Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Stirrings of Life Amid the Oct. 7 Wreckage of Nir Oz
In February I went to Kibbutz Nir Oz, just over a mile from Gaza, where Hamas and hundreds of "civilians" from Gaza murdered 46 people and abducted 71 on Oct. 7, 2023, more than a quarter of the community's population. Only four houses were undamaged.The World After Gaza: turning the Holocaust against Israel
Only eight people have come back to Nir Oz so far. Yoav Bazer, 22, who survived on Oct. 7 by hiding, is an overseer of the kibbutz's agriculture. The pomegranate trees are dead, their irrigation system destroyed. But the hardier avocado trees still yield their fruit, and I find Bazer and a team of volunteers picking them.
The dozen volunteers come from all over Israel, working in weeklong shifts. They range in age from 18 to 72. Rina Yakuel Kerzner, a charismatic grandma, says, "My job is to do anything we need to do for Nir Oz. If it is the avocado, if it is preparing in the kitchen, whatever Nir Oz needs, we are here to serve them."
Eyal Kalasquin, another volunteer, is a lawyer in his late 20s. He says, "To walk around here and think that this work was supposed to be done by people that got murdered...it's something very harsh....We sleep in the wreckage of this beautiful place." The kibbutz is still a dark world of blackened houses and shattered windows, with the debris of violence everywhere.
We meet Nili Margalit, 43, a pediatric nurse who was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 and released on Dec. 1, 2023, as well as Mor Tzarfati, 42, who survived Oct. 7. They both now live in Kiryat Gat. Neither wants to return to Nir Oz. "I will only come back," says Tzarfati - whose brother and his wife were shot dead on Oct. 7, their three children dying of smoke-asphyxiation - "if the people of Gaza won't be there next to us. We can't live next to people whose aim is to destroy Jews, whose education teaches them to kill us."
Both women have moved notably to the right after the Hamas attacks. Nir Oz was one of the most leftist of Israel's kibbutzim. Its residents spoke habitually of peace, and often had workers from Gaza help in the fields and with construction. But unless a radical solution is found to shift the Gazans elsewhere - or, perhaps even less likely, transform them into peaceful neighbors - Tzarfati won't be back. "Everyone from here who now lives in Kiryat Gat thinks like this," she says.
Pankaj Mishra's polemic features what may be the most shameful minimisation of 7 October committed to print.Spanish documentary on Oct. 7 massacre premieres for global audience
In The World After Gaza, left-wing essayist Pankaj Mishra attempts to argue that Israel’s actions in Gaza represent a ‘case study of Western-style impunity’. The fundamental problem with the West, argues Mishra, is that it has sanctified the Holocaust and wilfully ignores crimes of a supposedly equal magnitude.
His goal in The World After Gaza is to knock the Holocaust off its supposedly ill-deserved pedestal. He wants us to see it as just one of many horrors in a modern world shaped by colonialism and slavery. Or, as Mishra puts it, his goal is to ‘reconcile the clashing narratives of the Shoah, slavery and colonialism’. It follows from his premise that the ‘bumper-sticker lesson’ to be drawn from the Holocaust is not ‘Never Again’ – it’s ‘Never Again for Anyone’.
It’s an approach that might appear humane, acknowledging Jewish suffering while suggesting that other human lives are equally valid. Yet it soon becomes clear that this approach serves deeply anti-humanistic ends.
Delegitimising Israel is critical to Mishra’s approach. In his telling, Israel is a colonial power. He takes this argument further to argue that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is, in important respects, akin to the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews.
The main flaw in Mishra’s argument is its gross one-sidedness. He demonstrates his familiarity with Jewish writers on the Holocaust, such as Jean Amery, Hannah Arendt and Primo Levi. Yet he suffers from monumental blindspots. In particular he fails to consider the relationship of anti-Semitism to the Holocaust. He acknowledges the scale of the mass killing, but he fails to probe the anti-Semitic motivations driving it. As a result he fails to understand what is unique about the Holocaust.
His misreading of Hannah Arendt is particularly breathtaking. He uses the great German Jewish political thinker to help make his case for downplaying the significance of anti-Semitism. He points to her ‘denial that anti-Semitism alone was to blame for the Shoah and her emphasis on the innate genocidal potential of the modern bureaucratic state’. In reality, Arendt thought the opposite. She argued that anti-Semitism was key to the emergence of the totalitarian horrors of the 20th century.
In The Origins of Totalitarianism, she described anti-Semitism as ‘an outrage to common sense’. She sought to explain ‘the outrageous fact that so small (and, in world politics, so unimportant) a phenomenon as the Jewish question and anti-Semitism could become the catalytic agent for first, the Nazi movement, then a world war, and finally the establishment of death factories’.
For Arendt, anti-Semitism went beyond the mere hatred of Jews. It was a complex phenomenon, in which Jews came to embody the supposed evil of speculative capitalism and Bolshevism. For the Nazis, the only way to purge this evil was to annihilate its supposed bearers.
This attempt to exterminate an entire people is a key element to what makes the Holocaust unique. For the Nazis, all Jews had to be systematically exterminated. That is why, at the Protocol of the Wannsee Conference in 1942, which was called to discuss the ‘Final Solution’, the Nazis referred to 11million Jews. This number included the Jewish populations of all the countries the Nazis planned to occupy, including Britain, Ireland and Switzerland.
A Spanish-language documentary on the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, told through the eyes of Latino immigrants who were targeted in the country’s south that day, premiered in Los Angeles in February.‘I fought, and I fought, and I won’: Ex-hostage Omer Wenkert says Hamas release ceremony didn’t humiliate him
The four-part series, “7/O: Testigos del Terror” (“10/7: Witnesses of Terror”), tells the story of the largest single-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust by focusing on Latin Americans living in kibbutzim and other farming villages on the border with Gaza, the largest immigrant group that came under attack.
In Spanish with English subtitles, episodes run about 30 minutes. They chronicle the massacres at the agricultural communities and Nova music festival. The focus is on Spanish-speaking hostages abducted by Hamas into Gaza and survivors of the attack, in addition to the overall story of Latin American immigration to Israel.
“The immigrant story is of immense interest because it is a story that is rarely told at all,” Leah Soibel, founder and CEO of the Miami-based Fuente Latina media organization, which produced the film, told JNS. “This is first and foremost an immigrant story.”
She noted that the film—made by a completely non-Jewish team—has attracted significant interest in both the Jewish and non-Jewish world, and aims to bridge the Latino audience in three continents.
The documentary was shot at the site of the massacres in southern Israel and includes interviews with scores of Spanish-speaking survivors, most prominent among them members of the Bibas family, who have Argentine-Peruvian heritage. The murder by Palestinians in Gaza of abductee Shiri Bibas and her two young sons shocked the world.
Recently released hostage Omer Wenkert, who spent over 500 days in Hamas captivity before being released last month, gives his first interview since his release, speaking to Channel 12’s Almog Boker.
He says that the release ceremony held by Hamas terrorists did not humiliate him.
“I fought, and I fought, and I fought, and I won,” says Wenkert, who was kidnapped from a bomb shelter on the side of the road near the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.
He says that one of the first things he told his mother upon his release was that he had “defeated captivity.”
Defeat must have consequences
In contrast to those Arab countries fighting (or in Saudi Arabia’s case, pretending to fight) to save Hamas, some Arab states, like the United Arab Emirates, want Hamas destroyed. They have made it clear they will not participate in any rebuilding of Gaza if Hamas has any future role in that. The UAE wants a “reformed” Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza. The term “reformed” remains intentionally undefined; it can mean anything. Presumably, it will mean whatever the UAE determines is in its best interest.Large majority of Israeli Jews see no chance for peace with Palestinians
One of history’s lessons from the Arab-Israel conflict is that Arabs have never learned how to either win or lose a war against Israel. They do not know how to win because they cannot militarily defeat Israel, no matter how many times they have tried. They also do not know how to lose because the United States and Europe will never let Israel finish the job and win a clear and decisive victory.
Whether it was then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower who saved Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser after a resounding military defeat in the 1956 Suez Crisis, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who saved Egypt’s Anwar Sadat as Israel was about to decimate the Egyptian Army in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, or former President Barack Obama, who continually put pressure on Israel to refrain from defending itself in the wake of relentless Palestinian terrorism, the Arabs have learned that they face little downside to waging war. The worst that happens is that they end up no worse off than before they started the war. If there were deaths, it was all for a good cause. If there was destruction, the United States, Europe and usually the Gulf Arab states rebuild.
This dynamic must end.
World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of both Germany and Japan. The Axis powers admitted defeat. The Allies then governed their former enemies until the Germans and Japanese could rebuild their respective nations’ institutions and govern themselves. They accepted responsibility for waging a war of aggression. To prevent them from waging war again, the constitutions of both Germany and Japan limit the size and capabilities of their militaries. The United States played a central role in drafting those constitutions and setting up its former enemies’ governments. To ensure success, American forces remained in Germany and Japan 80 years later.
The rebuilding of Germany and Japan didn’t begin until they committed to beating their swords into plowshares and promising to make war no more. The same consequences must apply to Hamas and Gaza.
Hamas must be forced to surrender unconditionally and accept the humiliation and consequences that go with it. Defeat must have a price.
A vast majority of Jewish Israelis have lost hope in the possibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, according to a new survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute.The Israeli left’s Gaza plan
The findings, published in the JPPI’s “Israeli Society Index,” revealed that 85% of Israel’s Jews believed there was no realistic prospect for a peace deal in the foreseeable future, with 70% expressing this sentiment “strongly.”
Skepticism was also significant but less pronounced among Arab citizens of Israel, with 40% agreeing that peace was unlikely, including 19% who “strongly agreed.”
The data for the March JPPI survey was collected through “The Index” panel and the Afkar research firm. The findings were adjusted for voting patterns and religious affiliation to reflect the views of Israel’s adult population.
The poll reflected a shift toward deepening skepticism, particularly among Jewish Israelis. Even among left-wing voters, 44% said a peace deal was unlikely. Across all other political and religious sectors, a clear majority held the view that peace with the Palestinians was not within reach.
The survey highlighted a broader decline in support for a long-term peace agreement. Only 35% of Israeli Jews agreed that “ultimately, there is no alternative to a long-term peace agreement with the Palestinians,” compared to 43% last year. Among Arab Israelis, a majority (55%) still saw peace as essential, though one-quarter disagreed.
Political affiliations played a key role in these attitudes. While left-wing and center-left voters still believed in the necessity of a peace deal, the numbers dropped significantly among centrist and right-leaning voters. Only 46% of centrist voters agreed that peace was the only viable long-term solution, while support was even lower among center-right voters at just 22%.
A poll taken by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in 2023 (but before Oct. 7) found that 44% of Gazans between the ages of 18 and 29—that is, 31% of the overall population—were considering emigrating. “Economic reasons” were the most common explanation given for wanting to leave.The UN Does It Again: Saudi Arabia Chairs the UN Women’s Rights Commission
Despite the chaos and destruction of the war, the Biden administration frowned on the right of Palestinians in Gaza to freedom of choice. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after a Jan. 8, 2024 meeting with Israel’s prime minister: “I told Netanyahu today that the U.S. opposes any proposal to resettle Palestinians outside Gaza.” Nevertheless, according to the Israel Hayom report, more than 1,000 Gazans immigrated to Canada that same month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations last month in Jerusalem: “Over the last two years, 150,000 Gazans left. You know how they left? Because they bribed their way out. … Give them a choice, not forcible eviction, not ethnic cleansing. In a war zone, people leave.”
News media reports confirm this trend. The New York Times reported on Feb. 5 that while “a number of Gazans” have said they will not leave, “others said conditions were so unlivable after 15 months of Israeli bombardment that they would consider relocating.”
Meanwhile, Israeli forces in Gaza recently uncovered an internal Hamas document that warns that “even if Trump’s plan does not materialize, the opening of the Rafah Crossing and additional border crossings could trigger a significant wave of emigration from the Gaza Strip, given the extensive destruction and uncertainty about the future.”
So even Hamas acknowledges this reality: Many Gazans want to leave. It’s only Hamas and its cheerleaders, including its fellow travelers in the United States, who are trying to stop them.
American Jewish left-wing pundits are constantly saying the population of Gaza is “just like everybody else” and that “Palestinian moms and dads just want a better life for their families.” Well, life amid the rubble of a war zone is not a better life. Settling elsewhere—as millions of Syrians did during that country’s recent civil war—would surely be preferable to life in what U.S. President Donald Trump has described as “a demolition site.”
Levi Eshkol and Yitzhak Rabin understood that. Why don’t J Street and Americans for Peace Now?
Once again, the United Nations has showcased its astonishing hypocrisy. Saudi Arabia, a country infamous for its repression of women, is now leading the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Until March 21st, the kingdom will oversee an international conference supposedly dedicated to gender equality, the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The contradiction could not be more glaring.Israeli wounded in second rock-throwing attack with casualties in 24
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, put it bluntly:
“Electing Saudi Arabia to head the world body for protecting women’s rights is like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.”
And yet, that is exactly what has happened. By elevating one of the most restrictive regimes in the world to a leadership role on women’s rights, the UN has sent a clear message: principles and morals do not exist at the UN.
In 2023, the MPTF was the largest single donor to UN Women, providing $51.94 million, surpassing individual country contributions. The UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) is a pooled financing mechanism that channels contributions from multiple donors to support UN programs, including gender equality initiatives.
Among the top government donors were Sweden ($50.26 million), Norway ($22.63 million), Germany ($19.6 million), and Canada ($14.98 million). Notably, the United States contributed $18.82 million, with $12 million allocated as core funding. Despite such significant funding from democratic nations, UN Women has undermined its own mission by allowing Saudi Arabia—a country that imprisons and tortures women’s rights activists—to chair its top women’s rights commission, further exposing the UN’s hypocrisy. Saudi Arabia’s Reality: A Regime That Silences Women.
An Israeli woman was lightly wounded on Tuesday night when a Palestinian terrorist targeted her family’s vehicle with a rock in central Samaria in the second such incident in 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces said.Three terrorists killed, senior operative captured in Samaria raids
“A short time ago, a terrorist threw stones at an Israeli vehicle near the community of Evyatar in the Samaria Brigade [deployment area]. As a result, an Israeli civilian was lightly injured and received medical treatment on the scene,” according to the military statement.
“Security forces began searching the area for the terrorist,” it added.
According to reports, the vehicle contained four occupants, including two children, when it was targeted. A total of five rocks were reportedly used in the attack, which also damaged two vehicles.
On Monday, an Israeli baby sustained light wounds from glass shrapnel in a rock attack on the road bypassing the Samaria town of Huwara, near Nablus. The parent continued to drive, seeking medical attention at a nearby Israeli military base.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published last month by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.
Israeli security forces killed three terrorists and arrested 10 others, including a senior operative, during counterterrorism raids in the Qabatiya and Jenin areas of northern Samaria, the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced on Tuesday.Israeli Air Force targets terrorists near central Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor
During the operation, the Israel Police’s elite Yamam unit engaged armed terrorists who had barricaded themselves in a building in Jenin. Two terrorists were killed in the exchange, and another was wounded. Additionally, IDF troops eliminated a terrorist who had opened fire on them.
Among the 10 terrorists arrested was Liwaa Jaaz, a senior operative in the Jenin-based terror network. Israeli security forces also located and destroyed two vehicles loaded with weapons intended for use in attacks.
No Israeli forces were injured in the operation.
The Israeli Air Force on Tuesday afternoon struck terrorists engaged in “suspicious activity” in the area of Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor, according to the Israel Defense Forces.Israel to release five Lebanese in ‘gesture’ to Washington, Beirut
The suspects posed a threat to Israeli forces, the military said.
According to Palestinian media reports, five Gazans were killed in the strike.
The IDF withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor, which divides north and south Gaza, in January under the faltering ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Israel’s Ynet news website reported that the Gaza strike came at the same time as a drone strike on a senior Hezbollah terrorist in Lebanon.
On Monday, Israeli forces neutralized two terrorist squads seeking to ambush soldiers in the northern and central Gaza Strip with explosives, according to the IDF.
On Sunday, the Israeli Air Force attacked several terrorists attempting to plant a bomb near IDF troops in northern Gaza. The previous day, an IAF craft struck several Palestinians who had collected a drone flown from Israeli territory into the southern Gaza Strip overnight.
On March 6, an IAF craft attacked a group of Palestinian terrorists in northern Gaza who had planted an explosive device near troops. Two days earlier, Israeli forces fired on an individual in the southern Gaza Strip who had approached them, posing an immediate threat.
Israel has agreed to release five Lebanese detained during operations against Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.IDF fires on ‘Lebanese soldier’ near border
Earlier on Tuesday, “IDF representatives, and representatives from the U.S., France and Lebanon, met in Naqoura, Lebanon,” the PMO said.
They agreed to “form three joint working groups, the objective of which is to stabilize the area and focus on the following issues: The five points under IDF control in Southern Lebanon, discussions on the Blue Line [de facto border] and points still in dispute, and the issue of Lebanese detainees being held by Israel,” per the statement from Jerusalem.
“In coordination with the U.S. and as a gesture to the new president of Lebanon, Israel has agreed to release five Lebanese detainees,” it added.
The statement did not name the individuals set for release and whether or not they were members of the Hezbollah terror group. According to Al-Jazeera, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross was on its way to transfer the prisoners to Lebanon.
In an interview with Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed television channel shortly before the PMO issued its statement, Morgan Ortagus, U.S. deputy special envoy to the Mideast, confirmed that a “civilian working group” was launched to address diplomatic issues between Israel and Lebanon.
Ortagus said the United States was working on making the Lebanese Armed Forces the sole authority in Hezbollah-dominated Southern Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed to JNS on Tuesday morning that a Lebanese individual wounded by Israeli forces after approaching the border on Monday had been evacuated to a hospital in Israel.IDF hits military assets in southern Syria
On Monday evening, the Lebanese Armed Forces tweeted that a Lebanese soldier in civilian clothing had been shot in Southern Lebanon and evacuated to a hospital across the border.
“After contact was lost with one of the army soldiers, and as a result of follow-up and verification, it became clear that elements of the hostile Israeli forces had shot him while he was in civilian clothes in the outskirts of the town of Kfar Shuba on the southern border, which resulted in his injury, and then he was transferred into the Palestinian territories,” the LAF tweeted in Arabic.
The Israeli military did not confirm that the individual was a member of the LAF, or where it occurred, saying only that Israeli forces had acted according to “standard operating procedures.”
The situation in Southern Lebanon remains volatile following the end of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire on Feb. 18. The truce, which went into effect on Nov. 27, 2024, ended more than a year of war, after Hezbollah began launching attacks on Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, day after Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel.
The IDF confirmed last month that its forces would remain in five outposts in Southern Lebanon beyond the ceasefire deadline. The decision was made in conjunction with the U.S. administration.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem declared on Sunday that the Iranian proxy will not tolerate any Israeli military presence in Southern Lebanon.
“I say to the Israelis—if you stay in these positions, how long do you think it will last? The resistance [Hezbollah] will not allow you to remain there,” he said. “If the occupation persists, the army, the people and the resistance will confront it. We have no ties to any agreement between the U.S. and Israel.”
Israeli fighter jets on Monday night struck radars and other detection equipment in southern Syria, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed Tuesday morning.
Additionally, the Israeli Air Force targeted command positions and sites containing weapons belonging to the former Assad regime.
“The presence of these assets in southern Syria posed a threat to the State of Israel and IDF activities. These targets were struck in order to eliminate future threats,” according to the IDF.
Israel carried out “targeted raids” in Syria over the past week, locating, confiscating and dismantling numerous weapons, the IDF said on Saturday.
The troops are “deployed at strategic points in Syria” and will “continue operations to eliminate any threat and strengthen the defense of the State of Israel and its citizens,” the IDF added.
Last week, IAF jets attacked an Assad regime military site near Qardaha, overlooking Latakia in northwestern Syria, in response to “recent developments in the area.”
The strike targeted “a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored,” the IDF added.
Since the fall of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Assad regime on Dec. 8, Israel has taken up positions inside and beyond the Golan Heights buffer zone, including on the strategic Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
In Gaza, Hamas Claims Victory, People Claim Failure
They declared victory and handed out sweets as if the war had ended. But for the people of Gaza, none of the disasters have been addressed.Jake Wallis Simons: Silence over jihadi butchery in Syria tells you all you need to know about the West’s distorted view of the Middle East
Chaos rules every aspect of daily existence. Salaries and bank deposits are stolen by powerful, well-known figures who control the cash flow, taking a 20% cut for themselves.
The economic crisis deepens, with no solutions for the broken currency system or Gaza's battered transportation sector.
The black market thrives. Cooking gas sells for 10 times its usual price; diesel and gasoline are unaffordable.
Housing is obscenely expensive, despite the lack of water and electricity. The streets are mountains of rubble, with trash piling up in every corner. There is no equipment to clean up the devastation.
The concept of rebuilding is a fantasy. Education remains in limbo, and government institutions are completely paralyzed.
For many, escape has become the only dream. Many want to, but they are trapped.
People want normal lives, without endless suffering. But they cannot say this out loud.
Because in Gaza, you do not have the right to demand a better future. You are simply watched, silenced, and left to endure.
In December, after Bashar al-Assad had fallen to a gang of Sunni jihadis sponsored by Turkey, the IDF entered the buffer zone in southwestern Syria alongside the Golan Heights. Jerusalem also unleashed a ferocious bombing campaign against Assad’s military arsenal, including his navy and stockpiles of chemical weapons, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the regime or other radical forces.Druze sovereignty in Syria is in America’s and Israel’s best interest
Predictably, the world responded with condemnation. A spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, failed to appreciate that Israel had not taken action, as it were, in a vacuum. “We’re against these types of attacks,” he said. “I think this is a turning point for Syria. It should not be used by its neighbours to encroach on the territory of Syria.”
The notion that Israel was acting out of some lust for land rather than well-founded security concerns was reinforced loudly by the media. CNN described the mood in Jerusalem as one of “trepidation and glee,” which to my ears resonated with certain stereotypes of Jews that we’d all much rather forget.
France, which had occupied the region before partitioning it into those two brilliantly successful nation states of Lebanon and Syria, demanded that Israel “withdraw from the zone and to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, describing the military deployment as a violation of the 1974 border agreement.
The astonishing events of the past several weeks in Syria represent a once-in-an-era opportunity for the free world to remake the Middle East into an anti-jihadist alliance—if Western leadership seizes the opportunity. Druze militias in southern Syria announced unification under a new “military council of Sweida,” which prompted other armed Druze groups to join as well. The announcement was almost certainly made in coordination with Israel, which quickly backed the Druze alliance in words and actions.MEMRI: Syrian Journalists Warned Before HTS' Massacres Against The Alawites: The New Regime Is Allowing Acts Of Vengeance Against Them; International Intervention Is A Necessity
In response, Syria’s new Al-Qaeda-trained leadership sent troops to attack the Druze in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, where they were repelled. These are the first shots in a Druze war of independence. However, the Druze are currently ill-equipped to preserve their autonomy. They now openly risk the wrath of the Islamist coalition more than ever.
The Druze’s need for allies represents one of the best chances for the Trump administration to forge a new Middle Eastern reality without committing troops. The Druze, being neither Muslim, Christian nor Jewish, receive no Islamic protection as dhimmi (second-class citizens) in Syria. Considered heretical to Islam, Muslims have persecuted the Druze as infidels for centuries.
The Druze are Arabs who split off from Islam about a thousand years ago to form their own religion, incorporating prophets such as Aristotle and Jesus Christ. Major rites of the Druze faith are mysteries, forbidden to outsiders. Their people are spread across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, and have no autonomy of their own. At best, they have uneasy relationships with their host countries until the formation of Israel.
In Israel, the Druze have been embraced as allies and full citizens, serving in the highest positions in the Israel Defense Forces and government. The integration of the Druze of Israel is a testament to the Western liberal pluralism of Israeli society that jihadists and their allies on American and European college campuses are loath to acknowledge.
The Druze homeland of Jabal al-Druze (“Druze Mountain”) lies in territory within the Sweida, Quneitra and Daraa governates of the Hauran region, its borders strategically hemming in Damascus. With recent IDF defensive incursions in Syria, these lands are now conjoined with Israel and Jordan. While some Druze in the Golan on the Syria-Israel border sided with the Iranian-backed Bashar Assad regime out of fear of being dubbed Zionist collaborators, the majority of Syrian Druze are avowedly pro-Israel and have resisted Islamist attacks for years.
On March 6, 2025, clashes broke out in Syria's coastal region between the security forces of the new Syrian regime lead by Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and armed remnants of the previous regime, which reportedly receive assistance from Iran and Hizbullah.[1] These clashes soon developed into a wide-scale armed conflict in the area, especially in the Alawite-majority governorates of Latakia and Tartous, which included deliberate attacks by the new regime's forces on Alawite civilians.[2] According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, by March 10, 2025 – the day on which the regime announced the end of its military operation in the region[3] – the number of civilians killed in the clashes reached 973, including women, children and elderly people.[4]Commentary Podcast: Mahmoud Khalil and Casey Stengel
The Alawites are being attacked since their sect is identified with the former regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, who is Alawite himself, and the violence was fanned by mosque imams who called for jihad against the Alawites in the coastal region.[5] Reports, photos and footage published by news agencies and on social media showed civilians being humiliated and executed in broad daylight and acts of looting and vandalism. Several HTS operatives were seen in videos bragging about their actions and threatening to exterminate the Alawites and wipe their cities from the face of the earth.[6] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that HTS forces killed dozens of civilians in the cities and villages of the Latakia, Tartous and Hama governorates and left their bodies lying in the streets. They also indiscriminately raided and fired directly on civilians', and torched homes and other property. In some cases entire families were massacred.[7] Some reports claim that women were paraded naked in the street before being shot, and that men were lined up and executed by gunfire. In the city of Banyas bodies were reportedly strewn in the streets, in the homes and on the rooftops. On March 7 alone, 60 civilians were murdered in the city, including 10 women and 5 children.[8] In the course of the clashes HTS forces also bombarded the coastal cities with unguided bombs known as barrel bombs, which the Assad regime had likewise used against Syrians, causing civilian casualties. In addition to incidents of humiliating and robbing civilians, there were also reports of kidnappings and expulsion.[9] Many reports noted that the HTS forces that targeted the civilians included non- Syrian fighters, such as Chechens, Turkistanis and Uyghurs.[10]
The HTS authorities, for their part, blamed the escalation in the coastal region on remnants of the Assad regime backed by outside forces, especially Iran and Hizbullah, who they said are trying to ignite a new civil war in Syria. According to officials of the new regime, the clashes started with premeditated attacks on the regime forces. HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa (aka Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani), who on January 29, 2025 was named Syria's President for the transitional period, said that the regime forces had been sent to the coast to maintain public order but were attacked by Assad loyalists and many of them were killed, which prompted others to carry out acts of revenge.[11]
These attacks on Syrian civilians are considered the worst since the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024. However, they were not unexpected, since there were many indications that an outbreak of violence and acts of vengeance against the remnants of the former regime and the Alawites in general were only a matter of time.
In fact, attacks by HTS operatives on civilians, and especially Alawites – including executions, sweeping arrests, as well as threats and humiliations – began only a few weeks after the advent of the HTS regime.[12]
These events have not been properly addressed by the new regime. Since taking power and even before this, the regime's senior officials, headed by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, have repeated emphasized that maintaining public order is a top priority and that the regime would protect all the sects and minorities in the country and avoid acts of revenge.[13] But in practice, attacks on civilians have continued, and the regime has downplayed their significance, calling them isolated incidents. It also refrained from publishing the names of those responsible, thus preventing the families of the victims from taking legal action against them.[14] This situation created tension, and led to the establishment of several "Syrian resistance groups" that threaten to operate against the new regime and its forces.[15]
The question we ask on today's podcast about the Trump administration is simple: "Can't anybody here play this game?" What game?
Friends of the IDF: FIDF LIVE Briefing: Olga Deutsch, VP of NGO Monitor - March 9, 2025
FIDF Chief Executive Officer Steve Weil welcomes Olga Deutsch, VP of NGO Monitor, to discuss what Olga calls the most neglected front of Israel’s multi-front war - the political front. Olga gives Steve a breakdown of what it is NGO Monitor does. As the name suggests, NGO Monitor monitors activities of NGOs, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to assess the true focus of their efforts, and to detect any potential biases in their focus. Unsurprisingly, Olga often finds that these organizations are disproportionately focused on Israel and pointing the finger at the State of Israel as in violation of international human rights laws, and some funnel funds to anti-Israel groups. Further, representatives of various countries at the UN and the International Criminal Court will vilify Israel and Israeli officials based solely on reports from the aforementioned NGOs, thus revealing an entirely corrupt and complex system. Further, the efforts of BDS have harmed Israel greatly in terms of potential investments and business deals that were shut down due to BDS advocacy, and the efforts of the NGO-lobbied Al-Haq, which presents misinformation about the state of affairs in Gaza and the current war with very sophisticated legalistic jargon. The larger goal of course is to undermine Israel’s legitimacy as an independent state and further erode its perception in the court of public opinion.
Pro-Israel activist slams Tucker Carlson for aligning with Qatar, Iran
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), has criticized conservative commentator Tucker Carlson following his recent interview with Qatar's Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. She alleges that Carlson's actions indicate a troubling shift toward antisemitic sentiments and alignment with nations known for controversial stances on Israel.Trump drops MASSIVE TRUTH BOMB on Gaza (and we’re here for it) | The Quad
In the interview, Sheikh Mohammed warned that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could severely contaminate the Gulf's water supply, affecting countries like Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait. He emphasized that such an event would leave the Gulf with "no water, no fish, nothing... no life," urging for diplomatic solutions over military actions. Antisemitism is at a record high. We're keeping our eyes on it >>
Cardoza-Moore expressed alarm over Carlson's platforming of these views, suggesting that his recent actions may be influenced by Qatari interests. She questioned whether Carlson has "sold his soul to the Muslim Brotherhood" and accused him of aligning with Qatar, a nation she described as "one of the world’s biggest sponsors of Islamist terrorism."
Tucker Carlson antisemtism?
Highlighting Qatar's financial ties, she noted, "For decades Qatar has been the biggest donor to American universities and K-12 education in our country—pushing anti-American and anti-Semitic content to our children." Cardoza-Moore called on Carlson to clarify his allegiances, stating, "We the People demand that Tucker Carlson stop bearing false witness and unveil his true allegiances."
She also drew parallels to the upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim, referencing the biblical story where Haman sought to annihilate the Jewish people. Cardoza-Moore warned that contemporary threats, such as those from groups like Hamas, echo historical dangers, emphasizing, "No amount of Muslim Brotherhood cash can rewrite God’s Word or replace His Chosen People."
Cardoza-Moore has previously criticized Carlson for alleged antisemitic views. In February 2025, she stated, "Tucker Carlson’s antisemitism does not reflect the values of the Trump administration," accusing him of promoting a "fake-Christian form of Jew-hatred."
Buckle up, besties—this week on The Quad, we’re bringing the heat! 🔥
Emily Schrader, Shoshana Keats-Jaskoll, Barb Heller, and special guest Daniel-Ryan Spaulding take on everything from the chaos in Syria to Columbia University’s epic meltdown—all with a healthy dose of sass.
🎭 Comedian Daniel-Ryan Spaulding joins us to dish on what it’s REALLY like being a gay guy traveling in the Middle East, why Israel is a haven for minorities, and why radical Islamists are not it.
🔥 On the docket this week:
🔹 Syria’s new leadership = same old terrorists 😡
🔹 Israel cuts power to Gaza—but wait, where’s the famine? 🍗
🔹 Columbia’s pro-Hamas protesters = actions have consequences 🚨
🔹 Trump lays down the law: No more funding for terror-supporting schools 🏫
🔹 Scumbags & Heroes of the Week—and oh boy, we have some ICONIC picks 👏
💬 Drop a comment: Should Israel keep supplying Gaza with electricity, or is it time for tough love?
🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE & HIT THE BELL for more spicy takes and unfiltered Israel news every week!
Australian police arrest 14 members of crime ring linked to antisemitic attacks
Australian police announced on Tuesday that 14 members of an organized crime ring have been arrested and charged in connection with a wave of antisemitic hate crimes in the country.Bikie boss allegedly directed Bondi attacks
The suspects have been charged with 65 offenses, including taking part in a criminal group, arson and destruction of property.
The Australian police said they no longer believe many of the gang’s activities were driven by ideology, even as the attacks directly targeted the Jewish community.
“None of the individuals we have arrested … have displayed any form of antisemitic ideology,” said NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson.
“I think these organized crime figures have taken an opportunity to play off the vulnerability of the Jewish community,” he added.
At the same time, the police commander conceded that he had no doubt that antisemitism in Australia has seen an “escalation” since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel.
Australian Jews experienced more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents over the past year, more than quadruple the number from the previous year, according to a report published by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) in December.
Last week, a second Australian nurse was charged for threatening to kill Israelis.
Jewish community leaders in Australia have attributed the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents to inaction or even hostility on the part of Australia’s Labor-led government.
Alleged bikie boss Sayed Moosawi is one of 14 people arrested and charged with 65 offences following investigations into antisemitic incidents across Sydney’s east.A Caravan, Firebombs, and ‘James Bond’
The former Nomads chapter president allegedly directed two arson attacks on Bondi businesses – the Curly Lewis Brewery and the Lewis Continental Kitchen – which had been previously linked to an organiser calling himself “James Bond”.
He pleaded not guilty and did not apply for bail in the Waverley Local Court on Tuesday morning.
The 14 people arrested are accused of varying roles in antisemitic attacks that terrorised Sydney on behalf of organised crime bosses, including arson, hateful graffiti and a fabricated caravan bomb plot.
On Monday, officers from NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police said a caravan discovered containing explosives in Dural in Sydney’s west and other antisemitic attacks across Sydney’s east were a “con job” fabricated by organised criminals trying to either distract police or influence a prosecution.
In a joint release, NSW Premier Chris Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley said police have worked around the clock to get to the bottom of these crimes and “those investigations have had a major resolution”.
“There is no mistake that these acts have wrought fear and anxiety in our Jewish community and we will not tolerate this, not now, not ever,” they said.
Yesterday, authorities described the caravan plot as an elaborate ruse; an attempt to manipulate the legal system. The discovery of 40kg of explosives in the abandoned vehicle initially led to fears of a terrorist attack, but police now believe it was staged by criminals attempting to negotiate plea deals by providing “information” in exchange for leniency.AFP exposed for being ‘played’ by source in hoax caravan bomb plot investigation
“None of the individuals we have arrested… have displayed any form of antisemitic ideology,” NSW Police deputy commissioner David Hudson said Monday after the raids. “I think these organised crime figures have taken an opportunity to play off the vulnerability of the Jewish community,” he added.
“It was about causing chaos within the community, causing threat, causing angst, diverting police resources away from their day jobs to have them focus on matters that would allow them to get up to, engage in other criminal activity,” said deputy commissioner Hudson.
NSW Premier Chris Minns initially called the plot a “potential mass-casualty event” but later acknowledged that it was an organised crime scam. “The terror and fear that was struck by these individuals was real,” Minns said, explaining his earlier warnings. “It still happened, and it was appalling for the community, particularly the Jewish community in NSW.”
Labor has accused Peter Dutton of playing into the hands of organised criminals by amplifying the threat posed by the caravan. On Monday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke criticised the opposition leader for making “reckless” statements about the plot, including his claim that it would have “been the most catastrophic terrorist attack in our country’s history”.
Other Arrests
Police raids across Sydney netted 14 suspects, with wide-ranging charges linked to the antisemitic attacks:
Nicholas Alexander (31) – Allegedly prepared stolen cars used in the crimes.
Zac Hall (18) & Ryan Hughes (20) – Allegedly provided vehicles for an arson attack on a Maroubra childcare centre that caused $3 million in damage.
Mohammed Hijazi (40) – Allegedly defaced multiple Jewish-owned properties with hate speech.
Henry Masivoivoi (33) & Ford Powell (25) – Accused of spray-painting antisemitic graffiti on Jewish homes and cars.
Anthony Tannous (23) – Accused of helping orchestrate firebombings and vandalism.
A 26-year-old & a 27-year-old woman – Arrested for drug-related offences linked to the crime network.
The AFP stands accused of mishandling the counter terrorism investigation into the hoax caravan bomb plot.AFP accused of ‘mishandling’ investigation into caravan terror plot
An investigation by Sky News can reveal the AFP fell for a hoax by an Australian criminal living offshore – a source they were treating as credible, and whose identity they kept secret from other authorities.
The AFP was “played” by their source, who claimed to be aware of ongoing threats against the Australian Jewish community.
This included a supposed threat against a prominent Jewish businessman. As a result, he’s required 24 hour police protection for more than a month.
Despite insisting that NSW Police act on their criminal source’s information, the AFP withheld the identity of the source from NSW Police.
This led to disagreements and unrest at the heart of the joint investigation that was set up to investigate the antisemitic threat.
That unrest first came to light when the AFP went public in late January to say there could be foreign actors behind these attacks.
This was based purely on their source, the Australian criminal overseas. It led to the media and the prime minister repeating the claim that foreign actors could be behind the caravan plot.
Yet NSW Police said publicly at the time they had no knowledge of any foreign actors being behind antisemitic attacks in the Sydney community.
The reason NSW police didn't know about any offshore link was because the AFP was deliberately withholding information – even though the investigation was a joint operation with NSW Police.
Despite claims at Monday's press conference, the AFP did not know originally that the caravan bomb threat was an elaborate hoax.
Sky News host Sharri Markson discusses the elaborate hoax and “mishandling” of the joint-counter terrorism investigation into the caravan bomb plot.
“The AFP stands accused of mishandling the joint-counter terror investigation into the caravan bomb plot, we can tonight reveal the AFP fell for a hoax by an Australian criminal living offshore,” Ms Markson said.
“The AFP has now been accused of being played by their source who claimed to be aware of credible and ongoing threats against the Australian Jewish community ... despite insisting New South Wales Police act on their informant's intel, the AFP then withheld the identity of the source, this led to immense disagreements and unrest at the heart of the joint-investigation.”
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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