Sunday, March 02, 2025

03/02 Links: Infantilising Palestinians, demonising Israelis; How the UN turned Palestinians into permanent refugees; Israel halts aid to Gaza after Hamas rejects US ceasefire proposal

From Ian:

Infantilising Palestinians, demonising Israelis
Humanity is certainly in short supply in Perfect Victims. In the chapter, ‘Tropes and Drones’, el-Kurd tells us again and again that his problem is not just with Israel, it is also with Jews. ‘The people seeking to expel us from our neighbourhood were Jewish’, he writes, ‘the bureaucrat issuing and revoking our blue ID cards was a Jew’, and ‘as for the soldiers who were frisking us to check those IDs… most of them [were] Jewish’.

El-Kurd fumes against the Palestinian notables who wrote a joint letter taking issue with Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas’s anti-Semitic comments in August 2023 – when he claimed that Hitler ‘fought’ the Jews because they dealt with ‘usury, money and so on’. El-Kurd claims that ‘defending ourselves, often preemptively, against the baseless charge of anti-Semitism’ is a mistake, a tactic that ‘elevates the history of Jewish suffering… above our present-day suffering’.

El-Kurd is convinced that Israel is illegitimate and that Israeli Jews are ‘colonisers’. Quoting Frantz Fanon, he says ‘the work of the colonised is to imagine every possible method for annihilating the colonist’.

But Israelis are not colonisers. They are refugees from persecution in Europe up to 1945, and in the Arab world since 1948. Most were born in Israel. By characterising Jews as the ‘colonisers’, el-Kurd is lending a veneer of legitimacy to his vilification of an entire people.

El-Kurd refuses to be drawn on the future of the Jews because, he says, this can only ever mean the de-railing of the Palestinian cause. He protests that the ‘possibility of a second holocaust is given primacy over a holocaust happening in the present’ – that is, in Gaza.

It is certainly true that Israel has been fighting a deadly war with Hamas since October 2023. But it is not in any sense a ‘holocaust’. The victims of holocausts do not generally have their own armies, nor fire missiles at their persecutors. El-Kurd points to the ‘countless examples of annihilatory rhetoric’ by Israeli officials, but he could just as easily list the genocidal remarks made by Hamas spokesmen, like Osama Hamdan or Ghazi Hamad.

Moreover, Hamas ran riot in southern Israel for just 18 hours on 7 October 2023, and managed to kill 1,200 people, most of them Jews. Its organisational commitment to killing Jews goes back to its founding. After Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades attacked Sderot, Be’eri and other towns bordering on Gaza that awful day in 2023, Mohammed el-Kurd was excited. ‘Much of what is happening in occupied Palestine’, he tweeted on 8 October, ‘will be in future history books as an example of revolutionary struggle’. Like so many among the pro-Palestine crowd, el-Kurd has since downplayed the significance of the massacre, complaining that attention is always on 7 October, not on what came before.

El-Kurd claims that Palestinians are denied the ‘common humanity’ applied to others, and are therefore dehumanised. Yet he ignores the clear dehumanisation of Jews that made it possible for Hamas to slaughter families in their homes on 7 October. That is bad enough, but worse is the evasion of responsibility. It is galling to read him protest against ‘the ceaseless infantilisation of the dehumanised subject’, in reference to Palestinians, when he and his fellow anti-Israel campaigners have done the most to infantilise them. For el-Kurd, Hamas should not be held responsible for its actions – any discussion of its atrocities or brutality, he suggests, is a ‘distraction’. What he ignores is that until a leadership emerges that accepts it has a responsibility to make peace, and live alongside its Jewish neighbours, there is no future for Palestine.

El-Kurd concludes his work like a poet, more than an activist, writing ‘the world is changing because it must’. The world is changing, but not in the direction that Mohammed el-Kurd hopes. Hamas has brought disaster upon Gaza. And the prospect of a durable peace between Israelis and Palestinians looks further away than ever.
How the UN turned Palestinians into permanent refugees
To illustrate the absurdity of what has been happening, take the case of Mohamed Anwar Hadid. His father fled Nazareth in 1948 because he ‘did not want the family to live under the Israeli occupation’. He ended up in California where he became a property developer building luxury mansions and hotels in Beverly Hills.

You might not have heard of Hadid. But you are likely to have heard of his daughters, supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, both of whom are American-born citizens. Bella, who reputedly earns up to $20million a year, regularly posts anti-Israel sentiments on social media, and has been attending pro-Palestine rallies, chanting ‘From the river to the sea’. Amazingly, the two sisters, their father and other members of the Hadid family are all still registered as Palestinian refugees with UNRWA.

That’s not all. Under the auspices of the UN, people of Palestinian heritage the world over don’t just have a permanent refugee status, they also have a so-called right of return.

Over several decades, the ‘right of return’ has allowed successive Palestinian political leaders to continue a war against Israel by other means – by insisting on their right to return to land ‘occupied’ by Israel. No other group of refugees has been granted a similarly inalienable right of return.

For the Palestine Liberation Organisation, this right was the ‘foremost of Palestinian rights’. Hamas is equally attached to it. In 2018, it organised a massive protest along the border fences with Israel. The objective of this ‘great march of return’ was, according to Hamas’s then leader, Ismail Haniyeh, to ‘break the walls of the blockade, remove the occupation entity and return to all of Palestine’. No wonder novelist Amos Oz, the founder of Israel’s Peace Now movement, has argued that ‘the right of return is a euphemism for the liquidation of Israel’.

The twin issues of refugee status and the right of return have taken on enormous symbolic significance for Palestinians. They have also made, and will continue to make, any peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis inordinately difficult.

Now would be a good time to start reassessing Palestinians’ permanent refugee status and the right of return. That way we might finally start taking some of the heat out of this interminable conflict.
Yisrael Medad: Will Palestinians in Gaza get up and go?
Ze’ev Jabotinsky began his 1923 “On the Iron Wall” essay by denying that he is “an enemy of the Arabs, who wants to have them ejected from Palestine, and so forth.”

He insisted that “it is not true.” He did admit that, emotionally, his “attitude to the Arabs is the same as to all other nations: polite indifference.”

A veteran of the campaign for equal rights for Jews in the Russian Empire, including autonomous national rights for all nationalities, he wished to see a parallel reality develop in the Mandate for Palestine. He believed that “there will always be two peoples in Palestine.”

Based on that belief, he added: “I consider it utterly impossible to eject the Arabs from Palestine,” and insisted that he would be prepared to take an oath, binding on future generations, “that we shall never do anything contrary to the principle of equal rights, and that we shall never try to eject anyone.” All that, however, was before the 1929 riots, those of 1936 to 1939, and all the wars since.

He set certain basic principles. There must be peace, and it needs to be obtained by peaceful means. There must be a Jewish majority in the future Jewish state. The Arabs need to agree that the Jews belong to their homeland. Responding to whether all this is possible, he wrote: “The answer to this question does not depend on our attitude to the Arabs, but entirely on the attitude of the Arabs to us and to Zionism.”

A century later, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in mid-February, said: “Why not give Gazans a choice? … Over the last couple of years … 150,000 Gazans left. … If people want to leave, if they want to emigrate, it’s their choice. And I think President [Donald] Trump’s plan is right on the dot.”

In other words, they should have freedom of movement and the right to emigrate.

Netanyahu could have added that some 70% of Palestinians in Gaza consider themselves “refugees.” As such, they are planning to move away from Gaza in any case. Of course, their desired destination is Israel—with the aim of eradicating the Jewish state, a purpose they adopted as a life’s mission since 1947 when they rejected that year’s U.N. Partition Plan in a not very peaceful manner.

Many of them continued to pursue their aim during the 1950s in the ranks of the fedayeen when they engaged in cross-border raids of theft, destruction and murder. A new phase of their “armed struggle” resumed after the Sinai Campaign with the founding of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. In 1987, Hamas was established, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and other countries.


Ruthie Blum: The US, Ukraine and Israel
So far, though, the two leaders appear to be aligned. Over the weekend, Netanyahu and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, agreed to hold off on the next phase of the ceasefire deal, instead extending the truce through Ramadan and Passover in an effort to secure the release of additional hostages. This, like Netanyahu’s decision on Sunday morning to halt all humanitarian aid into Gaza, was taken with Trump’s blessing.

Rubio underscored the administration’s unequivocal support by “sign[ing] a declaration to use emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance to Israel.”

He explained, “The decision to reverse the Biden administration’s partial arms embargo, which wrongly withheld a number of weapons and ammunition from Israel, is yet another sign that Israel has no greater ally in the White House than President Trump.”

He went on, “Since taking office, the Trump administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major FMS [Foreign Military Sales] sales to Israel. This important decision coincides with President Trump’s repeal of a Biden-era memorandum which had imposed baseless and politicized conditions on military assistance to Israel at a time when our close ally was fighting a war of survival on multiple fronts against Iran and terror proxies.”

Finally, he declared, “The Trump administration will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats.”

Contrast this with Ukraine’s predicament. Rubio was visibly frustrated with Zelensky’s inconsistent messaging after their White House meeting. Initially, the Ukrainian president indicated a willingness to consider Trump’s proposed deal—only to return home and tell the press that he had refused any such compromise.

The mixed signals not only irked the Trump administration but also weakened Ukraine’s position. As Trump bluntly put it to Zelenskyy, “You don’t have the cards.”

Rather than keeping quiet, Zelenskyy shot back, “I’m not playing cards.”

As a leader well-versed in being dealt a very bad hand, the Israeli prime minister could have set his Ukrainian counterpart straight on that score. Unlike Zelenskyy, who’s been the darling of the West, Netanyahu has been vilified throughout Israel’s multi-front, defensive war against Islamist terrorists. And his country has been condemned, even by allies—including Ukraine—at the United Nations.

If Zelenskyy wants a fighting chance with the new sheriff in town—one he openly opposed in Pennsylvania during the presidential election campaign—he needs to read the room and navigate it humbly, not show his contempt for those who “hold the cards” he wants. Otherwise, he’ll be forced to fold with no chips.
Rubio expedites $4 billion in military assistance to Israel
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday signed a declaration to expedite $4 billion in military assistance to Israel.

The Trump administration has approved nearly $12 billion in military sales to Israel since taking office on Jan. 20, said Rubio in a statement.

“The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats,” the statement continued.

“This important decision coincides with President Trump’s repeal of a Biden-era memorandum which had imposed baseless and politicized conditions on military assistance to Israel at a time when our close ally was fighting a war of survival on multiple fronts against Iran and terror proxies,” said Rubio.

The $4 billion in military assistance is a reversal of the Biden administration’s partial arms embargo, “which wrongly withheld a number of weapons and ammunition from Israel,” he added.

The Trump administration on Feb. 25 moved to axe a Biden-era regulation preventing United States arms transfers from being used in violation of international law. The directive required recipients of U.S. arms to provide written assurances within 45 days that they were abiding by international law. Israel provided those assurances in a letter on March 20, 2024.

Prior to Rubio’s announcement, the U.S. Department of Defense announced on Friday that it had authorized a $2.04 billion sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. Deliveries are estimated to begin in 2026.

“The proposed sale will improve Israel’s capability to meet current and future threats, strengthen its homeland defense, and serve as a deterrent to regional threats. Israel will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces,” according to a Pentagon statement.


Seth Frantzman: Hamas believes Israel backed into a corner, forced to continue Gaza ceasefire
Two weeks ago, in mid-February, there was talk that “hell will break loose” in Gaza if Hamas didn’t abide by the ceasefire and continue to release hostages.

At the time, it appeared Hamas was willing to walk away from the first phase of the ceasefire and not release hostages on time. In the end, Hamas backed down and hostages were released. Now, the first phase of the ceasefire is over, and Hamas expects that it will be extended.

One can tell that Hamas expects things to remain calm by how it is behaving. It has set up tables for Ramadan in areas of Gaza and seems to expect that calm will prevail.

There is also no sense of crises in Doha or Cairo, the two places where mediation is taking place. Israel has threatened to cut off humanitarian aid going into Gaza unless Hamas extends the ceasefire. However, the overall sense is that somehow a solution will be found.

The basic discussion surrounds whether the first phase of the ceasefire will be extended such that a few hostages are released each week, or if another framework will be found to release more hostages at the beginning of a new ceasefire and then others at the end.

Hamas doesn’t like the new proposals. It wants phase two of the original deal agreed upon in mid-January to be completed, which would see Israel leave the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza and the end of the war.

Hamas wants this because it would basically be a return to October 6. Then Hamas will rebuild its terrorist infrastructure and attack again and take more hostages, get more prisoners released, and do this again and again.
Daniel Greenfield: Hamas Attacked Israel on a Jewish Holiday, It Wants a Ramadan Ceasefire
The great hypocrisy of Ramadan ceasefires is that Muslims make a point of carrying out attacks on Christmas, on Jewish and Hindu holidays, and then there’s this outcry that no attacks against Muslim terrorists can be carried out on Ramadan.

But that’s part of the double standard on Islam and the religious it targets.

And the useful infidels making it happen.

Following a high-level security meeting on Saturday night, Jerusalem has adopted the temporary ceasefire framework proposed by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for the Ramadan and Passover period.

The disastrous ‘ceasefire’ in name only has been extended to cover ‘Ramadan’ and Passover. The original Hamas plan had been to attack on the first night of Passover. One of the worst Hamas attacks in Israel took place on Passover and targeted a Seder filled with elderly people.

Muslim terrorists once again targeted Christmas markets and events this year. Including New Year’s.

But Ramadan must be exempt. Why? Because doing so concedes Islamic supremacy. It’s not a gesture of sensitivity, it’s a concession that the terrorists can do what they want to our religions but we must respect theirs.
EU condemns Hamas for rejecting ceasefire extension, urges new negotiations
The European Union condemned the refusal of Hamas to accept the extension of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, according to a spokesperson on Sunday evening.

They added that "Israel's subsequent decision to block the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza could potentially result in humanitarian consequences."

In the same statement, the EU called for a "rapid resumption of negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire" and "expressed its strong support to the mediators."

"A permanent ceasefire would contribute to the release of all remaining Israeli hostages while ensuring the necessary conditions for recovery and reconstruction in Gaza to begin. All parties have a political responsibility to make this a reality," the statement added.

The EU reiterated its calls for "full, rapid, safe and unhindered access to humanitarian aid at scale for Palestinians in need and for allowing and facilitating humanitarian workers and international organisations to operate effectively and safely inside Gaza."

"The EU civilian Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point (EUBAM Rafah) is ready to continue its work if requested by the parties," it clarified.

"Nearly 3,000 people have so far crossed the border into Egypt since 1 February" thanks to EUBAM, the spokesman said.


Israel halts aid to Gaza after Hamas rejects US ceasefire proposal
The Israeli government announced on Sunday morning that it has suspended all humanitarian aid to Gaza after the Hamas terrorist organization rejected the ceasefire extension proposed by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that no goods or supplies would enter Gaza until further notice, reaffirming that Jerusalem will not agree to a ceasefire without the release of its hostages.

Since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19, 25,200 aid trucks carrying food, water and medicine have entered Gaza, alongside more than half a million tents and 2,100 fuel tankers. Israeli officials estimate that Hamas has stockpiled supplies sufficient for four to six months.

Hamas insists on moving to Phase 2 of the ceasefire, which includes talks on a permanent end to hostilities, Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction and a prisoner-hostage exchange.

Hamas responded to the Witkoff framework, which was adopted by Israel, by stating: “The only way to bring back the hostages is to complete the agreement” by moving to Phase 2. The terror organization also sent a message ahead of last week’s Cairo summit that it rejects any non-Palestinian governance and opposes the presence of foreign forces in Gaza.

Under the U.S. proposal, half of the remaining hostages (living and deceased) are to be freed on the first day of the extension; the rest will be released if a permanent ceasefire is agreed upon.

The framework was accepted by Israel following a high-level security meeting on Saturday night. Under the proposal, the extension, which is to last 42 days, through the Ramadan and Passover holidays, may be further extended to facilitate negotiations.
Netanyahu: No more ‘free lunches’ for Hamas
Hamas will no longer receive “free lunches,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday, threatening further consequences if the terrorist group refuses to release hostages.

“Hamas currently controls all of the supplies and goods that are being sent to the Gaza Strip,” the premier reiterated in remarks ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. The Islamist organization “is abusing the Gazan population that is trying to receive the aid, it is shooting at them, and is turning the humanitarian aid into a budget for terrorism directed against us.”

If Hamas continues its opposition to a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Ramadan and Passover, as proposed by Washington and accepted by Jerusalem, “there will be additional consequences, which I will not detail here,” said Netanyahu.

“adopts the framework of President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, for a temporary ceasefire for the Ramadan and Passover period. We are fully coordinating with President Trump and his people,” he declared.

The premier said that according to the latest figures, “Hamas is currently holding 59 hostages: up to 24 are alive and at least 35 are deceased. We are not giving up on anyone and we are determined to bring them all back home.”

Jerusalem “is not in violation [of the truce terms], while Hamas has repeatedly violated the agreement on Phase 1,” Netanyahu said, stressing that, according to the terms of the deal, the Israeli army “Israel can return to fighting after the 42nd day if it has gained the impression that the negotiations have been ineffective.


Eugene Kontorovich 2023: The Siege of Hamas Is No War Crime
Israel’s critics will denounce any significant measure the country deploys as a war crime. Israel has laid siege to Gaza, prompting the usual array of EU-funded organizations to accuse it of starving civilians and violating the law of war. But siege is a “legitimate” and ordinary part of lawful war, in the words of the U.S. Defense Department law-of-war manual. As West Point law professor Sean Watts put it in 2022, “Siege—or encirclement as military doctrine refers to it—is an essential aspect of modern military operations. . . . Only starvation directed specifically at civilians is prohibited.”

This should be obvious: An army need not help its enemy obtain provisions during a conflict. When military objectives and civilians are intermingled, siege aimed at the former also will affect the latter. As with other situations of collateral damage to civilians, international law permits a siege as long as it isn’t “for the purpose of denying sustenance to the civilian population.”

There is no indication that Israel has any strategy of starving out civilians. Nor could it. Gaza has a long border with Egypt, which has long been used by Hamas to smuggle supplies. The evacuation of civilians is a standard measure to avoid humanitarian crises. Israel has moved tens of thousands of its own citizens away from the area along the Gaza border. Hamas, by contrast, has ordered its civilians to stay put, presumably to increase the tally of civilian deaths for propaganda purposes.

Egypt is cruelly denying entry to those fleeing the war zone. Israel’s critics clearly aren’t interested in saving civilian lives, because they aren’t offering to take in Gaza’s civilians. Nobody says refugees from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan should be trapped in conflict zones. European countries consider it a virtue to accept them as refugees. But to Hamas’s human shields, the world says: “Don’t go anywhere, we want you right where you are.”

It is unclear whether such voices are merely naive or wish to leave Israel perpetually exposed to genocide. What is clear is that if these voices prevail, the commitment of modern international law will have changed from “Never again” to “Whenever they want.”


Arab states to present alternative to Trump’s Gaza plan at March 4 summit
Cairo’s counter-proposal will not be exclusively Egyptian or Arab but seeks to garner international support and funding to ensure its implementation in the coming years, according to Abdelatty.

Abdelatty said that following Tuesday’s summit in Cairo, there will be an urgent ministerial meeting in Saudi Arabia for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, where foreign ministers of its 57 member states will push for the summit’s outcomes to be promoted worldwide.

Abdelatty emphasized that the role of the E.U. and European countries is critical, especially in funding the rebuilding of the war-torn enclave.

Egypt’s top diplomat stressed the importance of continuing the ceasefire deal that went into effect on Jan. 19, adding that Cairo will continue its efforts to ensure it is maintained and makes it to Phase 2.

“The first phase has concluded successfully, and now we must shift to discussions on the second phase, which is key to sustaining the ceasefire,” Abdelatty said. “Naturally, it will be difficult, but with goodwill and political determination, it can be achieved.”

Israel is backing the temporary ceasefire framework proposed by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for the Ramadan and Passover period, while the Hamas terrorist organization has flat-out rejected the proposal.

Last month, Trump announced his shock relocation proposal during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” the U.S. president announced.

“We’ll own it. … We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal, … the Riviera of the Middle East,” Trump said. He later suggested that Gaza’s entire population should go to other countries.

Egypt and Jordan, which Trump suggested would absorb Palestinians, have condemned the U.S. plan to relocate Gaza’s two million residents.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the Trump administration is open to “a better plan” from Arab nations.
Arab TV Takes a Break From Bashing Israel for Ramadan
During Islam's holy month of Ramadan, which began this weekend, TV viewership throughout the Arab world typically surges. For the 400 million Arabs in 22 Middle Eastern and North African countries, in previous years, almost every Arab TV network has devoted at least one of its Ramadan series to the perfidy of the "Zionist enemy" and the suffering of Palestinians. This year, none of the new series premiering during Ramadan focuses on Israel or the Palestinians.

Instead viewers will see series that focus on the Arab world's growing poverty and the evisceration of much of the Arab middle class. Explanations abound for the absence of Israel and the sacred cause of Palestine on Arab television. One possibility is that Arab governments, which control much of what is shown on broadcast networks and are eager for an extension of the ceasefire in Gaza, urged the media to avoid demonizing Israel.

Arab officials may also be seeking to defuse popular sympathy for President Trump's demand that they take in refugees while Gaza is being rebuilt. Yet there's still no shortage of rhetorical support in the Arab world for the Palestinians and their cause - on television and elsewhere.
IDF says it will defend Druze suburb of Damascus from Syrian regime forces
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the new regime in Damascus on Saturday evening that if it harms the Druze community in Syria, Israel will retaliate.

“We will not allow the terrorist regime of radical Islam in Syria to harm the Druze. We have instructed the IDF to prepare and deliver a harsh and clear warning: If the regime harms the Druze, it will be harmed by us,” the Israeli leaders said in a joint statement.

“We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all necessary measures to ensure their safety,” the statement continued.

Netanyahu and Katz instructed the Israeli military to prepare to defend the city of Jaramana, located about 1.8 miles southeast of Damascus, in the Rif Dimashq ("Damascus Suburb") Governorate on the Ghouta plain.

Jaramana has a mostly Druze and Christian population.

Exchanges of fire erupted in the city of Jaramana between government forces and local armed groups earlier on Saturday, Syrian media reported. One person was killed and two others were wounded in these incidents, the reports added.

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported that the clashes in Jaramana are the result of a local feud and are not part of an organized attack by the government.

In an address to new officers at an IDF graduation ceremony last week, Netanyahu warned the Sunni jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose leaders rule Syria following the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, that Israel “will not allow forces of HTS or the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus.”

He said that the Israel Defense Forces “will remain in the Hermon sector and the buffer zone [in the Syrian Golan Heights] indefinitely to protect our communities and thwart any threat.”

Furthermore, Reuters reported, citing four sources familiar with the matter, that Israel is pressuring the U.S. to ensure Syria remains weak and fragmented, including by allowing Russia to maintain its military bases there to counter Turkey’s growing influence in the country.

Israeli officials, alarmed by the Sunni Islamist rulers now in power in Syria with Ankara’s backing, have conveyed to Washington that they pose a threat to Israel’s borders, according to the sources.


'Hi, I’m Dr. Hamas': Emily Damari’s chilling testimony on 'treatment' received in captivity
Emily Damari, a survivor of Hamas captivity, underwent a series of surgeries today to repair severe injuries she sustained on October 7, which had remained untreated throughout her time in captivity.

Emily was shot in her leg and hand, losing two fingers. “I fully accept my hand, the pain, and the scars. To me, they symbolize freedom, hope, and strength,” she said. "I was stitched up like a cushion."

Damari underwent multiple surgeries at Sheba Medical Center to treat the severe wounds inflicted on her during the October 7 attack.

She was shot at close range in her left hand and right leg in Kfar Aza before being kidnapped. As a result of the gunfire, she lost two fingers and suffered extensive injuries that restricted her movement.

“Hamas provided me with no medical treatment except for an expired bottle of iodine and some bandages,” she recounted. Despite the life-threatening risk of infection, she endured the harsh conditions without access to even the most basic medical care or clean water.

Hamas's treatment of Damari
Mandy, Emily’s mother, said that Hamas “stitched her up like a cushion” and that the injuries left her in unbearable pain for months.

“The fact that she didn’t die from a fatal infection is nothing short of a medical miracle,” she added.

"I am proud of my disability, and with it, I will win".

Emily reported that her surgeries at Sheba Medical Center went far better than expected. “The doctors and nurses did an amazing job. The terrible pain I had for a year and a half—due to the lack of proper treatment in captivity—has significantly decreased. Now, with rehabilitation and physiotherapy, I hope my hand will regain better function than before.”

She said she is now focusing her attention on the fight to free the remaining hostages still held in Gaza.


Thousands line route as slain hostage Shlomo Mantzur buried at Gaza-area kibbutz
Thousands of people lined the roads from central Israel to Kibbutz Kissufim near the Gaza border on Sunday to pay their last respects to Shlomo Mantzur, a hostage murdered on October 7, 2023, whose remains were returned to Israel last week as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

Dozens of soldiers stood at the side of the road, saluting a convoy carrying Mantzur’s body to the Gaza-area kibbutz where he lived and worked for some seven decades and where he was among the people massacred during the October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Civilians who stood alongside roads and highways to salute Mantzur held Israeli flags and yellow banners symbolizing the plight of the hostages. Many wore sweatshirts with mustache symbols in tribute to Mantzur’s distinctive facial hair.

Mantzur’s sister, Hadassah Lazar, told Channel 12 that the family was moved by the turnout for the funeral, and remained committed to working for the release of all the hostages.

“It is a small consolation that Shlomo has been brought back and that at least we know he is with us, rather than continuing to search for him and perhaps never finding him. So, at least a slight comfort,” she said. “I never imagined we would find ourselves in such a situation, and the embrace we are receiving today is incredible. It warms our shattered hearts.”

Authorities said last month that Mantzur, 85, was murdered during his abduction from Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7, 2023.

The funeral was held without any media presence.


After Watching Interview: Trump Invites Released Hostage Eli Sharabi to White House on Tuesday
US President Donald Trump has invited released hostage Eli Sharabi to the White House after watching his testimony in Channel 12’s Uvda, Sharabi’s brother, Sharon, told Channel 12 on Sunday.

Sharabi is set to fly to Washington on Monday, and the meeting between the released hostage and the US leader is scheduled for Tuesday, Sharabi’s brother said.

Detailing his 491-day captivity on Uvda, Sharabi said in late February, “You’re 50 m. underground. The sanitary conditions are simply terrible. You shower once a month with a bottle of water, maybe half a bucket of cold water."

“The chains on my legs never left me from the day I arrived in Gaza until the last day," he said.

"Some people were shackled only part of the time – I was chained for a year and four months, with thick, heavy locks that tore into my flesh,” he recounted.


FINISH THEM! What Israel must learn from Trump-Zelensky meeting | Jerusalem Minute
Join JNS CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief Alex Traiman and JNS Middle East Correspondent Josh Hasten as they break down the biggest stories shaping #israel this week.
🔥 Topics covered in this episode:
✅ IDF internal probe—What went wrong before October 7th?
✅ Netanyahu under pressure—Will there be a state inquiry?
✅ Israel’s intelligence failures—How did Hamas’ attack go undetected?
✅ Upcoming IDF offensives—What’s next for Israel’s military response?
✅ The Supreme Court’s role—Could it push Netanyahu out?
🚨 Don’t miss a beat on Israel’s most critical stories! Subscribe now and hit the 🔔 to stay informed.


Erin Molan: Trump Wants Canada to Be America's 51st State: Ben Mulroney Has STUNNING Prediction!
Erin Molan in conversation with Canadian TV and Radio host Ben Mulroney to dive into the turbulent state of Canada’s affairs. In this hard-hitting conversation, Mulroney doesn’t hold back—criticizing Justin Trudeau’s leadership, praising Conservative Pierre Poilievre as the nation’s potential savior, and tackling the alarming rise of antisemitism since October 7, a deeply personal issue for his wife Jessica, whose Jewish heritage shapes their family’s perspective. With Trump’s threats of tariffs and even annexing Canada looming large, Mulroney shares his bold predictions for the country’s next Prime Minister, drawing on lessons learned from his father, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Don’t miss this eye-opening exchange!"

This version seamlessly weaves in the new details while maintaining the original tone and focus. Let me know if you’d like further adjustments!




Anti-Semitism Content to Be Included in Citizenship Test If Elected: Coalition
If it wins power, the Coalition will include content about anti-Semitism in the Australian Citizenship test, amid a package of measures to deal with the ongoing issue, according to Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan.

Tehan made the comments during an online forum run by the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) amid a flurry of anti-Semitic incidents that have swept the country since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, including arson attacks and the firebombing of a synagogue.

“We will establish a judicial inquiry into campus anti-Semitism, and we will deliver $32.5 million in a security funding package as requested by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry without any strings attached, including funding for armed guards at schools and synagogues, unlike the Albanese government, who have restricted funding to unnarmed guards only,” Tehan told the forum.

“On top of that, this will be something we’ll announce during the election campaign—we will also, within the Australian Citizenship Test, place a specific section which will deal with antisemitism.

“And we will have an education module which will deal with anti-Semitism. So if you want to become a citizen of this nation, you will have a specific section you will need to undertake in regards to anti-Semitism.

“And we’ll provide $7.5 million over three years in additional funding to Crimestoppers, and enable Crimestoppers to expand its operations and protect more Australians.”


Make Actors Apolitical Again
Although celebrities have always been involved to a certain extent in endorsing candidates generally and in supporting Democratic Party politics specifically, there was a time when this level of stridency was both unusual and unpopular. In the ’70s, actors who tried to mix awards ceremonies with activism, and who didn’t choose their battles wisely, could find themselves at the center of awkward controversies. In 1973, Marlon Brando famously protested Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans by sending an activist named Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse his Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather; Littlefeather—who was, ironically, later found to have fabricated her claims of Native heritage—was met with mockery and boos. Five years later, in 1978, Vanessa Redgrave received a similar response when she turned her acceptance speech into a rant about Palestinian liberation and “Zionist hoodlums.” And the boos were just the beginning: Protesters burned Redgrave in effigy, and The New York Times called her phrasing “inexcusable.”

If the media took issue with Redgrave’s word choice, public opinion was that she should not be speaking about politics at all—that an actor could have nothing to say on such topics that anyone needed to hear. The logic was hard to argue with: Why should anyone take advice on how to vote, or how to think, from a bunch of high school dropouts in $10,000 evening gowns who had never worked a real job in their lives?

This was still more or less the consensus in 2003, when Michael Moore used his Oscars acceptance speech to launch an anti-war tirade against George W. Bush. He, too, was booed. But in hindsight, this was the end of an era. The dawn of social media and the rise of Trump, as well as a media class that dutifully exerted itself to ostracize those who failed to support the proper progressive causes, made it increasingly untenable for actors even to remain neutral on political matters. The pervasive message was that “silence is violence”—that the larger your platform, the greater your obligation to spread the proper messages.

In this milieu, being a suspected conservative—or even being too closely associated with people who were—was a professional liability that could lead to attempted cancellation. At the peak of the ideological madness, a campaign arose to oust Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt from the Marvel superhero franchise not for anything he himself had said or done, but because he allegedly attended a church whose conservative leadership didn’t support gay marriage.

And as for the celebrities themselves, the humility that might have once led them to abstain from political activism appears to have been replaced by an overinflated sense of their own intellectual status and level of influence over national affairs. It’s as if they’ve become convinced that sharing a politics and social class with the Harvard-educated elite makes them a member of that same elite by extension, as opposed to what they are, which is . . . still a bunch of high school dropouts in $10,000 evening gowns, except now they also all have fake teeth.

Not that there’s anything wrong with having fake teeth, of course—or with wearing a dress with a five-figure price tag, or with choosing a career in Hollywood over junior year trigonometry. Had I been offered this option, I surely would have accepted. (And if any cosmetic dentists in the audience want to trade in-kind services—porcelain veneers for cultural criticism—you know where to find me.) I also understand the urge to solicit actors as political agents, in a world where so much of politics is performance, and where the current occupant of the White House is a reality-TV showman who was elected to the nation’s highest office with zero prior experience in government affairs.

But it’s hard not to notice that the presence of celebrities in politics, whether they’re hectoring from the Oscars stage or lending their voices to campaign ads, is not exactly fueling national unity. I doubt that the half of the country who vote Republican appreciates these continued, pointed reminders that their favorite cultural products are made mostly by people who view them, their politics, and their values with condescension at best, and contempt at worst. Especially after being beaten over the head with this message for years, in the form of cringeworthy social media activism and tediously pious Resistance Art.

Meanwhile, for the liberals among us, this latest election should be an important lesson about the dangers of relying on celebrities to persuade people to the polls. We had Oprah, and Beyoncé, and whatever the heck Brat Summer was, and did it help? It did not. It just made everything worse: the polarization, the tribalism, and the art itself. And so I have to agree with the wise and talented Gabriel Basso: Let’s make actors apolitical again.
Jonathan Glazer repeats claims Holocaust used to justify Gaza 'massacres'
The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer reiterated claims that the Holocaust was being hijacked to justify massacres of Gazans in a letter, read at Friday’s 2025 César Awards.

Glazer was not in France to accept the award for best foreign film, but a proxy read a message to the audience asserting that the Holocaust film’s subject of dehumanization was “alarmingly” relevant.

“The Holocaust and Jewish security are being used to justify the massacres and ethnic cleansing in Gaza after the October 7 massacre and the hostage-taking in Israel,” read Glazer’s letter. “In both cases, these are acts of terrorism against innocent people made possible by the dehumanization of people on the other side of the wall of the zone of interest.”

Glazer’s statement was met with applause and cheers from the audience of the Paris national film awards.

Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) president Yonathan Arfi said Saturday that for their applause, the audience had won the award for “indignity” and Glazer the award for “indecency” for his Holocaust comparisons.

“Gaza is not Auschwitz. This collective jubilation in turning the memory of the Shoah against Israel is a form of revisionism as perverse as it is dangerous,” Arfi said on X/Twitter. “Hamas could not dream of a better ambassador.”

Glazer said in his letter that he was echoing what he had said during his March 10 acceptance speech for the Oscar for Best International Film.

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation that has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” Glazer said in his acceptance speech. “Whether the victims of October the 7 in Israel or the attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization – how do we resist?”
Microsoft employees protest company giving tech to IDF
Five Microsoft employees were removed from a conference on February 24 for protesting company services to the IDF.

During the meeting, as Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella spoke, the five protest participants stood, each wearing a shirt displaying one word and one letter that collectively spelled out the sentence, "Does our code kill kids, Satya?"

The incident happened without delaying the meeting, and Nadella ignored the protesters. According to photos and videos taken by other conference attendees, the five protesters were seen being escorted out of the room.

The protest was due to Microsoft providing the IDF with sophisticated AI models and its Azure cloud computing platforms. The protestors are connected to the No Tech for Apartheid and No Azure for Apartheid campaigns.

No Tech For Apartheid connects workers from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to end their contracts with the IDF and the government. No Azure for Apartheid is the coalition of around 1,000 Microsoft employees protesting for Microsoft executives to terminate contracts between the IDF and the Israeli government.

No Azure for Apartheid also calls for Microsoft to disclose all their services to the IDF and Israeli government, publicly call for a ceasefire, and protect all employees who are protecting pro-Palestinian actions, including internal fundraising initiatives on company platforms.

On their website, the organization calls for a “demand that Microsoft live up to its own purported ethical values—by ending its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide.”
NY Ex-Rep. Jamaal Bowman launches Super PAC to defeat pro-Israel pols ‘from Yonkers to Gaza’
Israel-bashing former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman is creating a Super PAC aimed at ousting pro-Israel candidates.

“From Yonkers to Gaza and everywhere in between, we will fight for justice and reclaim our humanity,” says the new “Built to Win” Super Pac pushed by Bowman, who was ousted in a Democratic primary last year in large part because of his anti-Israel stance.

Bowman was even more explicit about his new PAC’s anti-Israel mission during a recent interview.

“Any candidate that supports [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and genocide more than their constituents, any candidate that’s tied up with corrupt crypto money, any candidate tied up with the real-estate lobby as opposed to renters, we’re going to go after those candidates very aggressively,” Bowman told City & State.

Former Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a pro-Israel moderate, trounced Bowman by more than 10 percentage points in the past Democratic primary for the 16th House District that takes in much of Westchester County and portions of The Bronx.

Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern, Jewish leader in Westchester, told The Post that Bowman again is showing his “true colors.

“Bowman is a true, authentic antisemite,” said Morgenstern, head of Young Israel of Scarsdale, a modern orthodox synagogue.

“The [super PAC] shows his true colors. He’s tripling down on attacking the Jewish people and the only Jewish state. It’s disturbing and sad.”

Liora Rez, a founder the watchdog group StopAntisemitism, said, “Even if someone wanted to get more antisemitic, anti-Israel candidates elected, it’s hard to imagine they’d give their money to a failure like Jamaal Bowman.


Thirty-nine Australian universities adopt antisemitism definition
Thirty-nine Australian universities adopted an antisemitism definition to coordinate their approach to anti-Jewish behavior, the academic representative body Universities Australia said on Thursday.

The definition – closely aligned with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition – describes antisemitism as discrimination or harassment that “impedes Jews’ ability to participate as equals in educational, political, religious, cultural, economic or social life.”

“It includes hate speech, epithets, caricatures, stereotypes, tropes, Holocaust denial, and antisemitic symbols,” reads the definition. “Targeting Jews based on their Jewish identities alone is discriminatory and antisemitic.”

While criticism of the Israeli government and state was not deemed as antisemitic, the definition contends that such criticism can be antisemitic when it is grounded in classical anti-Jewish tropes, calls for the elimination of the country or all Jews, or to hold Jews accountable for Israel’s actions.

“All peoples, including Jews, have the right to self-determination. For most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity,” reads the definition. “Substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ does not eliminate the possibility of speech being antisemitic.”

Decision had come 'too late'

Shadow Education Minister and Liberal Party Senator Sarah Henderson welcomed the move on Wednesday, during an address at the Address to 2025 Universities Australia Solutions Summit – but argued that the decision came too late.

“So much damage has been done,” said Henderson, adding that if elected, her party would require all universities to adopt the “more robust” IHRA definition.

Australian Greens Deputy Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education Senator Mehreen Faruqi attacked the universities’ decision on Sunday as an attempt to restrict criticism of Israel.

“Shamefully, universities have betrayed their students, their staff, and their reputation by shutting down free speech and criticism of Israel. They are weaponizing antisemitism to sanitize campuses of anyone who speaks up for Palestinian human rights or against Israel’s genocide and occupation,” Faruqi said in a statement. “By adopting a definition of antisemitism that threatens academic freedom, silences Palestinian voices, and prevents legitimate criticism of Israel, they have failed their staff, students, and the very mission of higher education.”
UKLFI: Hamas Book Launch Event at LSE Challenged by UKLFI
A proposed event at the London School of Economics (LSE) to launch a book expressing views supportive of Hamas has been challenged by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).

UKLFI has written to Professor Larry Kramer, President and Vice-Chancellor of the London School of Economics (LSE), about an event to launch a book titled “Understanding Hamas And Why That Matters”, which is scheduled to take place on 10 March 2025. In its letter, UKLFI draws attention to the legal issues that should determine LSE’s decision as to whether to allow this event to proceed as proposed.

The book consists primarily of transcripts of interviews, introduced by Helena Cobban and conducted mostly by Rami G Khouri, of five speakers, including Jeroen Gunning and Mouin Rabbani who are to speak at the proposed event at LSE, along with Helen Cobban. The other interviewees in the book are Dr Azzam Tamimi, Dr Paola Caridi and Dr Khaled Hroub. Dr Catherine Charrett of the University of Westminster is to present the event.

According to UKLFI, the book repeatedly expresses views supportive of Hamas, in many cases based on false propaganda, including denial of the atrocities of 7 October 2023. There is virtually no criticism of Hamas. Rather than being an objective, academic analysis of Hamas, UKLFI describes the book as a paean to Hamas.

UKLFI recognises in its letter that LSE is required by section 43 of the Education (No 2) Act 1986 to “take such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure that freedom of speech within the law is secured for members, students and employees of the establishment and for visiting speakers” (emphasis added).

However, UKLFI notes that this requirement applies to “speech within the law”; there is no obligation to ensure freedom of unlawful speech. On the contrary, LSE has obligations not to encourage or assist speech or other conduct that would constitute a criminal offence.


Israel must stop the hostile Palestinian takeover of the West Bank
The PA takeover of the seam line
If the ineffectiveness of 50% of the barrier weren’t bad enough, the Regavim Movement’s recent mapping illustrates that the Israeli government’s policy of turning a blind eye to the Palestinian annexation of Area C has resulted in intensive illegal Palestinian construction adjacent to the seam line and the separation barrier. In the first stage, Regavim’s mapping division identified a staggering 7,675 illegal structures within 1 km. to the east or west of the seam line, and a total of 18,899 structures within 4 km. of the separation barrier.

Some of the these illegal structures are virtually adjacent to homes in Israeli communities – in such close proximity that they are literally a stone’s throw away, to say nothing of the range of any type of firearms, thus rendering whatever still exists of the security barrier useless.

Official neglect and failure to enforce jurisdiction in Area C now endangers all Israelis, and most particularly those residing in communities close to the seam line. Every single illegal structure, no matter how isolated, presents a potential threat that can no longer be ignored.

The policy of “containment and toleration” must be reversed, and proactive steps must be taken against all forms of illegal activity. It is no longer possible to ignore the illegal construction, and it is high time that we recognize it for what it is: More than the hostile takeover of Judea and Samaria’s open spaces and beyond territorial annexation, it is an immediate and undeniable threat to the security of every man, woman, and child in Israel.
Gazans credit Trump for ceasefire, reject Hamas rule in Gaza, new poll
Only 6% of Gazans want Hamas to continue ruling Gaza after the war ends, and 5.3% state that they would vote for Hamas again in a future election, according to a new poll published by the Palestinian Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP).

In the poll, which was conducted on January 22, a majority of respondents (67.9%) credited President Trump for the success of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

70% believe that Hamas does not have the power to "control the situation" from now on, although whether "the situation" pertains to the war or Gaza itself is unclear.

When comparing voting opinions before and after the ceasefire started, support for Fatah increased by 12 percentage points, while the proportion who would vote for Hamas increased to 5.3%.

Over half of the respondents preferred that Gaza be rebuilt better than it was before. The survey was conducted just after President Trump’s inauguration but before he announced his plan to rebuild Gaza.


A significant proportion of respondents (44.1%) blamed Hamas entirely for ‘aid diversion,’ of which two-thirds believe is a significant issue in Gaza.

The respondents were also asked about their expectations for an "end to the occupation" before and after the ceasefire deal.


Mossad's pager operation caused ex-Hezbollah chief Nasrallah to 'weep,' son states in interview
Former Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah was depressed and "wept for the young men" targeted by Mossad's pager operation against Hezbollah terrorists, according to his son Jawad, in an interview with Lebanese Al-Manar TV on Friday.

"He considered every one of them his son and felt their pain deeply," Jawad added.

Al-Manar TV also interviewed Nasrallah's daughter, Zainab, who stated that "the families of the martyrs held a special place in his heart."

"It pained him to bear the burdens of the nation and to be deprived of sitting with his children and experiencing their daily lives. During Ramadan, we would see him, but we never knew which day he would be with us," Zainab added.

She also stated that Nasrallah was "at the peak of exhaustion" from the outbreak of the war "until his martyrdom."

'We mocked the occupation'
Commenting on the Israel Air Force flying over Nasrallah's funeral ceremony, Jawad stated that this was "proof of their fear of the impact of spilled blood," insinuating that Nasrallah and other Hezbollah terrorists' deaths would cause an uprising that would scare Israel.

Jawad also paraphrased Hezbollah's first leader and Nasrallah's predecessor, Ragheb Harb, by stating, "We mocked the occupation." Harb was assassinated in February 1984.


Nuclear assets isn't enough, the West needs to dismantle Iran's regime
Tragically, the West has failed to recognize that it has been at war with Iran for decades. This was made clear again immediately after Israel delivered a crippling blow to Iran’s air defenses.

Instead of that being the trigger for it to follow up and destroy Iran’s nuclear program, the West, led by the US, pressured Israel to be satisfied with the great but limited achievement. Hopefully, the Trump administration will recognize the dangers and seize the unique opportunity to reverse this policy.

However, even destroying the nuclear program will not change Iran’s fundamental goals expressed in its constitution, nor the threat it presents to humanity. Weapons of mass destruction today come in various guises, including biological, chemical, and radiological, and the Islamic regime would pay any price to acquire them and for other proxies to deploy them.

Blackmailing humanity with the choice of submission to “God’s law throughout the world,” or facing mass casualty events would become the foreign policy of Iran, should it ever possess a weapon of mass destruction. Iran will cease to be a threat, only after the tyranny of a minority of Islamists is replaced by the rule of the majority in a free and democratic Iran.

Preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons followed by dismantling the regime are both urgent priorities, for the Iranian people and the free world. Both objectives are achievable.

Significantly, unlike countries in which toppling of many dictators that have resulted in the liberated people choosing another, even worse, tyrant, before the Islamic Revolution the Persian people had a record of moderation – and even had good relations with Israel. A liberated Iranian people today would immediately dissolve the Islamist constitution and seek harmony with its neighbors and the world, thus removing the greatest threat humanity faces.

Since weapons of mass destruction are now coming in smaller packaging, and Iran’s defenses have not yet been rebuilt, there will never be a better time to impose a regime change and put Iran’s constitution and its dreams of world subjugation into the dustbin of history.


Italy unveils plan to fight ‘unprecedented’ level of Jew-hatred
Italy’s government last week unveiled a new strategy for fighting antisemitism following a report that documented a near doubling of antisemitic incidents in 2024 over the previous year.

The new five-year strategy focuses on surveillance, with an emphasis on online antisemitism; education; and increasing the visibility of protection for Jews and communication, according to a report on the Moked Jewish news site on Thursday.

Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, Italy’s national coordinator for the fight against antisemitism, unveiled the program last month following the publication of a report that showed documented expressions of antisemitic hatred rose from 455 in 2023 to 877 last year.

The annual report by the Antisemitism Observatory of the Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center Foundation, a Jewish community watchdog, said that both the increase was unprecedented and the levels that it had reached in 2024.

“Antisemitism in Italy has reached unprecedented levels,” the authors of the observatory’s report wrote. About a third of the incidents they recorded last year happened in the “real world,” meaning on the street or in physical interactions. The rest involved threats and hate speech online.

Several Western European countries, as well as the United States, Canada and Australia, have seen a surge of antisemitic violence since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, 2023. After thousands of Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people in Israel on that day and abducted another 251, hundreds of thousands of Europeans took to the streets for rallies and marches against Israel’s retaliation against Hamas.

In parallel, acts of violence against Jews, vandalism of Jewish sites and online harassment and intimidation of Jews have increased considerably, numerous Jewish communities have reported.
Influencer Andrew Tate returns to US, bringing his misogynistic antisemitism with him
In returning from Romania this week, the far-right influencer Andrew Tate has brought back to the United States his extreme brand of misogyny mixed with antisemitism.

Tate and his brother Tristan had been banned from leaving Romania, where they face prosecution for rape and sex trafficking, since 2022. But Romanian officials have lifted the ban, in a move widely seen as reflecting the influence of the new administration of US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, the brothers flew to Florida by private jet.

Whether they remain is an open question. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally, has said they are not welcome in his state, and the United Kingdom is reportedly seeking to extradite the brothers, who are dual US-UK citizens, over tax evasion charges.

But local Republican groups in Florida have welcomed Tate, and the brothers’ millions of online followers have cheered their arrival in the United States.

Those followers, who number over 10 million for Andrew Tate on X alone, have for years been served a steady diet of hateful content about women. In recent years, the one-time professional athlete and “Big Brother” contestant, a self-identified misogynist, has added considerable antisemitism and intensely anti-Israel statements to his streaming content.
IDF prepares for reopening of Mount Hermon ski resort
The Israel Defense Forces has concluded security preparations for the reopening of the Mount Hermon ski resort in the northern Golan Heights, near the borders with Lebanon and Syria.

“As part of the operational preparations, security conditions were achieved that allow visitors from all over the country to come to the Hermon site,” according to the IDF statement released on Sunday afternoon.

“Over the past few months, forces have conducted ongoing situation assessments, alongside defense activities in cooperation with security and civilian elements, in order to maintain a high level of readiness while dealing with daily challenges in the field,” the army added.

“We maintain a high level of preparedness both in terms of security and, of course, we are ready, waiting, and excited for your arrival here at the site,” Lt. Col. G., the deputy commander of the IDF’s 810th “Mountain” Brigade, said in the statement.

Israel’s only ski resort will reopen to the public on Tuesday after being shuttered for 16 months due to the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, although skiing will not be possible until next year due to damage.




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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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