Friday, February 28, 2025

02/28 Links Pt1: Israel Takes a Hard Look at Its Prewar Assumptions; Why a Palestinian state is a security risk Israel cannot afford; ABC leave out ‘Allahu Akbar’ chants from school protest

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Israel Takes a Hard Look at Its Prewar Assumptions
Israel did not believe that Hamas wanted, or was capable of carrying out, a full-fledged total war. But it did, and it planned for it, and here we are.

“Israel believed that leveraging improved civil conditions in Gaza would make Hamas less likely to launch a war,” Fabian writes. “Israel worked to have defenses ready for rounds of conflicts lasting several days and the possibility of it deteriorating into a war, during which the IDF could attack and degrade Hamas’s force build-up. At the same time, Israel worked to reach some level of agreements with Hamas to improve the civil conditions in the Strip. In hindsight, Hamas’s efforts to reach understandings with Israel were part of a deception campaign to trick Israel into thinking it was uninterested in war.”

Any and every drop of legitimacy Israel gave Hamas in the name of improving Palestinians’ lives was paid back in Israeli blood. The result of Israel thinking it could coexist with Hamas was devastation for everybody. Hamas’s ultimate defeat is imperative for Israelis and Palestinians alike; neither can afford to leave Hamas intact. And that is an important lesson for the self-proclaimed pro-Palestinian advocates of the world as well.

As for the second major takeaway: The border fence separating Israel from Gaza was intended to represent merely a part of a larger security network that was mostly out of sight. But the reliance on detection technology, which Hamas was able to disarm, meant that there really only was a fence separating the two. Good fences make good neighbors; Israel did not have either.

But the principle goes for the IDF as well: The Israeli establishment misjudged the extent of Hamas’s tunnel construction underneath Gaza. They, too, couldn’t see the entire playing field because part of it was underground, but they were pretty sure they would know if the reality was significantly different from their expectations. It was, and they didn’t know.

The report has important implications for Lebanon, too. Israel expected Hezbollah to represent the greatest threat on its border. But Hamas’s increased threat didn’t make Hezbollah any less of a threat than it already was, regardless of which one posed the more immediate danger to Israeli civilians. Simply put, Hezbollah (and forces similar) cannot be allowed to put Israel in that situation ever again. If you’re wondering why Israel is taking such a serious approach to any perceived threats materializing in the chaos of Syria’s transition, this should answer that question as well.

Israel—and the region more generally—paid dearly for the belief that as long as these terror groups kept their boots off Israeli soil they were a manageable threat basically at all times. The prevention of another devastating regional war depends on Israel not repeating that mistake, no matter how much the rest of the world wants it to.
Seth Mandel: Israel’s Strategic Goals in Lebanon and the New Syria
This should be obvious: Why would Israel allow a second South Lebanon? The goal is to ensure that when the dust settles on this regional post-Oct. 7 war, the new status quo looks very different from the previous one: No Hezbollahland, no Hamastan. It’s why the IDF is taking a proactive approach toward the Iranian-backed terrorist hive in Jenin in the West Bank. And for that very same reason, Israel is watching the new Syria very closely.

Some of Israel’s Syria policy is designed to help the Syrian Druze feel more secure. If that can be done successfully, a pro-Western corridor running from Kurdish territory through Druze areas to Israel’s border could emerge. This would help the new Syrian government too, since it could settle the nerves of areas that might otherwise consider breaking away from Damascus’s control. Ensuring the safety of ethnic and religious minorities in Syria would also help Damascus convince the West to give it a chance.

There is another problem: Turkey. As I wrote in December, the fall of the House of Assad created the biggest Mideast power vacuum since the fall of the Soviet Union. And Turkey, the pro-Hamas power next door, is primed to fill it.

After all, the Kurds are only on alert because Turkey put them there: Ankara periodically sends its armed forces across the border to harass and weaken America’s Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS. The new Syrian government owes its existence in part to Turkish backing. The intent is clearly for an array of anti-Israel (and anti-U.S.) forces to use Syria much as Iran used Lebanon: as a place to cultivate and command terrorist proxies against the West.

The idea that Israel is just randomly striking Syrian territory to flex its muscles is absurd. As is the idea, increasingly voiced in some quarters, that Israel wants to sabotage Syrian state stability—as if what Israel longs for is more instability in the region.

Israel doesn’t want a power vacuum south of Damascus and it doesn’t want Syria to become a Turkish puppet regime. So it is taking steps to secure its interests, as any responsible state would, by shoring up its allies and its defenses. The fact that this is controversial while the post-Oct. 7 war is extant is childish and, frankly, hypocritical: One does not hear much caterwauling about Turkey securing its interests in Syria.

Israelis would love it if none of this were necessary. Until that happens, Israel is navigating the world as it is.
Trump's Home Run: Neutralize Hamas, Qatar, Houthis, Iran
"[Iran's] Operation True Promise 3 will be carried out at the right time, with precision, and in a scale sufficient to destroy Israel and raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground." — Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Ebrahim Jabbari, February 2025.

A Trump decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would go a long way toward making it difficult for its many offshoots to continue supporting it.

Even more urgent is for the Trump administration to neutralize Hamas, Qatar, Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- to limit their ability to keep on destabilizing the entire region, as well as to curtail the Houthis' stranglehold on global shipping. The policy is certainly congruent with the long-held American principle of maintaining the international freedom of navigation.

The move would also send a warning to China not to continue its aggressive effort to gain control of the world's critical sea lines near Taiwan, Australia, the Philippines and Japan.


Why a Palestinian state is a security risk Israel cannot afford
Israel has made multiple peace offers, all of which were rejected. Even generous proposals – including the 2020 Trump peace plan, which offered a Palestinian state on 70% of the West Bank with $50 billion in economic aid – were dismissed outright.

Therefore, during his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump reversed his stance, saying, “The two-state solution is going to be very, very difficult, and I’m not sure it can work anymore.” His change in position reflects a broader shift in global attitudes. As Palestinian violence continues, more world leaders recognize that statehood may not bring peace but rather embolden extremists.

A FEBRUARY poll by Direct Polls found that 71% of Israelis oppose Palestinian statehood, citing the October 7 attacks as a key factor.

Over half also reject a peace deal with Saudi Arabia if it includes a Palestinian state.

Trump's proposal
Meanwhile, President Trump’s proposal for voluntary migration from Gaza has 80% support among Israelis.Hamas leaders have made their stance clear: They will never accept Israel’s existence. Their calls for Israel’s destruction and the October 7 massacre they carried out demonstrate that they have no interest in coexistence.

Abbas’ promise to stop payments to terrorists lasted only a few days before he reinstated them under a different name. Recently, he reaffirmed his support for “martyrs” and prisoners, declaring, “Even if we have just one cent left, it will go to them.”

The PA continues to glorify terrorists in school curricula and public statements. The recent discovery of West Bank-based terror cells plotting attacks on Israeli civilians serves as yet another reminder of the dangers that would come with Palestinian statehood.

The events of October 7 marked the end of the Palestinian statehood dream. Even Abbas understands this reality. Israeli politicians who continue to advocate for a Palestinian state must face the facts.

Palestinian textbooks remain filled with incitement, and terror attacks from the West Bank persist. The notion of peace with Hamas is an illusion. Every attempt to promote Palestinian independence has resulted in more violence, not less.

A Palestinian state is not the solution – it is a security risk Israel cannot afford to take.

Until Palestinian leadership fundamentally changes and renounces terrorism, the chances of a Palestinian state remain close to zero.


Exclusive: Israel To Resume War in Gaza and ‘Eradicate Hamas,’ Cutting Off Aid and Bombarding Strip with Troops
Israeli decision-makers plan to resume the Gaza war in four to six weeks with overwhelming force, sending in tens of thousands of troops to conquer the entire strip in a single coordinated offensive against Hamas.

Incoming military chief of staff Eyal Zamir has, at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Israel Katz, started developing the plan, according to several current and former Israeli officials with knowledge of high-level discussions. Under the plan, Israel will deploy more troops to Gaza than it has to this point in the war—over 50,000—before relocating the civilian population to humanitarian zones and waging a ruthless ground campaign against Palestinian terrorists across the rest of the strip.

"We’re going to see four to five divisions simultaneously attack in the north, in the center, and in the south, to occupy every area and clear out the enemy," said Hezi Nehama, a former Israeli colonel who co-authored the Generals’ Plan, an influential proposal for a staged siege of Gaza. "It will look different than what we saw in the war until now."

"It’s going to be decisive," said Amir Avivi, a former Israeli brigadier general who has advised the Israeli government and military during the war. "Israel will use every tool it has to conquer Gaza and eradicate Hamas."

The plan starts with a wave of airstrikes on Gaza and a reduction of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the sources said. "There will be no aid outside the humanitarian zones," said Kobi Michael, a former head of the Palestinian desk at the Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry and before that a senior Israeli military intelligence official. "This will prevent Hamas from continuing to steal all the humanitarian aid and will increase pressure on the group through the local population."

Nehama said Israel plans to expand an existing humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza into a single giant refuge. Other sources said there would be several humanitarian zones.

The Israeli military raised its alert and readiness level along the Gaza border on Sunday, and Hamas has also reportedly started making preparations for renewed fighting. Zamir, the incoming military chief of staff, estimates that the plan, which he will present to Netanyahu and Katz after taking office next Thursday, can be completed in six months or less, according to Nehama. The plan could be paused if Hamas agrees to release more of the 59 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, 35 of them confirmed dead, or to disarm and leave Gaza in exchange for an end to the war, the sources said. But Israeli decision-makers do not believe Hamas is ready to make such compromises.

Israel’s plan to resume the war comes on the heels of a string of military and diplomatic successes that leave the Jewish state less constrained than at any previous point in the past 17 months of war.

Hezbollah agreed in November to a humiliating ceasefire with Israel, easing pressure on Israel’s overstretched army.

"We always had divisions in the north, and now we don’t need divisions in the north because Hezbollah is not a threat," said Nehama. "So we can take those divisions and put them all in Gaza at the same time, and this is very important."
Israel seeking 6-week extension of ceasefire’s first phase, Egyptian sources say
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding consultations with senior ministers and defense officials Friday evening on the state of the hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Hebrew media reports indicated the talks were focused on Hamas’s refusal to extend the current first phase of the ceasefire, which is set to end Saturday, and its demand to advance to a second phase that would see an end to the war.

The phone consultations were to involve the heads of the defense establishment along with Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Shas leader Aryeh Deri, according to media reports.

It is rare for the premier to hold such extensive discussions on a Friday evening, the Jewish Sabbath.

Two Egyptian security sources told Reuters that an Israeli delegation dispatched to Cairo on Thursday for “intensive” talks on the future of the Gaza deal aimed to negotiate an extension of the ongoing first phase by an additional 42 days.

Hamas opposes the extension and insists on proceeding to the second phase of the deal as originally agreed, the sources told Reuters. The second phase is meant to include steps leading to a permanent end to the war, including a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip.

An Israeli diplomatic source said the delegation was returning from Cairo Friday night, but that talks would resume on Saturday.

The first phase of the ceasefire is set to end on Saturday, and the warring parties have yet to clarify what will happen if no agreement is reached by then. Egypt and Qatar are mediating the talks, with US support.

Two Israeli government officials also told Reuters that Israel was seeking to extend the initial phase, with Hamas freeing three hostages each week in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.

Meanwhile, a senior Western diplomat told The Times of Israel on Friday that Israel was gearing up to return to war with Hamas, believing the ceasefire will not last for more than several more weeks.

While the IDF’s tactics in such a renewed conflict would ostensibly shift from the last year of fighting, with Israeli military and political officials pledging a more intensive campaign, the Western diplomat briefed on Jerusalem’s preparations said there did not appear to be a strategic shift in Israel’s approach regarding the advancement of an alternative to Hamas.


Starmer tells Trump ‘Everyone wants to see Gaza improved’
Keir Starmer has reiterated his call for Gaza to be reconstructed and his continued belief in the possibility of a two-state solution at a meeting with Donald Trump in the White House.

In what is being regarded as a highly successful meeting between the two leaders in Washington, the UK Prime Minister again raised the impact his conversation with freed Gaza hostage Emily Damari had on him.

Starmer said to Trump:”We have to do everything we can to ensure that the ceasefire continues so that more hostages can be returned and so that aid can be brought in that’s desperately needed.”

“The last few weeks of the ceasefire have been very impactful,” he added.

“Everyone wants to see Gaza improved,” Starmer said. “The rebuilding has got to happen at pace.”

“And we need to allow Palestinians to return and to rebuild their lives, and we must all support them in doing that,” the PM added.

“And yes, I believe that the two-state solution is ultimately the only way for a lasting peace in the region.”

Trump added, “It’s a terrible situation.”

Later at a press conference, Starmer expressed concern about the BBC’s Gaza documentary How To Survive A War Zone.

He said:”I’ve been concerned about the programme in question…The Secretary of State had a meeting with the BBC.”

Earlier the US president told journalists inside the Oval Office that October 7th must never be allowed to happen again.

The Middle East was not the main focus of the talks though.
UK voices opposition to UN resolution that singles out Israel
The UK has again voiced its opposition to the continued existence of a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council that places “disproportionate” focus on Israel.

Debate on Israel in relation to its human rights record in regards to the Palestinians remains the only country with a dedicated standalone place on the HRC agenda, through the controversial Item 7.

Every session of the UN Human Rights Council devotes a special agenda item to the “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories,” which is definedas covering “Human rights violations and implications of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”

There is no special agenda item on Iran, Syria, North Korea, or any other country.

Delivering the UK’s statement at this week’s 58 Human Rights Council session, Ambassador Eleanor Sanders said:”Let me be clear, the UK is opposed to the existence of Item 7.

“The UK wants to see all countries face appropriate scrutiny of their human rights record but opposes the disproportionate focus of this item. ”

The UK’s human rights representative added:”Back on 7 October 2023, Israel suffered the worst terror attack in its history at the hands of Hamas: the hostages have suffered an unbearable trauma.

“The people of Gaza, so many of whom have lost their lives, homes or loved ones, have also experienced a living nightmare.

“The UK has urged all parties to sustain the ceasefire deal, implement the agreement in full, and support efforts to move to phase two and a sustainable peace.

“Indeed, let me reaffirm, once again, our support for a credible pathway towards a peaceful future for both Palestinians and Israelis, based on a two-state solution where they live side-by-side in peace, dignity and security.”

The UK’s continued opposition to Item 7 at the UN was praised by Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg.

He said:”The Government is right to continue the UK’s principled opposition to the UN Human Rights Council’s notorious Item 7, which singles out Israel from all the countries in the world.

“It is time to reform UNHRC to make sure that human rights are universal and not politicised.”
Dodds resigns over Starmer foreign aid cuts and impact on Gaza spending
International development minister Anneliese Dodds has quit her post over Keir Starmer’s decision to slash international aid, warning it will be “impossible” to deliver on current spending commitments in Gaza.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Dodds said she believes he is right to increase defence spending after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has meant the postwar consensus has “come crashing down.”

But Dodds, also womens minister, wrote to the PM to express concern about Starmer’s promise to maintain aid funding for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, as well as for vaccination, climate and for rules-based systems, while also cutting foreign spending.

He had said it pained him to volster defence spending by cutting the aid budget to help pay for the plan to increase military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – wih an ambition to hit 3% in the next parliament.

“It will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut; the effect will be far greater than presented, even if assumptions made about reducing asylum costs hold true,” wrote Dodds.


John Spencer: Urban Warfare Project Podcast: Siege Warfare and Civilian Evacuations
By its very nature, urban warfare involves the presence of civilians. And when cities become battlefields, it may be necessary to evacuate noncombatants from them—either due to humanitarian imperatives or because military objectives require it. But an array of legal obligations and other considerations arise when civilians are evacuated. And because discussions of evacuations are closely linked to those surrounding the conduct of siege warfare, this raises further questions of the legal issues related to sieges and the obligations of parties on both sides of siege warfare.

To explore these questions, John Spencer is joined on this episode of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast by Laurie Blank. A clinical professor of law at Emory University School of Law, director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic, and author of the book International Conflict and Security Law, she was the featured guest on a previous episode that explored the subject of legitimacy in urban warfare. This discussion complements that episode by examining the legal issues that emerge when siege warfare occurs on the modern battlefield and when civilians are evacuated from their homes.
The Israel Guys: EXCLUSIVE: Frontline IDF Soldier Breaks Silence about Gaza (full-length interview)
Joshua Waller and Luke got the opportunity to sit down with IDF D9 Commander Efraim Abrams. Hear his crazy and miraculous testimony as one of the first soldiers to enter Gaza after the October 7 attack.




Former hostage details starvation and beatings by Hamas captors
A recently released Israeli hostage whose wife and children were murdered in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, described being chained, beaten and starved by terrorists throughout 16 months of captivity in the Gaza Strip, he said on Thursday.

Eli Sharabi, 53, who lost more than 66 pounds and weighed just 97 pounds upon his release on Feb. 8, told Israel’s Channel 12 that he was kept in iron chains the entire time and was intermittently beaten or otherwise humiliated as he and the three other hostages he was with subsisted for months on end on a single plate of pasta a day.

“Some [captives] were chained part of the time. I was chained for 16 months. Heavy locks tore into my flesh,” Sharabi said.

“People should really think when they open a fridge at home, it’s everything. It’s everything to open a fridge,” he said. “That’s what you dream of every day. You don’t care about the beatings you get. They beat you, they’re breaking my ribs, and I don’t care; give me another half-pita.”

He recounted that when the four hostages received pita, they would break it into equal parts, keeping it until 10 p.m. and then eating it piece by piece over 10 to 15 minutes, “so you can get through the night.”

The former hostage looked so emaciated on his release that he drew comparisons to Holocaust survivors.

Sharabi, who was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on the border with Gaza, said he had no access to the news and only learned that his wife and two daughters were killed o Oct. 7.

“I thought I was returning to my family,” he told Channel 12. “I had no idea.”

“I’m not angry,” he said. “I was lucky I had Lianne for 30 years. I was lucky I had those amazing daughters for years.”
Recently freed hostage recounts extreme hunger, gut-wrenching farewell to still-held captive
Recently freed hostage Eli Sharabi has described being chained, beaten and starved by Hamas terrorists throughout his 16 months of captivity, with the abuse getting worse when his captors perceived Israel to be worsening the conditions of captured Hamas operatives, in a lengthy TV interview broadcast Thursday.

Sharabi said he was “not angry” while talking about losing his wife and two daughters, whom he only learned upon his release were murdered in the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.

The 53-year-old, who lost 40 percent of his body weight, also recounted close relationships he formed in captivity with now-released Or Levy and Eliya Cohen, with whom he was held for more than a year, and particularly with Alon Ohel, who remains in captivity — as well as a few days he spent with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino and Almog Sarusi, who were later murdered by their captors.

“You could tell what was happening in the news just by [the captors’] behavior,” Sharabi told the network’s “Uvda” program. And so, he cautioned, the responsibility that lies with leaders, in terms of how they express themselves in the media, is very powerful.

“Every irresponsible statement — we’re the first ones to suffer [the consequences],” he continued. “They come to us and tell us, ‘They aren’t giving our prisoners food — you won’t eat. They’re beating our prisoners — we’ll beat you. They aren’t letting them shower — you won’t get to shower.'”

Sharabi’s comments echoed ones made earlier this week by another recently released hostage — Eliya Cohen — who said public remarks made by then-national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir boasting of efforts to significantly deteriorate the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails led Hamas to worsen the treatment of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Over the course of the hour-long interview, which aired Thursday night, Sharabi recounted being held for 52 days in a private home, alongside a Thai hostage. Then, he was taken to a tunnel, he said, where he developed a close relationship with 24-year-old Alon Ohel, with whom he was held alongside two other Israelis in cramped, painful conditions.

“I adopted him from the first minute,” Sharabi said of Ohel. “24/7 together. I know everything about him and his family.”


Jewish leaders blast 'shameful' Sadiq Khan for failing to light up London's landmarks in honour of family kidnapped and murdered by Hamas - despite cities around the world paying tribute to them
A coalition of angry Jewish leaders have condemned 'shameful' London mayor Sadiq Khan for failing to light up London landmarks last night in honour of the Bibas family.

Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children Ariel, five, and Kfir, two, were buried in Tsoher Cemetery yesterday afternoon after they were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists and murdered in captivity.

Around the globe more than 100 iconic landmarks including the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, the Empire State building in New York, Brandenburg Gate in Germany and the Eiffel Tower in Paris were lit up orange in their honour - a colour that has become associated with the Bibas family thanks to the boys' distinctive ginger hair.

But in Britain no tribute was organised for the family whose remains were returned to Israel from Gaza earlier this month in a disturbing pantomime-like ceremony.

Last night Jewish organisations and Israeli officials said the Mayor had shown a 'failure of moral leadership' by refusing to light up a landmarks in a show of 'solidarity' with Israel.

In its place they are demanding he arrange an emergency 'commemoration' in honour of the family who have become a symbol of Israel's hostage crisis.

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism told the Daily Mail: 'The horrific murder of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas by Hamas terrorists following their abduction was rightly commemorated by cities across the globe.

'It is disappointing and shameful that London was not among them.

'We are reaching out to the Mayor's office to urgently arrange for a commemoration for these innocent victims of Hamas brutality.'

Former Israeli Government spokesperson Eylon Levy added: 'After months of London hosting marches in solidarity with the monsters who kidnapped and murdered the Bibas family in cold blood, the least Mayor Khan could do is light up a landmark in solidarity with the murdered kids themselves.'

In Britain no buildings were lit up in commemoration of the Bibas family. The decision to light up City Hall or Trafalgar Square lies with the Mayor's Office, while landmarks such as the London Eye or Houses of Parliament the responsibility lies with No10.
Ex-hostage recalls her final moments with Tsahi Idan: ‘They told him he’d return with us’
A former hostage who was briefly held alongside slain hostage Tsahi Idan has recounted her final ominous moments with him in captivity.

Idan was buried Friday, a day after his body and three others were brought back from Gaza. He was taken alive from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023, and Israel says he was murdered in captivity.

Hagar Brodutch, kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza with her three children, was released in the November 2023 ceasefire. Prior to her and her kids’ release, they spent a short time with Idan.

“In the final days in hell, they told him he’d return with us [under the deal], she told Channel 12. “On the last day, they brutally pulled him away from us and took him — to this today I don’t know where.”

Brodutch said: “We were locked together in a small room. They put a table between him and me so we wouldn’t talk. In the morning, one of the terrorists told us in broken English that they were going to film us for videos in which we would talk about ourselves, and then they would take us for release.

“We practiced what we needed to say, mainly to pass the time,” she related. “The kids were too shy to say their names and how old they were. After an hour, they took him to an adjacent room. I was sure the goal was to film the aforementioned video. After minutes in which Tsahi didn’t return, my stomach turned. I asked them again and again where Tsahi was, and then I understood that he probably wouldn’t return, and maybe neither would we.”

Upon her return, Brodutch spoke with Tsahi’s wife Gali to tell her of her meeting with her husband.

“It was important to pass on the message… Tsahi and I were together for a short time, 48 hours in total, but in the hell of those short hours and the encounter with another Israeli adult, it was a lifetime,” she said.

“My time in captivity is far from behind me. We live the captivity every minute.”
'You always looked after me': Brother eulogizes slain hostage Tsachi
Crowds lined the streets of Tel Aviv, accompanying slain hostage Tsachi Idan on his final journey as the funeral procession departed from Bloomfield Stadium towards Kibbutz Einat, where the funeral took place on Friday.

The funeral was attended by his family and loved ones only and was closed to the media.

Udi Idan, Tsachi's younger brother, delivered a eulogy at the funeral, during which he expressed everything his brother meant to him and the realities of the loss.

"Tsachi, today, with great sorrow and a heavy heart, we say goodbye to you, and our hearts still cannot comprehend the nightmare you experienced," Udi said, before speaking of all the support and memories provided by Tsachi.

"You always looked after me. My first memory with you is of you carrying me on your bicycle on the way to kindergarten, and inevitably, I got my leg caught in the wheel and broke it...," he recalled, describing his brother as "a principled and modest man, a caring family man and an exemplary father."

Among the descriptions of enjoying beer and coffee with his brother before he was taken captive, Udi spoke of the "unbearable" final 16 months of Tsachi's life.

"You didn't deserve to witness Maayan's (Tsachi's daughter) murder, you didn't deserve to be held captive by Hamas monsters, and you didn't deserve the uncertainty about the fate of Gali, Shachar and Yael - something that was probably unbearable for you and made your captivity so much harder," Udi asserted. "Although I've been missing you for over 16 months, I still can't grasp that we're saying goodbye to you today. Along with the many longings, I also feel a lot of anger mixed with frustration. As far as I'm concerned, we lost the war already on October 7th.

"You managed to survive captivity until after the first deal, the one in which you weren't released. The fact that we received you as a casualty and that we're saying goodbye to you today is a failure. You are proof that military pressure does not serve the most important goal of returning the hostages, but kills them. Only a comprehensive deal at an early stage would have brought you back to us alive."


The Free Press: The Illusions Shattered by October 7 | Matti Friedman
I’m sure you remember the images of Kfir and Ariel Bibas.

They were just nine months and four years old when they were kidnapped by Hamas along with their mother, Shiri, on October 7, 2023. It was impossible to look at the image of her shielding them, her eyes full of terror, the children clinging to her, and not think of the Holocaust.

For more than 500 days, people around the world prayed for the safe return of these babies. Our hopes were raised on February 1, when the fourth member of the family—Yarden Bibas—was liberated after 484 days in Hamas captivity.

But as this episode goes live, Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas won’t be returning home alive. Hamas instead will hand over their remains.

How can Israel live alongside an enemy that kidnaps and murders babies? And what does it mean for us to live in a world, where people in the West tore down posters of the Bibas children.

Before the devastating news of the Bibas children broke, Bari sat down with Matti Friedman, Free Press correspondent in Jerusalem. They happened to talk on the very day that Kfir and Ariel’s father, Yarden, was released after being kept in unimaginable conditions. Now Yarden confronts the nightmare that his entire family was murdered.

Bari and Matti talk about the toll of this war, why returning the hostages is so fundamentally important to the future of Israel, about the rise of anti-Jewish hate, and about how to be American, Jewish, and Zionist all at the same time, and how Jews are waking up to a new reality in 2025.




Australia's Jewish Community Living In Fear As Government Has abandoned Them: Robert Gregory
Like the rest of the world, Antisemitism in Australia has skyrocketed since October 7, 2023.

Last week, a video went viral after an Israeli influencer recorded a conversation with 2 Muslim Australian nurses who boasted of killing Israeli patients.

According to Australian Jewish Association (AJA) CEO, Robert Gregory, Australian Jews feel completely abandoned by their government led by Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese. Consider thee attacks against Jews over the last 2 years:
— A trailer filled with explosives and a list of Jewish targets discovered on Sydney’s outskirts
— Firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, with one person hurt. Defacement of another with Nazi symbols and pro-Palestine graffiti
— A Jewish childcare center set on fire
— Three Jewish businesses torched
— The former home of a prominent Jewish leader sprayed with graffiti
— Cars defaced and windows smashed in areas where Jews live

According to Gregory, there are approximately 100,000 Jews living in Australia, in contrast to the nearly 1 million Muslims.

Like the US, Australian media is hard left and very pro-Palestinian, with the exception of Sky News, which is Murdoch-owned, like America's Fox News. With elections only months away, Gregory fears that if the Albanese coalition is re-elected, many Jews will be forced to leave Australia.


‘Bias by omission’: ABC leave out ‘Allahu Akbar’ chants from school protest reporting
Sky News Australia's Media Watch Dog Columnist Gerard Henderson has slammed the ABC for leaving out “Allahu Akbar” chants from their print edition of a Western Sydney high school protest.


'Bibas family not murdered, Hamas has legitimate cause,' claims Rima Hassan
The Bibas family was not murdered and Hamas's cause is "legitimate," French-Palestinian politician Rima Hassan told France's Radio Sud just a few days after she was denied entry to Israel.

The comments, made in an interview with Jean-Jacques Bourdin on Thursday, come in the wake of Hassan's extensive, consistent, and ongoing anti-Israel activities and rhetoric.

Bourdin spoke of the funeral of Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas on Wednesday, adding that they were "murdered."

Hassan, a La France Insoumise politician and member of the European Parliament, dismissed this claim with an outright "no" to the suggestion. She continued by lamenting a lack of a "press review on the subject before opening this topic."

"I don’t know who is preparing the files here, but perhaps the method needs to be revisited a bit," she added.

On February 19, Hassan tweeted "Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas were killed by an Israeli strike. This had also been communicated and confirmed in November 2023."

Official forensic findings published on February 21 and 22 confirmed that the babies and their mother were murdered in captivity by Gaza terrorists in November 2023, just a month after their abduction, and were not killed by an IAF strike, as Hamas originally claimed.

Bourdin posed to her whether the babies would have died if Hamas had not kidnapped them. She responded by saying: "Would there have been Hamas and, in particular, the attacks of the 7th, if there had not been an illegal occupation and an illegal blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for decades?"

"Hamas, it's originally a religious movement that then structured itself into a political group," she continued. "It was elected and then developed an armed wing. That's what Hamas is. Its modus operandi is a terrorist one, just like the FLN, just like Mandela’s party. You often see this kind of attack in decolonial movements—unfortunately, it’s a historical continuum."

"Hamas has a legitimate cause if we refer to UN resolutions. UN resolutions are very clear on the right of colonized peoples to resort to armed struggle, but it doesn’t mean that all methods of armed struggle are justified."


French minister: MEP Rima Hassan’s remarks ‘tantamount to apology for terrorism’
French MEP Rima Hassan said in an interview on Thursday that Shiri Bibas and her sons Kfir, then 9 months old, and Ariel, 4 years old, whom Gazan terrorists kidnapped from their home at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, and subsequently murdered in the Strip, were not murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

Hassan pointed the finger of responsibility at the “occupation and colonization regime imposed by Israel.”

“Not murdered? Killed?” the interviewer from Radio Sud asked Hassan.

“No,” she reiterated, adding that she was sorry that the journalist had not performed “a press review on the subject.

“The Bibas family itself has asked the Israeli authorities to stop commenting on the circumstances of their loved ones’ death,” Hassan said.

According to the European Parliament member from the far-left La France Insoumise (“France Unbowed’’) party, the Bibas family has not yet received “official and clear information on the accounts communicated by the Israeli army.”

“Would there have been Hamas and the October 7 attacks if there hadn’t been an illegal occupation and an illegal blockade imposed for decades?” Hassan said. Claiming that she spoke the “language of international law,” the French MEP, who is of Palestinian origin, declared that Hamas had carried out “a legitimate act.”

After the autopsies, the Israeli army said last Friday that the two children had been “brutally killed in captivity in November 2023 by Palestinian terrorists,” and not by an Israeli air strike as Hamas claimed. According to the IDF, the murderers used “their bare hands” to kill the baby and the toddler.

“Rima Hassan’s comments are totally unacceptable,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Thursday. “Hamas is a terrorist organization that tramples on international law when it kills hostages, when it commits attacks, when it propagates antisemitic hatred and when it calls for the destruction of a state.

“As of today, I am notifying the Paris public prosecutor of these remarks, which are tantamount to an apology for terrorism,” Retailleau said.


Met Police orders Swiss Cottage anti-Zionist demo to move to new Kings Cross location
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed conditions have been imposed on a long-running protest by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) in Swiss Cottage.

Jewish residents of Swiss Cottage have repeatedly called for an end to the weekly anti-Israel protest that has taken place in their area since October 2023, claiming the demonstrations are “intimidating” and that they amount to “psychological torment.”

The static protest in Finchley Road, at the junction of Eton Avenue, has been taking place on a weekly basis on Friday evenings.

Following complaints from local residents, and pressure from communal groups including the Board of Deputies and the Community Security Trust from Friday, 28 February the protest must now take place within a designated area in Kings Cross.

The decision to impose these conditions has been made with a view to minimising serious disruption to the community in the Swiss Cottage area.

Superintendent Jack Rowlands, who is responsible for the policing operation across Camden and Islington, said:“Our role is to ensure all those exercising their right to protest can do so without incident and without causing serious disruption to the lives of the wider community.

“We have imposed conditions under the Public Order Act on when and where this protest can take place. I would ask anyone attending to make themselves aware of these conditions as to breach them, or to incite others to do so, is a criminal offence.”

The Met said the force “recognised the cumulative impact” of the protests and had made several arrests over alleged antisemitic speech and assault committed by some of the 30-50 activists.




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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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