an attempt to destroy us."

"I think that President Trump's proposal is the first fresh idea in years and it has the potential to change everything in Gaza....Gaza is basically a small area, 25 miles from Tel Aviv, which Hamas has used as a springboard for continuous terrorist attacks against Israel. We come in, we smack them and we leave. And we do it again, and they do it again, and it doesn't go anywhere. Now we're going to do something else. We're going to finish Hamas off - and what happens then? Do we leave the people there with all that devastation?"

"Everybody describes Gaza as the biggest open-air prison in the world. You know why? Because they're not allowed to leave?...And in comes President Trump and he says, 'Open the gate, let them leave. And I'll find a place of destination for temporary relocation.'...Not forcible eviction, not ethnic cleansing....All that President Trump is saying is, 'I want to open the gates and give them an option to relocate temporarily while we rebuild the place physically and while we also rebuild it in terms of deradicalization.'"

"Two things that President Trump has been blamed for are totally false. He never said he wants American troops to do the job. We'll do the job. Hamas attacked us. We'll take care of them. We'll finish them off. The second thing, he didn't say that American taxpayers' money is going to do the job. He said he'd get independent financing for it, and I'm sure he will. So I think this is a very, very good, new approach. I think we should pursue it."

"Once you give them the option, they'll leave. You know how I know that? Because I got requests from people in Gaza before the war who wanted to leave, but they were locked in because their neighbor, Egypt, wouldn't open the door. Some of them would bribe the gatekeepers in Egypt, so the very rich got out, but those who wanted to leave couldn't leave. Give them an option. I think that's the right thing to do."
Here’s why it’s legal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and relocate its people
U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to offer Gazans the opportunity to relocate while the U.S., alongside international partners, rebuilds Gaza is “absolutely legal,” according to international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky.

Speaking to ILTV News, he said, “Einstein's famous definition is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And for many, many years, including since October 7, the international community at large has had the same failing strategy with respect to Gaza that essentially allows Hamas to remain in power, and that we know is simply unacceptable.”

Ostrovsky emphasized that this would not constitute forcible transfer, which is prohibited under international law.

"What President Trump has spoken about is the intention to create, essentially, a set of circumstances and conditions to allow Gazans to voluntarily choose to move to conditions that are better elsewhere," Ostrovsky explained.

He went a step further, arguing that those insisting Gazans must stay in Gaza—despite Hamas remaining in power—could be the ones violating international law.

"I would actually go one step further and suggest that those that are perhaps in fact guilty here of violating international law are the ones that are insisting that the Gazans stay there. Because by doing so, including whilst Hamas is still in power, they're essentially calling for the Gazans to stay in an active war zone and essentially be continued to be used as human shields by Hamas," Ostrovsky said.
'Trump is greatest friend Israel has ever had,' Netanyahu tells Fox
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called US President Donald Trump “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House” in a Fox News interview.

Netanyahu spoke to host Mark Levin of the Life, Liberty & Levin, which aired on Saturday, telling him that Trump is “making a tremendous change in the Israeli-American alliance, strengthening it beyond anything we’ve seen up to now.”

The prime minister then called the president “a great leader for America and the world.”

He added that Israel has no greater friend than America, “especially under President Trump’s leadership,” and that, likewise, America has no greater friend than Israel.

The strong relationship between the two countries is partially attributed to their shared enemies, leading Netanyahu to praise the president’s resumption of the delivery of weapons to Israel as he noted that the Jewish state is fighting a “seven-front war against our common enemies.”

“I don’t seek wars; I seek to end wars,” he added.

Netanyahu acknowledged Trump’s achievements back in his first term and the ones from his short time in office for his second term.
Trump: Freed hostages ‘looked like Holocaust survivors’; US will own Gaza, others can help
In his remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One, US President Donald Trump says the three Israeli hostages who were released Saturday by Hamas looking gaunt and frail resembled Jews under Nazi Germany.

Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami “looked like Holocaust survivors,” Trump says, according to multiple reporters.

“I don’t know how much longer we can take it,” he adds.


Israeli president blasts BBC’s Israel-Hamas equivalence
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday criticized the BBC for what he said was its false equivalence between the treatment of convicted Hamas terrorists by Israel and innocent Israeli hostages abducted into Gaza.

During an interview with the British broadcaster, Herzog called on it to end this narrative, emphasizing that Israel is a democracy beholden to the rule of law whereas Hamas engages in barbaric terrorist acts.

“I absolutely reject that, and I think that this equality that the BBC is always trying to make is outrageous and preposterous, absolutely not true. We are a democracy. We abide by the rule of law. All prisoners in Israel get whatever is necessary as prisoners under the law, under the supervision of the court,” Herzog told the BBC‘s “Sunday Morning News” with Laura Kuenssberg.

He recounted testimonies of hostages who had been kept in underground tunnels for months, deprived of adequate food and medical care and suffering severe physical and emotional trauma. “They were kept in tunnels throughout that period. They had no contact with the outside world. They hardly ate. They became totally emaciated,” said Herzog.

“There’s always this notion by the BBC, which is really outrageous in my mind, and I call upon all of you to stop that attitude and understand that this attack on October 7 [2023] was an attack on the entire free world, and what we are doing when we are catching terrorists who carried out these atrocities, we are simply preventing them from taking on further attacks against humanity,” Herzog added.


David Collier: The long Black Hand of October 7
Qassamiyun and the Kaffiyeh
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam was a violent Jihadist – a terrorist extremist – and in life was a failure. He managed to raise terror for a while, killed a few Jews, and was then eliminated. But his message of Jihad was set to continue. Because of the timing of his death – a year before the great Arab revolt – there was a need of heroes for the new Jihad. The Arab paper ‘Falastin’ reported that the last words of al-Qassam were a call for a fight to the death and religious Jihad. Al-Qassam told his men not to surrender and to die as martyrs. A myth was being born.

In 1936 when the violent Arab revolt began, many of the terrorists began to identify themselves as ‘Qassamiyun’, or ‘Qassamites’. And to shield their identity, these terrorists began to wear a symbolic scarf covering – the Keffiyeh.

It is therefore no surprise that when the Jihadist movement Hamas was created, with its fundamental eliminationist ideology, the name given to those who set out to kill the Jews was the ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades’. This is the name of the Hamas ‘military arm’. When they developed rockets to randomly fire at Jewish civilians – they called them ‘Qassam rockets’.

It was their choice to name themselves after a man who set out to randomly kill Jews as part of his Jihad, and Hamas is simply following in his footsteps. His goal is their goal. This Jihad has nothing to do with human rights, or even Palestinian self-determination, that is all a front to con the west into supporting genocide. Their goal is all about Islamic purity and killing Jews. Just as it was in 1931.

Jihad
October 7 was a continuation of a genocidal Jihad. The sanctions on Gaza, the checkpoints, the lack of a Palestinian state – are not the cause of the violence – they are an inevitable response to a violent religious ideology that is eliminationist to its core.

Hamas wrote its own charter and picked out its own heroes based on what was already central to the eliminationist movement. When faced with organisational questions – Hamas sought answers from jihadist history books. The original al-Qassam brigades were formed just like the Black Hand – disconnected secretive cells intent on kidnapping and killing Jews. Hamas was shaped by a violent hate preacher from an Iraqi family who was intent on Jihad. A man who was killing Jews long before all the new excuses were created. He did not even have to be Palestinian – because Palestinian nationalism was just created as a useful part of the Jihadist arsenal.

To these people western concepts of borders and nationalisms are alien. What al-Qassam wanted was a pan-Islamic empire, based on Sharia law, and he knew he needed to eradicate any attempt at Jewish self-determination to achieve it. Today his Jihadist message is blindly carried throughout the west by dumbed down ‘progressives’ singing ‘from the river to the sea’ or sharing Hamas propaganda on TikTok. So for once Amnesty International actually have it right (but for all the wrong reasons) – this most certainly did not start on October 7.
Jonathan Tobin: If hostages are being abused, their captors shouldn’t be rewarded
Trump wants to bring peace to the region, and above all, guarantee that Iran and its terrorist network that started the Oct. 7 war cannot possess the ability to threaten a vital part of the globe. He is no expert on the Middle East, which has enabled him to throw off misguided preconceptions about the need to weaken Israel to appease Islamists who will never accept peace. The 2020 Abraham Accords, which achieved normalization between Israel and four Arab and Muslim nations, was an accomplishment made possible by his rejection of the conventional wisdom peddled by the foreign-policy establishment.

Now, however, faces a choice that he probably would rather avoid.

It is one thing to take credit for a ceasefire/hostage-release deal that enabled him to play the peacemaker and gave him some good imagery in time for his second inauguration last month. But Hamas’s brutality and its determination to hold onto both power in Gaza, coupled with its war goals of Israel’s destruction and Jewish genocide, has forced him into a difficult decision.

He can insist on the continuation of the ceasefire and allow the negotiations with Hamas about the second and third phases of the deal to drag on. That will not bring peace or the release of all the hostages while also making Israel’s emotional suffering worse.

It’s what former Vice President Kamala Harris would be doing if she had won the presidential election last November rather than Trump. The Biden-Harris priority was to end the war at all costs, even if that meant granting a victory to Hamas, which would have elevated it to a position of dominance among Palestinians as well as threaten moderate Arab regimes in the region as much as its sponsor in Tehran.

Or Trump can do as he appeared to intimate this past week in his meetings with Netanyahu—stating that Israel had the backing of the United States to do whatever is necessary to finally eradicate Hamas and ensure that it will never again hold power in Gaza.

He correctly perceives it to be his job to guard America’s interests “first.” But unlike many of his critics on the left, Trump appears instinctively to realize that the only way to do that is to back Israel against Islamists who hate the United States and the West as much as they do the Jewish state.

Hamas continues to show the world exactly what it stands for. If the appearance of the last three released hostages dredges up memories of those Jews liberated 80 years ago from concentration camps, which the world just marked on Jan. 27 as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is no accident or misunderstanding. Their monstrous behavior and desire for another Holocaust is no secret. And the proper response to such behavior is not appeasement but resolute resistance. That was as true eight decades ago as it is today.

We should all pray for the safety of the remaining hostages and hope that they will be saved. I understand why some Israelis are so horrified by the imagery of the Hamas propaganda that they worry more about the hostages than whether actions undertaken by Netanyahu or Trump to help them will lead to more terrorism, death and bloodshed for both sides.

And yet, the prime minister must think of the safety of the rest of Israel and those who might suffer if he gives in to pressure. And Trump, too, must ponder what a triumphant Hamas and Iran will mean for America in the coming years as Islamist terror escalates and spreads. Regardless of our fears or attitudes toward either leader, that is not a world in which any of us should wish to live.
Iranian threat on Trump's life was more serious than publicly known
US authorities were more concerned about an Iran attack on President Donald Trump’s life than what was publicly disclosed, Axios reported, citing an excerpt from the book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power by Alex Isenstadt on Sunday.

According to Isenstadt, during Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024, officials warned the current president that Tehran had placed operatives in the US with access to surface-to-air missiles, and they were worried Iran would try to crash his private plane.

Isenstadt continued, stating that these concerns over Iran intensified following the second assassination attempt on Trump’s life after multiple shots were fired near his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September.

Trump’s security team grew increasingly worried about his safety, leading them to use a decoy plane to reach an event with current Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Isenstadt mentioned that this plane swap plan was kept under wraps so that most of the staff wouldn’t be aware until after take-off.

"The boss ain't riding with us today," White House Chief of Staff Chris LaCivita told the group, according to Isenstadt. "We had to put him into another plane. This is nothing but a sort of test for how things may happen in the future."

Several of Trump’s aides told Isenstadt that the flight was a "surreal experience" once they understood that Trump’s seat was empty and the rationale for the decoy plane swap.

The aides wondered why they were kept on board if the threat of Iranian missiles was so significant, but the campaign staff reportedly tried to reassure them that they weren’t being used as bait, Isenstadt wrote.
Trump administration establishes task force to prosecute October 7 perpetrators
A task force devoted to the prosecution of October 7 Massacre perpetrators and supporters was established by the US Attorney-General’s Office, according to a memorandum issued by Attorney-General Pam Bondi.

The Joint Task Force October 7 (JTF 10-7) will pursue criminal charges, including for capital crimes, against the perpetrators of the Hamas-led massacre who murdered 47 US citizens and abducted eight American nationals, among over 1,200 slain and 251 hostages.

Wednesday’s initiative will seek the arrest and extradition of Hamas National Relations Abroad head Ali Baraka and acting Hamas Political Bureau chair Khaled Mashaal. The move is based on an FBI criminal complaint against Hamas leadership, which also leveled charges against slain Hamas officials Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammad Deif, and Marwan Issa.

The memorandum said investigations would include inquiries into the United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Task force to investigate and prosecute Hamas funders
The task force aims to investigate and prosecute US-based Hamas funders, as well as cooperate with the Defense Department, Treasury Department, and Israeli government for other measures against terrorist organizations responsible for the October 7 attack.

According to the memorandum, the Office of International Affairs preapproval measures for administrative subpoenas against foreign banks were suspended under the treasury secretary’s powers.

American Hamas supporters will also be scrutinized by the task force. The JTF 10-7 is set to investigate and prosecute “acts of terrorism, antisemitic civil rights violations, and other federal crimes committed by Hamas supporters in the United States, including on college campuses.”

According to Bondi’s memorandum, the JTF 10-7 will also provide services to October 7 victims and coordinate with other organizations on the return of those held in Hamas captivity.
Israeli dad begs Trump to bring daughter’s ‘monster’ killer to justice — as she lives like a ‘rock star’ in Jordan
The Hamas terrorist who orchestrated a 2001 terror attack in Jerusalem that killed an American teen and 14 others has been living like “a rock star” in Jordan — and the girl’s grieving dad hopes President Trump will help bring the “monster” to justice when he meets King Abdullah II in the White House Tuesday.

Malki Roth was a flute-playing, pizza-loving 15-year-old savoring summer vacation when she and a close friend darted to their favorite Sbarro’s in the heart of a bustling Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001.

But a suicide bomber standing next to the girls at the counter suddenly peeled open his guitar case and detonated his cocktail of explosives, nails, nuts and bolts in an attack that left 130 injured and 15 dead, including Malki and two other Americans.

The architect of the bombing, Ahlam Tamimi, confessed and was sentenced in 2003 in Israel to 16 life sentences, only to be unexpectedly sprung in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap with the terror group.

The US Justice Department disclosed terrorism charges against Tamimi, now 44, in March 2017 and formally notified Jordan of its request that she be extradited to face trial in Washington.

The FBI has put a $5 million reward on her head.

Despite being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, Tamimi became a television host and public speaker who lives as a celebrity in Jordan, Malki’s dad Arnold told The Post.

“President Trump, help us get long-delayed justice for our murdered child,” he pleaded. “I see this as a moment which we haven’t had up until now, to say, ‘President Trump, help make justice happen.’ “

Roth is beseeching US officials and the president to enforce the 1995 extradition treaty between the US and Jordan to finally bring Tamimi to justice.

“It really has been a nightmare for years — parts of it are unbearable,” Roth told The Post from his home in Jerusalem. “I’m still trembling.”
'Hungry, barefoot, constant fear': Ex-hostage families describe captivity horrors, praise Trump
The families of the hostages released in the latest part of the hostage deal described the incomprehensible horrors their family members experienced while crediting US President Donald Trump for their release in the hostage deal in a series of statements on Sunday.

The families of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi, and Or Levy held press conferences at their respective hospitals.

"For 16 months, he was hungry, barefoot, and in constant fear that every day could be his last," Michael Levy, brother of Or Levy, said. "The hardest blow was yesterday when Or discovered that Einav, the love of his life, was murdered on that terrible day."

"I saw my brother again. I hugged him, but he wasn't the same Or who left home on October 7th. He came back in poor physical condition. Anyone who saw the pictures and videos couldn't ignore it."

"President Trump, we owe you our deepest gratitude for bringing my brother back home. You made this deal possible. We need your continued support, together with the Israeli government, to take the brave steps necessary for the next phases of the deal."

No room for doubt!
Yulie Ben Ami, daughter of Ohad Ben Ami, "The return of the hostages yesterday leaves no room for doubt! They all must return! We will not stop fighting until the last hostage comes home. I want to thank President Trump and his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who helped us secure this deal."

Ella Ben Ami, daughter of Ohad Ben Ami, "My father endured horrors - we haven't even begun to hear about or comprehend the hell he was in. Fortunately, we now have the rest of our lives with him."

"But back there, 76 hostages remain deep in Hamas tunnels, in darkness, in hell, under the control of terrorists responsible for October 7. If previously my life's mission was to convey the urgency of releasing the hostages, now that my father has returned, I understand it's far worse than I ever imagined."
Freed hostage Romi Gonen's mother details Hamas's starvation
Released hostage Romi Gonen began to eat of her own volition just this week, her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen, told N12 on Sunday.

"For the first time, I gave her bolognese because I wanted her to enjoy it, and she was finally able to. And we’re talking about three weeks since her release,” she said.

Her remarks came following the release of Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami from Gaza captivity on Saturday in dire condition.

“It was shocking, it was horrifying,” she was cited as saying. “It’s not that we didn’t expect it because we saw how the girls came out too, and they had also lost an extreme amount of weight," she added. But I think this is an escalation, and as time goes on, we will see even more severe cases.”

Hostage food deprivation
Hamas doesn't provide sufficient food for the hostages, at times intentionally starving them and supplying them with food that is of very poor quality, Leshem Gonen noted.

She stated that one of the things she first noticed of her daughter when she returned from 471 days in captivity was "the long, protruding fingers," adding, “It was simply shocking.”

Leshem Gonen stated that the recovery was slow. “Physical recovery is slow, and it takes time for the body to even feel hunger again.


These are the 17 hostages yet to be returned in phase one of Gaza ceasefire
With five rounds of hostage-prisoner releases completed in the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal as of Saturday, there are 17 Israeli hostages still supposed to be set free in the first phase.

Days into the truce, which began in January, family members of several hostages slated to be released from Gaza in the coming weeks expressed dread over their loved ones’ fates after Hamas conveyed information saying that eight of the 33 hostages on the original list are dead.

Following the release of the information, those families were informed by the military that Hamas’s information aligned with previous assessments and there were dire concerns about their fates.

Those on the list, to be returned over the initial period of 42 days, are so-called “humanitarian” cases: women, children, elderly individuals and the infirm.

According to the terms of the ceasefire, the identities of those set to return are to be provided by the terror group 24 hours before each release, though in recent weeks Hamas has often not met the deadline.

As of Sunday, February 9, 73 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. Three Israeli hostages are paraded on a stage before being handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza on February 8, 2025 (Screencapture/Anadolu Agency/Reuters)

The list of hostages left on the list to be released in the deal’s initial stage includes Shiri Silberman Bibas, 33, and her two young sons, Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2.Israel is said to be pressuring mediators to clarify the condition of Bibas and her young sons. Hamas claimed in November 2023 that the three had been killed, which Israel called a “cruel” claim that it could not confirm. Israel has said there is “grave concern” over the fate of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir.


Family of captive Alon Ohel says 'sign of life' received Sunday for first time
The family of hostage Alon Ohel said on Sunday night that it had received a “sign of life” for the first time since his abduction on October 7, 2023.

Ohel, who was 22 at the time of his kidnapping from the Nova festival grounds, was taken from the same shelter where Eliya Cohen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and Or Levy were abducted, dubbed the “death shelter.” Goldberg-Polin was murdered in captivity by Hamas alongside multiple other hostages. Levy was released on Saturday and Cohen is still in captivity. Dozens were killed inside the shelter.

“Tomorrow, Alon will mark his 24th birthday in Hamas captivity – we call on the prime minister, the cabinet, and the Israeli government – time is running out. The second phase of the deal must be advanced to bring back all the hostages. It is your moral duty to do everything possible to save Alon and all the hostages,” his family said.

In the same statement, his family announced that it was informed that he had been held in Gaza tunnels alongside some of the recently released hostages.

“While we are relieved and emotional to know Alon is alive, we are also devastated and shocked by his severe physical and mental condition and by the abuse that he and the other hostages continue to endure. Alon has survived the horror so far, but he has no time left! The release of the hostages cannot be delayed. These are all humanitarian cases!” said the family.

They placed emphasis on the harsh conditions endured in Hamas’s underground tunnels, without light and other necessities.

The family noted that it was informed that he was wounded in his eye, with it being unclear whether it was a wound from October 7 or from within captivity. They also noted that they knew the conditions he’d been held in was severe with serious food shortages – a clear and present risk in general, but particularly urgent in light of the conditions of other recently released hostages.

“We all sat crying on Saturday as we watched our dear brothers being released after their prolonged hell. We demand our leaders take the necessary humanitarian steps to rescue Alon and the other victims from the hell they are experiencing,” the family said.


Media Coverage of the Hostage Release Was Shameful—But Three Outlets Disgraced Themselves
This time, there was no way for the masked terrorists—green headbands wrapped around their anonymous faces—even to attempt hiding the hideous abuses they had inflicted on their captives. No showy stage parade, no gun-wielding militants forcing their emaciated hostages to recite scripted words before a rapturous crowd, could distract the world from what was plainly visible: three Israeli civilians, violently abducted from their homes, now bearing the marks of 16 months of unspeakable torture.

Every one of those 491 days spent underground, in darkness, in a space barely big enough to stand, was etched into their hollowed cheeks, their skeletal frames causing some to evoke images of survivors from Nazi concentration camps.

As the families of Eli Sharabi, Or Levy, and Ohad Ben Ami watched live footage of their release, the initial flood of relief quickly gave way to shock and agony. Their loved ones were unrecognizable. It was a gut-wrenching sight.

We have criticized the media’s coverage of these hostage releases from the very beginning. Sometimes, it’s sheer sloppiness—misleading terminology, factual errors, like outlets falsely referring to kidnapped Israeli civilians as “soldiers.” Other times, it’s far more insidious: a grotesque imbalance, an eagerness to humanize Palestinian prisoners—most of them convicted of violent, deadly attacks against Israelis—while downplaying the suffering of Israeli hostages.

But even by these dismal standards, Saturday’s coverage of the hostage-prisoner exchange was a new low.

And a few media organizations, in particular, deserve special condemnation: the BBC, CNN, and The Guardian.

The coverage of Saturday’s events does not deserve to be classed as news. The reporters who wrote these pieces and the editors who approved them are not journalists in any meaningful sense of the word. And their readers and viewers should know the sheer contempt these media organizations have for them.


How USAID went woke and destroyed itself
USAID was formed in 1961 to counter Soviet efforts to spread communism in the developing world, transition former communist countries into U.S. allies, and respond to global disasters such as earthquakes, epidemics, famine and war refugees. It did so well. But sometime during the Clinton administration, USAID began to promote radical social agendas, such as population control.

Under President Barack Obama, LGBT and climate ideologies were added. President Joe Biden topped it off with transgenderism, requiring that every foreign aid program promote this divisive radical stew, even when it came to food aid to starving refugees.

Institutionally, its political culture would eventually skew far left, purged of conservatives and independents. USAID no longer represented America nor its values, becoming a taxpayer-funded haven for radicals controlled by an industry of global elites composed of former aid officers and officials from past Democratic Party administrations.

In 2020, days after the George Floyd riots, 1,000 USAID staff demanded the agency "affirm Black Lives Matter," and accused their own agency of "systematic racism." More recently, another 1,000 USAID officials issued an open letter defying Biden’s Israel policy by demanding "an immediate ceasefire between the State of Israel and Hamas," which would give the terrorists an opportunity to regroup and kill more Israelis.


Thais freed from Gaza captivity arrive home in Bangkok
Five Thai farm workers kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and released from captivity in Gaza on Jan. 30 arrived home in Bangkok on Sunday.

They were welcomed at Suvarnabhumi Airport by Thailand’s foreign minister and Israel’s ambassador, and were reunited with emotional family members.

The released men—Pongsak Thaenna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Saethao, and Surasak Lamnao—spent 10 days in an Israeli hospital for medical evaluation.

Relatives of four of the former captives traveled from Thailand to Israel last week to meet their loved ones at Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Ya’akov and accompanied them home.

Their visit was coordinated by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, National Insurance Institute and Prime Minister’s Office, the Israel Defense Forces and the Thai Embassy.

Israel’s Interior Minister Moshe Arbel has granted all five residency status, according to Hebrew media reports.

Thailand’s government has pledged financial support, granting each former hostage a lump sum of 600,000 Thai baht ($17,700) and a monthly stipend of $900 until age 80 to prevent the need to return to Israel for work.

One Thai hostage remains unaccounted for. Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa affirmed continued efforts to secure the release of 35-year-old Pinta Nattapong.

Two other Thai citizens, Rintalak Suttisak, 43, and Sahaot Banawat, 30, were killed during the Oct. 7 attack, and their bodies are still being held by the terror group.


NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov quits Women’s Caucus over woke, anti-Israel agenda: ‘I’m out!’
A Brooklyn lawmaker is quitting the City Council’s Women’s Caucus to protest its “anti-Israel” agenda and “woke” ways.

GOP Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, 40, slammed the 30-member caucus in a nearly 90-second video, first obtained by The Post, for its refusal to condemn Hamas terrorists after the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in Israel and for catering to far-left gender idealogues.

“How can I condemn and call out all these women organizations who’ve stayed completely silent [after the massacre] but continue sitting in a body that’s supposed to stand up for women’s rights, that’s supposed to stand against the abuse and rape and captivity of women, but cannot do that when it comes to Jewish women?” Vernikov says in the clip.

The video includes footage of young, terrified Jewish women as they’re released from Hamas captivity by masked men with weapons. In the clip, Vernikov calls the Hamas captors “Jihadis.”

She also pointed to the caucus’ bylaws allowing council members to join who “identify as women” — leaving the door open to transgender biological men joining the group.

The bylaws also say the caucus “seeks to advance” both “women and women-identifying people’s rights.”

“This is a Women’s Caucus that obviously cannot agree on what a woman is,” she says in the video.


AJN staff moved on by police at demo
Australian Jewish News staff who questioned the flying of the flag of a banned terrorist organisation at a Melbourne demonstration were told to move on by police.

The flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] was flown as part of a pro Palestine demonstration by “anti-Zionist Jews” near the steps of Victoria’s state parliament on Sunday morning.

It was opposed by a crowd of around 200 Jews, organised over social media by the “Lions of Zion” group, who flew Australian and Israeli flags.

Police kept the two sides separate.

AJN photographer Peter Haskin and senior journalist Bruce Hill were told by some people present that they had seen the flag of a banned terrorist organisation in the pro-Palestinian crowd and went around police lines to check if that was accurate.

It was, and they obtained photographic and video evidence.

But when they approached police on the scene they were told senior officers were aware of the flags’ presence and would make a decision later.

The PFLP is listed as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government.

Flying its flag may be an offence if that act spreads ideas based on hatred, incites other to offend, humiliates or intimidates someone because of their race or advocates hatred of a group because of their race, religion or nationality.

After a disturbance broke out nearby, the AJN staff were identified by some in the crowd and were jeered as “Zionist dogs” and “infiltrators” and chased down the street.


Oxford academics ‘worsening anti-Semitism on campus’, report claims
Pro-Palestine academics are contributing to anti-Semitism at the University of Oxford, a report has claimed.

The research by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) concludes pro-Palestinian sentiments among academics may be encouraging anti-Semitic abuse at the university.

The think tank also claimed there was a “lack of academic balance” in teaching on Israel and Palestine at the university.

It pointed to remarks by Prof Avi Shlaim, an emeritus fellow at St Antony’s College, in which he described the Oct 7 terror attack as a “powerful message” that showed “the Palestinian resistance is not dead”.

“Hamas is the only Palestinian group that stands for resistance to the Israeli occupation and by launching the attack on Oct 7, Hamas sent a powerful message that the Palestinians will not be sidelined [and] that the Palestinian resistance is not dead,” he said.

In July 2024, Prof Shlaim, who is British-Israeli, was filmed giving a speech at the pro-Palestine encampment at Oxford during which he wore a shirt bearing the phrase: “From the river to the sea.”

The slogan is viewed by many as anti-Semitic because it implies that the state of Israel should cease to exist.




NY Times downplays Israeli post-Oct. 7 losses, Hamas role in war, data study says
New York Times coverage of the Gaza war downplayed Israeli losses incurred after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and minimized the role of Palestinian violence in perpetuating the conflict, according to a Yale professor’s analysis.

Edieal Pinker, a professor and deputy dean at the Yale School of Management, analyzed 1,561 New York Times articles about the war published between October 7, 2023, and June 7, 2024, for the study released last month.

The coverage fit into a “specific narrative,” the study said. That narrative said that Hamas carried out a “brutal assault” on Israelis, mostly civilians, but that after that attack, Israel was the “sole aggressor” and bore few costs from the war, aside from declining international support.

The coverage following the Hamas attack instead focused on Palestinian suffering, portraying Palestinians as “passive victims whose suffering grows daily.” There was extensive coverage of Israeli violence, but less mention of Israeli hostages, Hamas casualties, Palestinian violence, Israeli casualties after the Hamas attack and Israeli suffering that was not directly tied to October 7.

“Little mention is made of Israeli casualties post-October 7 or of Palestinian acts of violence post-October 7, even as Israel and Hamas were locked in intensive combat over the eight months of the study period,” the study said.

The study was published last month in SSRN, a platform for working research papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed. The study was not sponsored by Yale. Pinker has a background in data analysis and has previously studied demographics in US Jewish communities.

The New York Times is regularly criticized by both Israel’s supporters, and its detractors, for its coverage of the conflict, including before the start of the latest war.

The study said it was not looking to prove bias in the reporting, because bias is statistically difficult to determine, and evidence of an editorial slant would need to take journalists’ intent into account. Israel is also relatively open to journalists, unlike Gaza, where the authoritarian Hamas rulers suppress dissent and reporting. The different levels of access impact coverage and could create unintentional bias, the study said.

The goal of the study was to quantify imbalances that could sway readers’ opinions “in a direction that is at odds with reality,” the paper said.


Sky News Caught Using Compromised Gaza Journalist
Media outlets should know by now that when it comes to hiring Gaza freelancers — caution is advised.

As HonestReporting has repeatedly exposed, the vast majority of foreign media journalists in the Strip are deeply compromised — some receive annual awards from Hamas and others have personal connections to the terrorists.

One of them is Hassan Eslaiah, whose memorable photo with former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar circulated online after we exposed he had infiltrated into Israel on October 7 and documented atrocities in Israeli kibbutzes.

This was enough for AP and CNN to cut ties with the so-called journalist immediately. But Sky News, it seems, didn’t bother checking his background when it recently hired him to work on a story for the network, as reported last week by Ynet News.

The network’s explanation meant to absolve responsibility but instead unveiled its low journalistic standards: the hiring was done through a third party, an independent production company.

It would have gone unnoticed had it not been for Eslaiah’s social media activity, where he posted a photo of himself with those he had covered — a United Nations team on a mine-clearing mission.

Everyone in the industry recognized him, diplomats complained, the UN was embarrassed, and Sky News had to apologize and shamefully admit that they had no idea who was working for the network in one of the most sensitive locations in the Middle East.

And it’s not like Eslaiah was unemployed until then: Last month his footage of the appalling handover of Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud was heavily used by local and international media.


The ABC violates its own charter by platforming extremist Jewish leader who mocked 'Dutton's Jew' at 'anti-racism' event
Following the October 7 massacre and the surge in local anti-Semitism, the Australian Jewish community is more united than ever.

Previously unconnected Jews have rediscovered their Jewishness, and attendance at communal events has surged.

This isn’t surprising. Polling consistently shows that Australian Jews are overwhelmingly Zionist and deeply connected to Israel. Descendants of Holocaust survivors and immigrants from places like the Soviet Union and South Africa understand the Jewish state’s critical importance.

But another development has emerged since October 7. A few months ago, a far-left organisation claiming to speak for the Jewish community appeared. The Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) has almost no support within the Jewish community and finds itself at loggerheads with the community’s views on every issue.

Many Jewish leaders initially dismissed JCA, reasoning that its fringe positions and minuscule size would render it irrelevant.

One organisation had a different idea.

The taxpayer-funded ABC has given the JCA disproportionate coverage since its inception, frequently featuring its leaders on television or in prime-time radio slots.

Like any community, Jews are not monolithic.

No single organisation can claim to speak for the diverse community.

However, certain fundamental positions, like a deep connection with Israel and concern about rising anti-Semitism are almost universally shared.

On both issues, JCA occupies an extremist fringe.

The JCA’s positions are so closely aligned with those of pro-Palestinian activist groups that some suspect they played a role in its creation.


Support for Hamas control of Gaza rose 20% among Arab Israelis - IDI survey
Support for Hamas control of the Gaza Strip rose 20% among Arab Israelis from September to January, according to a survey from the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute.

When asked who should govern the enclave after the war, most Jewish respondents preferred a multinational force, rather than Israeli control. Among Arab Israeli respondents, support for Hamas control rose sharply from 8% in September to 29% in January, becoming their top choice.

The survey, released on Thursday and carried out between January 28 and February 2, sampled 755 citizens aged 18 and above, including 604 Jewish and 151 Arab respondents.

According to the survey, public optimism regarding national security has declined, dropping to 41% in January from 51% in December. This marks a return to November levels following a temporary surge in confidence.

Optimism among Jewish respondents dropped significantly from 56% in December to 42% in January, while among Arab respondents, it rose from 23% to 35%.

Regarding democratic governance, optimism dropped slightly from 37% in December to 35% in January. The Jewish political spectrum reflected familiar trends: 15.5% of left-wing respondents were optimistic about democracy’s future, compared to 24% in the Center and 44% on the Right.
Seth Frantzman: IDF's withdrawal from key Gaza corridor signals shift in war's trajectory
The purpose of control over the corridor
Once the IDF settled into the corridor, it patrolled it using one armored brigade paired with an infantry brigade. An IDF division would be rotated in and out. The 252nd and 99th divisions became the divisions that rotated in and out of the corridor. Different reservist infantry and armored units would go in and out of the area.

Each tried to add a bit to the corridor. They expanded it on each side, and a road was constructed, along with some earthen strong points. A concrete area was even built near the coast so that aid items from the temporary US pier could be dropped off. However, the pier was a failure and operated only for around a month in the spring of 2024.

The IDF never fully knew what it wanted to do with the corridor. When Gazans left Gaza city to head south, they were not searched. This likely enabled Hamas to move personnel and perhaps even hostages south in the early days.

Hamas concentratred itself in Nuseirat, Deir al-Balah, Maghzai and Bureaij south of the corridor in the central camps.

This became the Hamas rump state from which Hamas continued to govern Gaza. With only a few exceptions, the IDF left Hamas intact in the center of Gaza. There was the Nuseirat hostage raid in June, freeing four hostages. There was also the unfortunate killing of the World Central Kitchen members on a road near Deir al-Balah. However, for the most part, the corridor and the areas near it were not the scene of intense fighting.

The IDF and the high command never figured out what to do with the corridor. Sometimes it was used to facilitate trucks entering Gaza, sometimes trucks and medical personnel would cross the area. Eventually as system to secure all those entering this area was sorted out. But the corridor was not utilized to defeat Hamas in central Gaza or Gaza city itself. This enabled Hamas to survive in Gaza. In the end the hostage deal happened and Hamas re-emerged and Hamas has now returned to the corridor. There are still some issues to be worked out, such as the movement of vehicles across the corridor.

Iran is happy with the developments. “Hamas says the complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Netzarim Corridor marks yet another failure for the occupying regime in achieving its declared war goals in Gazal,” Iran’s IRNA said on February 9. “Hamas said that the return of the displaced Palestinian people to their homes and the ongoing exchange of prisoners refuses Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim of achieving victory in the enclave,” the report says. “Gaza will remain a land liberated by the hands of its people and its fighters, and forbidden to the occupying invaders and any external force,” the Hamas statement read.

What becomes of the Netzarim corridor is anyone’s guess. Hamas might go into it and begin to build up terrorist infrastructure again. Hamas could also leave it as is, expecting the IDF to return. Or Hamas might move into the corridor to rebuild roads and homes. It’s a large open space, and the IDF cleared a large area around it to secure it. This meant destroying buildings, orchards, and other things in the corridor.

As military strategy and tactics go the corridor, it was a tactical victory. However, as with the rest of Gaza, it was a temporary tactical victory and lacked strategy.
Footage shows Gazans close to border fence despite 700m buffer zone
Gazans were seen approaching the border fence near Nahal Oz on Sunday, social media footage showed, despite the requirement for the IDF to maintain a 700m buffer zone according to the ceasefire agreement, following the IDF's withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor earlier.

The IDF responded by firing shots to disperse the crowd, Israeli media reported. According to Gaza reports, three were killed as a result of the shooting.

The IDF confirmed that they had fired warning shots at suspects at various locations throughout the Gaza Strip.

Defense Minister Israel Katz responded to the incident in the evening, saying, "Israel's security policy regarding Gaza is clear: Anyone who enters the buffer zone does so at their own risk.

"There will be zero tolerance for anyone who threatens IDF forces or the border area and communities. We will not allow a return to the reality of October 7.

"IDF troops acted appropriately today in identifying and addressing the threat, and this will continue in the future. The IDF is prepared for any scenario and will respond forcefully to any threat," Katz concluded.


IAF jets strike Hezbollah smuggling tunnel under Lebanon-Syria border
IAF jets struck a Hezbollah smuggling tunnel that crossed from Lebanon into Syria, the IDF announced on Sunday.

The tunnel was used for smuggling weapons into the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon from Syria, the IDF said.

The tunnel had been struck in the past by the Israeli military, and the IDF is determined to prevent its reuse.

At the same time, the IDF struck munitions and launch sites in Lebanon that were in violation of the agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

Clashes on the Lebanon-Syria border
This comes as reports of clashes between Hezbollah and the new Syrian transitional government.

The clashes are part of a crackdown on illegal activity on the border, which had gone unchecked for years under the Assad regime.

The current crackdown has targeted smuggling, in particular of drugs and weapons, across the border.

Similar reports also highlight the growing tensions between the two countries as the Lebanese Armed Forces have sought to bring a sense of order to regions evacuated by the IDF and Hezbollah in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon.


A Super Bowl Audience of 125 Million Will Hear About Antisemitism. Or Not.
The top 10 shows in television history are all Super Bowls. When I worked in the ad business, this was our Academy Awards, our Judgment Day. Advertisers would spend millions to buy 30 seconds and then went nuts to produce a clever commercial that everyone would talk about.

But just as Pepsi and Doritos can take advantage of the biggest TV audience of the year, can a social cause do the same– a cause like, say, fighting antisemitism?

Last year, Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism made a $7 million bet that it can. It ran a 30-second ad, called “Silence,” that starred prominent civil rights leader Clarence B. Jones, a key figure in drafting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It ended with the tagline “Stand up to Jewish hate, stand up to all hate.”

This year, it is running an ad with rapper Snoop Dogg and football legend Tom Brady angrily spewing “I hate you because” messages before lamenting they hate that “things are so bad they need to do a commercial about it.” The tagline this year is shortened to: “Stand Up to All Hate.” The only place viewers will see the word “antisemitism” is on a logo at the end.

What’s funny (or not) is that last year, the Foundation took some heat for focusing too much on Jews (are millions of partying Americans in the mood to hear that Jews are victims?), showing the StanduptoJewishhate.org address at the end. This year, I’ve heard critics say that they’ve “All Lives Mattered” the message by avoiding a specific reference to Jews. In classic argumentative Jewish fashion, neither approach made everyone happy.

But just to muddle things up, I’m not sure either approach works.

My first question: Why assume that to fight hate one must show hate?

Every TV viewer, Super Bowl or otherwise, is keenly aware that an advertiser wants to sell them on something, whether that is to change insurance companies or to stand up to hate.

But because people in general don’t enjoy sales pitches, they expect something in return for their attention. That’s why the best Super Bowl ads have been both highly entertaining and memorable.
David Schwimmer calls on Musk to ban Kanye West from X after ‘hate-filled, ignorant’ antisemitic rant
Schwimmer called on Musk, the owner of X, to remove West from the platform.

“This is so 2022,” said Schwimmer. “We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate-filled, ignorant bile… but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk.”

“Kanye West has 32.7 million followers on your platform, X,” he told Musk. “That’s twice as many people than the number of Jews in existence.”

“His sick hate speech results in REAL LIFE violence against Jews,” the actor argued. “I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that he identifies as a Nazi (which implies he wants to exterminate ALL marginalized communities including his own) or the fact that there is not sufficient OUTRAGE to remove and ban him from all social media at this point.”

“Silence is complicity,” he added.


Man with scissors attacks two Jews in Crown Heights, NY
A father and son were attacked while returning from synagogue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., on Saturday afternoon by a man with scissors, who attempted to cut off one of the victim’s ears.

Antisemitism is not seen as the motive considered a case of mental illness, Rabbi Yaakov Behrman, a liaison for Chabad headquarters, said on social media.

“This incident is not being investigated as a hate crime but highlights the ongoing mental health and crime crisis in New York State,” Behrman posted to X. “It’s unacceptable for such things to happen in broad daylight on a busy street.”

The incident took place in the area of Union Street and Troy Avenue, according to crownheights.info, a Chabad website covering local news.

“Video of the incident showed the attacker come up behind one of his victims and reach for his right ear while holding something in his hand,” the report said.

The victims escaped after a brief struggle, with one reporting minor injuries.

The attacker fled toward Eastern Parkway and was seen dropping the weapon down a storm drain before police arrived.


Morocco selects Elbit Systems as main weapons supplier
Morocco has shifted to Israel’s Elbit Systems as its main defense partner, signing a contract to purchase 36 Atmos 2000 self-propelled artillery systems, according to a Saturday report from the French newspaper La Tribune.

The decision follows growing tensions between the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (FAR) and France’s KNDS, Morocco’s previous main weapons supplier. The dispute stems from repeated technical failures in the Caesar artillery systems, which Morocco ordered in 2020 and partially received in 2022.

According to the report, issues with the system surfaced shortly after the initial delivery.

“Morocco quickly complained to the French group about recurring problems with the artillery systems that were supplied,” the article stated. Despite multiple complaints, KNDS’s response was considered slow by Rabat, and some of the artillery systems remain non-operational.

Third-largest weapons supplier
With this new agreement, Israel has become Morocco’s third-largest weapons supplier, accounting for 11% of its total arms imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The deal further strengthens Elbit Systems' footprint in Morocco and reinforces Israel’s role as a strategic defense partner.




Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

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