Wednesday, March 26, 2025

03/26 Links Pt1: The WHO Is Covering for Hamas; Israel’s Deep State Is Worse Than America’s; Netanyahu: Gaza protests against Hamas proof ‘our policy is working’

From Ian:

Court freezes PA tax funds for bereaved father whose family was killed by terrorists
The Jerusalem District Court issued an order on Tuesday to freeze NIS 50 million ($13.7 million) worth of Palestinian Authority tax dollars after Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were murdered by Hamas terrorists two years ago, sued the West Bank-based government.

The British-Israeli rabbi filed the lawsuit against Ramallah in October over its controversial prisoner payment system, which PA President Mahmoud Abbas said in February that he would discontinue in a bid for increased international support.

The so-called pay for slay policy provided welfare payments to Palestinians in Israeli prisons — in addition to the families of slain and wounded attackers — based on the length of their sentence.

“PA resources should not support terrorism,” Dee said on Tuesday. “I urge other terror victims in Israel to pursue similar action. Together, we can strip the enemy of their assets.”

Dee had been traveling through the West Bank, headed to Tiberias for the Passover holiday in April 2023 with his wife, Lucy, and two daughters, Maia and Rina, when Hamas gunmen driving past opened fire on their car.

The bereaved father had been driving in a separate vehicle just meters ahead of the rest of his family when the terrorists attacked. His two daughters were killed at the scene, while his wife succumbed to her wounds in Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital two days later.

The court has not yet ruled on whether Dee will receive compensation for the murder of his wife and kids but has rather granted a temporary order safeguarding the maximum amount of money he can receive should he win the case.

The lawsuit, filed by Dee with the legal NGO Shurat HaDin, was possible by way of a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that said the Palestinian Authority was culpable for terrorist attacks in Israel due to its prisoner payment system.

The money frozen on Tuesday was sourced from the hundreds of millions of shekels in frozen funds deducted by Israel from the taxes it collects for the PA.

The Knesset passed a law in 2018 stipulating that Israel would deduct the total sum of money that the PA pays in monthly terrorist stipends from the monthly tax funds it transfers to the Palestinian governing body and freeze that money until the PA ceases to pay the stipends.

In November, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the PA was obligated to pay the next of kin of three victims of the deadly 2001 Sbarro terror bombing NIS 46 million ($12.5 million) in punitive damages, compensation, funeral costs, and legal expenses.
The World Health Organization Is Covering for Hamas
On Sunday night, an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hamas official named Ismail Barhoum with a precision missile. Barhoum was at a hospital at the time, a fact that generated predictable outrage and condemnation from the media. Avraham Shalev explains how the World Health Organization (WHO) abets Hamas’s efforts to shield itself in medical facilities:

The WHO clings to a narrative that casts Gaza’s hospitals as innocent civilian sanctuaries unjustly targeted by Israeli forces. The WHO went even further and delivered supplies to terrorist headquarters. This isn’t mere oversight or diplomatic tiptoeing; it’s active complicity in a deadly charade.

Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals isn’t new—it’s a long-standing, grim reality. During the 2009 Israel–Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces discovered that Hamas had shuttered entire sections of al-Shifa Hospital, repurposing them as its operational headquarters. Dave Harden, who served as the U.S. Agency for International Development mission director in the Palestinian territories, posted in November 2023 that during his tenure in 2014, it was “broadly suspected/understood” that al-Shifa functioned as Hamas’s base of operations.

On April 6, 2024, the WHO spearheaded a multiagency UN mission to survey al-Shifa’s devastation, [after it was site of a battle between the IDF and Hamas fighters], producing a report that described it as “an empty shell.” Strikingly, the word “Hamas” is absent from the document. Readers are left with no clue as to whom Israel was fighting or why the hospital had been besieged in the first place.
Israel’s Qatar Dilemma, and How It Can Be Solved
Small in area and population and rich in natural gas, Qatar plays an outsize role in the Middle East. While its support keeps Hamas in business, it also has vital relations with Israel that are much better than those enjoyed by many other Arab countries. Doha’s relationship with Washington, though more complex, isn’t so different. Yoel Guzansky offers a comprehensive examination of Israel’s Qatar dilemma:

At first glance, Qatar’s foreign policy seems filled with contradictions. Since 1995, it has pursued a strategy of diplomatic hedging—building relationships with multiple, often competing, actors. Qatar’s vast wealth and close ties with the United States have enabled it to maneuver independently on the international stage, maintaining relations with rival factions, including those that are direct adversaries.

Qatar plays an active role in international diplomacy, engaging in conflict mediation in over twenty regions worldwide. While not all of its mediation efforts have been successful, they have helped boost its international prestige, which it considers vital for its survival among larger and more powerful neighbors. Qatar has participated in mediation efforts in Venezuela, Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones, reinforcing its image as a neutral broker.

Israel’s stated objective of removing Hamas from power in Gaza is fundamentally at odds with Qatar’s interest in keeping Hamas as the governing force. In theory, if the Israeli hostages would to be released, Israel could break free from its dependence on Qatari mediation. However, it is likely that even after such a development, Qatar will continue positioning itself as a mediator—particularly in enforcing agreements and shaping Gaza’s reconstruction efforts.

Qatar’s position is strengthened further by its good relations with the U.S. Yet, Guzansky notes, it has weaknesses as well that Israel could exploit:

Qatar is highly sensitive to its global image and prides itself on maintaining a neutral diplomatic posture. If Israel chooses to undermine Qatar’s reputation, it could target specific aspects of Qatari activity that are problematic from an Israeli perspective.




Israel’s Deep State Is Worse Than America’s
Israel’s constitutional dysfunction did not begin overnight. While the country’s Declaration of Independence envisioned the adoption of a formal constitution, David Ben-Gurion rejected the idea, wary of judges overruling elected officials. Instead, Ben-Gurion preferred the British model of parliamentary supremacy. In 1950, the Knesset opted to pass Basic Laws incrementally, intending to compile them into a formal constitution at a later date. That moment never came. Read More on Israeli Politics

In the 1990s, under the leadership of Chief Justice Barak, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned previous judicial precedents and declared the Basic Laws to be constitutional in nature. With no formal constitution and no effective checks on judicial powers, the court became a hybrid super-legislature.

Barak’s judicial revolution unfolded in three waves. In the 1980s, he diluted the standing rules, allowing NGOs to bring political issues before the court, and ruled that “everything is justiciable.” He also discarded the strict traditional Wednesbury test of reasonableness—used in other common law countries—in favor of a “balancing” test that enabled judges to replace executive decisions with their own preferences under the guise of legal review.

In the 1990s, the court transformed the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty—originally a modest compromise between liberals and conservatives in Israel—into a sweeping quasi-constitution. And in 2024, it reached the apex of its power by annulling a constitutional amendment designed to curtail judicial overreach itself. The Israeli court is now unique in the democratic world in its assertion of the authority to cancel a constitutional amendment, absent any “eternity clauses” in the Israeli Basic Laws.

The real roots of this power imbalance are sociological as much as legal. Since Menachem Begin’s historic electoral victory in 1977, Israel’s traditional Ashkenazi secular elite has gradually lost its political dominance. In response, this liberal, globally connected minority sought to entrench its influence through institutions it continued to control: the courts, academia, the Bank of Israel, and key departments within the civil service.

The security establishment, particularly the Shin Bet (Israel’s equivalent to the FBI) and IDF General Staff, have also become instruments of this unelected power bloc. Time and again, elected governments have been thwarted not by parliamentary opposition, but by hostile bureaucracies and security chiefs willing to challenge their authority on ostensibly legal or professional grounds. The idea that it is vital for democracy for the Shin Bet head to serve as a check on the prime minister echoes the circus America experienced during President Trump’s first term and is just as preposterous. But that is why the elite has embraced Bar—precisely because he runs an agency that operates with vast extra-legal power.

These dynamics were on full display this week, as the Shin Bet director and the attorney general refused to attend a cabinet meeting discussing their own dismissals. Instead, they submitted letters challenging the legitimacy of the elected government. Their open defiance marks a pivotal moment: We are no longer dealing with internal bureaucratic resistance, but with an institutional rebellion.

The judiciary, too, is actively escalating the confrontation. Chief Justice Yitzhak Amit—appointed in open defiance of the current government—has handpicked a judicial panel to rule on the dismissal of Ronen Bar. Research by professor Yair Givati shows how Israeli Supreme Court presidents have long manipulated their power to form judicial panels in order to produce desired rulings. This week’s decision appears no different. The panel includes two out of three justices known for their hyperactivist bent. In Israel, as the saying now goes, the justices shoot the arrow—then draw the target.

Meanwhile, Baharav-Miara has denounced as “politicization” a parliamentary bill that would reform judicial appointments by requiring consensus between the government coalition and the opposition. Yet in virtually every constitutional democracy—including the U.S.—Supreme Court justices are appointed by elected officials.

Israel’s constitutional crisis is not a legal debate. It is a struggle over sovereignty. One side seeks to preserve a system in which unelected elites in robes and uniform dictate national policy. The other side, embodied by the current government, is trying to restore democratic accountability.

The judiciary, emboldened by decades of activist jurisprudence, is now openly resisting any attempt to reform its power. Meanwhile, security agencies, legal advisers, and civil service bureaucrats are acting in lockstep to block the government’s agenda—even at the cost of subverting democratic norms.

This is no longer just Israel’s crisis. As Elon Musk recently warned, the fight against the unelected bureaucratic class—what many now call the deep state—is a global struggle. From Washington to Brussels to Jerusalem, elected governments are being boxed in by entrenched elites who use the language of law, security, and “professionalism” to undermine democratic mandates. What is needed now is not only internal reform, but international solidarity among nations—and citizens—who value representative government over rule by unaccountable institutions. Israel’s struggle is the front line of a wider battle. It is time for those who believe in self-government to form alliances across borders, cultures, and political divides. The alternative is not stability—it is permanent rule by those who were never chosen.


Michael Oren: How Does Bibi Survive?
Enter—deus ex machina—Donald Trump. Days before his inauguration, Trump’s team managed to achieve the first phase of a ceasefire-for-hostage-release deal in Gaza. Shortly after, Bibi became the first foreign leader to visit the Trump White House, where he listened, beaming, as Trump announced his plan for relocating the civilian population of Gaza and raising a resort on its ruins.

Now, even as the most recent polls show that most Israelis want new elections and different leaders, Bibi still scores high as the individual most qualified to be prime minister, beating out Benny Gantz and Opposition head Yair Lapid by huge margins. Were elections held today, Netanyahu would still have a significant chance of remaining prime minister.

Despite the controversies and the unending agony of October 7, he’s a leader of unsurpassed experience and communication skills, and a man capable of withstanding superhuman pressures both domestic and international.

But there is another, far more fundamental reason for Bibi’s survival, one that is widely underappreciated by both his opponents and fans. I think it is the real reason for his long-term success.

There are leaders in history: Biden, for example. And there are leaders of history, like Ronald Reagan. The latter believe that they have a transformative mission in the world, and Netanyahu is without question a member of that category. His faith in himself and his own capacities seems never to flag. Impelling him is a bedrock belief in his responsibility to preserve the Jewish state, a task which he alone among Israeli politicians can fulfill. “Don’t you know, Michael,” he once told me, “things are never as bad or as good as they seem.” To give in to the bad, to resign from office or surrender to gargantuan pressures, would mean acknowledging the failure of his entire life’s work—and quite possibly, in his view, the end of the Zionist project itself. Such self-belief has served again and again as an engine for enduring success. Look at Lincoln and Churchill. Look at Theodor Herzl, for that matter: If you will it, it is no dream.

This almost mystical quality is a central reason why I believe that, barring any unexpected coalition crisis, Netanyahu will probably remain in office until the October 2026 elections. While he may yet realize his dream of making peace with Saudi Arabia and his raison d’être of neutralizing the Iranian nuclear threat, he is certain to face relentless popular opposition. He no doubt hopes to remain in Trump’s good graces and that the president will continue to back Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Today, as the country faces unprecedented crises at home and at war, Bibi’s reputation as the ultimate long-distance runner of Israeli politics will be gravely challenged. His faith in his life’s mission could be shaken as never before. Still, if the past is any bellwether, he will once again prevail. His would-be eulogists will, yet another time, be proven wrong.


Lawmakers introduce bill to sanction Palestinian terror group
A bipartisan group of senators and House members introduced a bill on Tuesday to impose sanctions on the Popular Resistance Committees, reportedly the third-largest terrorist group in Gaza, which claimed credit for participating in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and is not currently designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.

The bill was introduced for the first time in the Senate by Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), and reintroduced in the House by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), David Kustoff (R-TN), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Sarah McBride (D-DE).

The legislation passed easily out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a voice vote during the previous Congress. It also requires the administration to assess whether to designate the Popular Resistance Committees and the Lion’s Den, another terrorist group, as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, a classification that provides additional sanctions authorities.

“The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) is the third-largest terrorist organization in Gaza and another puppet of Iran,” Ricketts said in a statement. “Despite decades of attacks against Americans and Israelis, including on October 7th, the PRC has yet to be properly sanctioned for its barbarism. This bill will help hold accountable every terrorist that participated in the October 7th attacks.”


RJC board member calls for Witkoff’s dismissal over ‘his utter incompetence’
Eric Levine, a top GOP fundraiser and a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, is calling for Steve Witkoff’s dismissal over a recent series of media appearances in which the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he was “duped” by Hamas during failed negations to release the remaining hostages held by the terrorist group.

“Witkoff’s performance is disqualifying because it demonstrates his utter incompetence,” Levine said in a scathing email sent to his professional network on Wednesday, while calling the Trump official “an embarrassment to” the “country and the president he serves.”

The Middle East envoy “should do the honorable thing and resign,” Levine wrote. “Failing that, he should be summarily fired.”

Witkoff has faced backlash following interviews with Fox News as well as on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in which he said he did not “regard Putin as a bad guy,” suggested Hamas could be “involved politically” in post-war Gaza and said he did not believe the terrorist group is “ideologically intractable,” among other comments that raised alarms with Republican lawmakers and national security experts.

Levine’s unvarnished comments underscore how those concerns have mounted as the Middle East envoy, a close friend of President Donald Trump, has led negotiations with Hamas and recently met Putin in Russia, among other sensitive diplomatic assignments.

“Anyone this naïve and who is willing to rely on the word of a nihilistic Nazi death cult which has been clear about its contempt for Western civilization, and its intentions to exterminate the Jews, destroy Israel, and which launched the Oct. 7 attack, is simply not qualified to represent the United States in such critical state craft,” Levine said of Witkoff.

He also criticized the Middle East envoy for joining Carlson’s show, saying that the former Fox News host “has become a malign and malevolent platform for revisionist history.”
Iran Apparently Planning to Outwit or Outwait Trump, Not Relinquish Its Nuclear Programme
"Something's going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran — and I've written him a letter, saying, 'I hope you're going to negotiate.' Because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing — for them." — US President Donald J. Trump, interview with Fox News, March 7, 2025.

So long as the Islamic Republic of Iran indulges in its usual tactic of prevarication in the hope that, by engaging in delaying tactics, it can buy more time to achieve its nuclear ambitions, the credibility of the Trump administration taking direct action against Tehran needs to increase.

Iran's demand, for example, that it might consider opening negotiations with Washington if the Trump administration first agreed to lift punitive economic sanctions, is a classic exercise in the regime's attempts to play for time.


Seth Mandel: The Anti-Hamas Protests in Gaza
Palestinians in Gaza are learning the hard way that they have no greater enemy on the world stage than Western anti-Zionists.

Well, maybe Qatar. Let’s call it a tie.

Yesterday, a 32-year-old Palestinian named Ibrahim went food shopping in downtown Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza and happened upon a remarkable scene: Hundreds of Gazans were marching in protest against Hamas. So he joined them. The protesters’ message to Hamas was simple: Get out of Gaza and don’t come back.

The New York Times reports with an adorable earnestness: “Gazans, at least publicly, tend to blame Israel for much of the death, destruction and hunger the war has brought. But at least some hold Hamas responsible, as well, for starting the conflict by leading the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, abducting 251 people to Gaza and continuing to fight rather than giving up its power in exchange for a cease-fire.”

Hard as it may be to believe, it’s true: Gazans have not have been fully honest in public. There’s a reason for that. To take just one example, Amin Abed was nearly beaten to death with hammers for criticizing Hamas. Abed was saved by bystanders, so presumably the intention was to finish him off. During the cease-fire, Hamas members bragged about executing “collaborators” and filmed themselves shooting civilians.

Which is what makes yesterday’s protests all the more significant. To protest Hamas in public is to take one’s life in one’s hands. That is especially true because the protests were bound to be filmed, in order to get the message out to the world. The reason the world needs to hear that message is that Westerners have been Hamas’s willing propaganda tools. The protests on campus are not “pro-Palestinian,” they are pro-Hamas—and the people of Gaza are Hamas’s victims. Which means the anti-Zionist protest movement around the world objectively sides against the victims and civilians in Gaza.

It is true what they say: Western leftists are willing to fight Israel down to the last Palestinian. Comfortable activists in Morningside Heights call for “resistance” because they do not assign any value to the lives of Jews or Arabs, Israelis or Palestinians. They also fool themselves into believing things that Gazans cannot afford to—that, for example, Israel wantonly destroys residential buildings because it enjoys doing so. In reality, Gazans know Hamas builds entrances to terror tunnels in civilian homes because it has been done in their homes. It is not the IDF that hides bombs in stuffed animals in Palestinian children’s bedrooms along with a camera to know when to detonate that terror teddy. Gazans know their homes would still be standing if it weren’t for Hamas; it’s really that simple.

Which is why Gazans are saying the exact same thing the Israeli government and the U.S. government have been saying. In the words of one man from Beit Lahiya: “Without Hamas going away, the next war will only be a matter of time.”
Netanyahu: Gaza protests against Hamas proof ‘our policy is working’
Palestinian protests against Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip are proof that Israel’s approach to the terrorist organization is working, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Wednesday.

“In recent days, we have seen something we have never seen before—public protests against Hamas rule in Gaza,” the premier said during a 40-signature debate, which the opposition can call once a month and which he is obliged to attend. “This shows that our policy is working.”

On Tuesday, hundreds of Palestinians staged protests in northern Gaza, demanding an end to the ongoing war with the Jewish state and calling for Hamas terrorists to relinquish their control of the coastal enclave.

The rallies, among the most significant against Hamas since the conflict began, reportedly included chants such as “Hamas out,” and protesters carried banners reading “Stop the war” and “We want to live in peace.”

(An Arab opinion poll conducted late last year showed that close to two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria prefer for Hamas to be part of, or even lead, a Palestinian governing body that would control the Strip after the war.)

“We are determined to achieve all the goals of the war,” stated the prime minister during Wednesday’s Knesset debate. Jerusalem’s war objectives include the destruction of Hamas, the return of the 59 remaining hostages and ensuring that the Gaza Strip will never again pose a threat to Israel.

According to Netanyahu, his coalition has been “doing things that no government in Israeli history has done.

“We eliminated tens of thousands of terrorists and senior murderers. We have destroyed terrorist infrastructure,” he said, noting that the fighting would continue until the last hostage is returned to the Jewish state.


FDD: ‘Out, Out Hamas!’: Palestinians in Gaza Take to Streets in Rare Protest
Latest Developments
‘March of Rage’: Hundreds of Palestinians poured into the streets of the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya on March 25 in a rare protest against Hamas rule. During what was described as a “march of rage,” protestors chanted slogans including, “Out, out Hamas,” “Our children’s blood is not cheap,” and “We want to live in peace and security.” According to the Arabic news outlet Asharq al-Awsat, some of the protestors condemned renewed rocket fire from Hamas and allied terrorist groups against Israeli communities on the northern border, asserting that these attacks had caused Israel to issue evacuation warnings for residents of northern Gaza amid the renewed military operations by the IDF in the coastal enclave.

‘We Reject the Rule of Hamas’: One speaker at the protest declared: “Our message now is that we are a people of peace … we say: yes to peace, no to the tyrant rule which threatens the destiny of our people.” Another protestor remarked, “Hamas is demanding our people to remain steadfast. But how can we remain steadfast when we’re dying and bleeding? Hamas must stop what is happening in Gaza … we’re sending a message to the entire world: we reject the rule of Hamas.”

‘Where are the Journalists?’: Some of the protestors also criticized media organizations for ignoring growing Palestinian unrest against the Iran-backed terrorist group, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has brutally cracked down on past protests. Among the slogans chanted was, “Where are the journalists?” One man observed that “the people are demanding the press to cover these events! People are demanding freedom, they’re demanding a halt to the hostilities against Gaza, they’re demanding peace and an end to this war.”

FDD Expert Response
“Hamas used brute force in the past to suppress organized protests that posed any challenge to its authority. In its current vulnerable state, Hamas is less likely than ever to tolerate dissent from the Palestinian population. From Hamas’s perspective, it must prevent these protests from spreading across the Gaza Strip, as it cannot afford to fight both Palestinians and the IDF at the same time.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

“These are not protests advocating peace and coexistence with Israel. But they are an important sign of the growing rejection of Hamas’s strategy of fighting until Israel is defeated. Rare events like these therefore pose a critical question for the pro-Hamas protest movement and its cheerleaders in Western countries: If Palestinians in Gaza reject Hamas in growing numbers, whom will you support?” — Ben Cohen, FDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Director

“Qatari-owned Al Jazeera is known for both its propaganda and the fact that some of its journalists, like Hosam Shabat, who was killed in a recent Israeli air strike, double up as Hamas operatives. The fact that Al Jazeera has been absent from these protests boosts the view that it’s a Hamas mouthpiece pretending to be an objective news source.” — Natalie Ecanow, Senior Research Analyst

“These protests are a clear sign that Hamas has lost some of its popularity, shattering the illusion of victory and support that the group has promoted in recent months. The key question now is whether Hamas will retaliate against the protesters to suppress further dissent. What is undeniable, however, is that the group’s propaganda — whether on social media, Al Jazeera, or other Arab networks — has been exposed as a façade.” — Ahmad Sharawi, Research Analyst


Daniel Greenfield: The Fake ‘Anti-Hamas’ Protests in Gaza
So what’s going on in Gaza where hundreds appear to be protesting Hamas? One basic question is why now?

The theme of the protests was a call for Hamas to step down and end the fighting. The sudden interest in ending the war is tied to the so-called Arab Plan for Gaza is moving forward. Under that plan, a fake ‘technocratic’ front group will run the place under the “supervision” of the PLO using ‘Palestinian’ troops trained by Jordan and Egypt. Hamas will supposedly not have a voice in the running of Gaza.

In reality, this is yet another variation of the same scheme that has been repeatedly proposed in which Hamas runs things from behind the scenes while a front group controlled by the PLO collects foreign aid.

(The Arab Plan estimates that rebuilding Gaza will cost $53 billion.)

The goal is creating an Islamic terrorist state in Gaza and Judea and Samaria with international recognition.

The sudden ‘protests’ against Hamas are meant to manufacture the myth that Arab Muslims occupying Gaza are ready for a new government.

Hamas didn’t greet the protests cheerfully, but neither did it cracked down as hard as it could. Pro-Hamas outlets like Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye are not acknowledging the protests while too many pro-Israel people are foolishly celebrating them as some sort of step forward. For the moment this is an internal dispute between two Jihadist groups, one overt and one covert, it doesn’t indicate peace or coexistence is here.

The protest is meant for public consumption in the Arab world and in the United States. It’s not a sea change, but the same old scam.


Bias by Omission: Reuters, AP Crews Absent From Rare Anti-Hamas Protest in Gaza
Photojournalists working for Reuters and AP in Gaza are usually very quick and efficient.

They reach the sites of Israeli air strikes or the morgues of local hospitals within minutes. Some of them don’t hesitate to cross borders and film atrocities, as they did on October 7, 2023.

Yet late afternoon on Tuesday (March 25), when hundreds of Gazans took to the streets in what appeared to be the largest protest against Hamas since its attack on Israel, Reuters and AP crews were absent — more potential proof that these so-called “journalists” are beholden to or cooperating with the terror group.

The first story and video about the protest on the Reuters platform appeared only the next morning, based on social media posts. Several still images by an unidentified stringer went up past noon on Wednesday.

On AP’s database, no visuals of the protest were published, and one text story based on “videos circulating online” appeared mid-morning on Wednesday.

As shown on social media, hundreds of defiant Gazans chanted “Hamas are terrorists,” in what seemed to be an organized and pre-planned demonstration.

Yet both agencies’ text stories were selective in the slogans they quoted from the protest: “Hamas out” and “We refuse to die” were mentioned, but not “Hamas are terrorists.”

And so news organizations that rely on Reuters and AP for Gaza coverage, and pay big bucks for it, had nothing solid to work with. Outlets like The New York Times, BBC News, CNN, The Guardian, and others had to use posts from X (formerly Twitter) as sources because the world’s largest news agencies suddenly went AWOL.


The rebirth of Nazi ideology in Palestinian Authority antisemitism
Countless times, official PA religious leaders, including the Abbas-appointed PA mufti, have taught that the Hour of Resurrection is conditioned on Muslims “fighting the Jews and killing them.”

Five times in recent months, PA TV broadcast PA religious officials praying for genocide: “Allah, count them one by one, kill them one by one, and do not leave even one” (January 10 and January 24, 2025).

The PA’s Religious Affairs Ministry, just 11 days after Hamas’s October 7 pogrom, published talking points for Friday sermons in all PA mosques. Imams were told to teach that Muslims killing Jews hiding behind rocks and trees, as happened on October 7, was the fulfillment of Muslim destiny:

“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, and the rock or a tree will say: ‘Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him’” (PA Religious Affairs Ministry’s Facebook page, October 18, 2023).

According to this Islamic worldview, every person who takes a step to minimize the Jews’ power and eliminate even one Jew is doing Allah’s will on behalf of humanity.

Significantly, Hitler also justified fighting the Jews as God’s will: “I am acting according to the will of the Almighty Creator: When I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord” (Mein Kampf, 1,11).

The Nazi leaders’ pride in its Final Solution is evident in the protocols of their meetings. Heinrich Himmler, in a speech to SS officers in 1943, said: “It’s part of our program, elimination of the Jews, extermination... This is a glorious page in our history that has never been written and shall never be written… We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people that wanted to destroy us” (October 4, 1943).

Jibril Rajoub, a top PA leader and Fatah Central Committee Secretary, likewise sees glory in killing Jews: “What happened on October 7 was an earthquake… full of epics and acts of heroism” (Al-Anba, November 26, 2023).

Thinking ahead
Today, as world leaders contemplate the future of Gaza after Hamas is removed, many countries led by Egypt are insisting that the Palestinian Authority should rule the Strip. Some have used catchy terms to argue that the PA merely needs to be “revitalized.”

When one understands the depths of PA hatred and loathing of the Jews that the PA has been transmitting to its people for years, the PA clearly cannot be an option. Israel would do well to internalize the words of Robert H. Jackson, chief justice to the Nuremberg Trials, who described with amazement that the Nazis had proclaimed every crime they would commit in advance, and yet the world ignored them.

He concluded: “We must not forget that when the Nazi plans were boldly proclaimed, they were so extravagant that the world refused to take them seriously.”

The PA’s plans and justifications regarding the Jews and Israelis are just as “extravagant” and just as “boldly proclaimed” as the Nazis’ plans. Let’s not make the same mistake the world made in 1939, or that Israel made in 2023. When people say they want to kill you and back it up as God’s directive, they must be taken seriously.
Palestinian school curriculum glorifies violence, violating pledges to reform
An online school curriculum, produced by the Palestinian Authority for Gaza pupils amid the Israeli war against Hamas, continues to glorify violence and martyrdom and is rife with antisemitic stereotypes that are being taught in Hamas-run classrooms which praise the Oct. 7, 2023 attackers, a British think tank said on Monday.

The findings, which come in the wake of the Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel and the nearly year-and-a-half-long war it triggered in Gaza, violate Palestinian commitments made to donor countries for educational reform. They come at a time when Western countries that fund the Ramallah-based P.A. continue to favor it taking control of Gaza from Hamas.

The London-based NGO Impact-se (the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education) study finds that the textbooks being used this year for nearly 300,000 Palestinian schoolchildren in grades 1-12 in Gaza erase the State of Israel from the map and are replete with “graphic depictions of violence,” and antisemitism.

The report also notes that at least four newly reopened Gaza schools under Hamas control openly celebrate the single worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust using textbooks and teaching materials rife with incitement.

“If the international community wants to support peace and stability in the Middle East it will recognize the importance of an education system in Gaza that promotes peace—not hate,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told JNS. “Whilst Hamas remains in civilian control in Gaza the indoctrination of children into radical Islam through the education system will continue, this will only perpetuate future conflict,” she said.


The UN, not Israel, should be erased and rewritten
The UN must confront its biases
THE ORGANIZATIONAL culture within the UN and its agencies contributes to a distorted view of reality. Reports from entities, such as the UNHRC, have falsely accused Israel of systematic violence, ignoring Hamas’s well-documented crimes. This inversion of accountability not only demonstrates the politicization of human rights issues but also wholly disregards the experiences of Israelis.

Moreover, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), which purportedly supports Palestinian refugees, has been implicated in supporting terrorism. Schools funded by UNRWA have been misused as weapons storage locations and as military headquarters, showcasing a flagrant disregard for the safety and welfare of children. In addition, agency schools have facilitated the indoctrination of Palestinian children with hatred of Jews and Israelis. UNRWA teachers and staff have been revealed as Hamas militants. The aid agency exemplifies how the UN’s efforts to assist can, paradoxically, fuel terrorism rather than alleviate suffering.

The political ramifications of the UN’s decisions can no longer be ignored. Former Israeli deputy prime minister Natan Sharansky’s Three Ds test to determine collective antisemitism (Demonization, Double Standards, and Delegitimization) is increasingly relevant in determining which narratives support the antisemitic eradication of Israel.

There is a pressing need for the UN to confront its embedded biases and its acceptance of jihad and collective Jew hatred. A reimagined framework must emerge, one that prioritizes accuracy, fairness, and a commitment to uphold human rights without prejudice.

October 7 has proven beyond a doubt that the UN and its associated agencies are accomplices to terror organizations, defaulting on their mission set in the UN’s founding charter of pursuing peace and defending the sovereignty of nations – among them, Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people.

The UN is beyond repair. It needs to be dismantled, redesigned, and rebuilt, from the ground up.
Education minister strips Israel Prize from professor over ICC war crimes petition
Education Minister Yoav Kisch said he will not allow the Israel Prize to be awarded to sociologist Eva Illouz because of a petition she filed with others in 2021 urging the International Criminal Court not to trust Israel to investigate war crimes allegations itself.

Kisch on Monday sent a letter to the prize committee members instructing them to reconsider their selection.

In 2021, the ICC said it would open a probe of actions by Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. In May of that year, over 180 Israeli scientists, intellectuals and public figures asked the ICC’s chief prosecutor at the time, Fatou Bensouda, not to rely on Israel to investigate the accusations against it. According to Haaretz, 10 previous Israel Prize winners also put their names to the appeal.

“Independent of academic achievements,” Illouz filed a “serious and unusual request to an international institution that is acting against Israel, against IDF soldiers and members of the security forces, and casts aspersions on the country’s basic systems,” Kisch said in a statement Monday.

His move against Illouz was first reported early in the day by Channel 12

Kisch said he has “no intention of presenting the Israel Prize” to someone “who chose, out of a clear anti-Israel ideology, to approach an institution that does not hesitate to file false complaints” against the army “and is busy collaborating with terrorist organizations.”


3 ways for Trump’s Gaza Plan to work | Our Middle East
Join us as we break down the controversial idea of the “#Gaza Riviera” — a proposed humanitarian relocation and redevelopment plan discussed by the #Trump administration. Is it fantasy, fact, or something in between?

“Our Middle East,” hosted by Dan Diker, President of the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs (JCFA), and Khaled Abu Toameh, Senior Fellow at the JCFA and the Gatestone Institute, returns with a hard-hitting episode on the region’s most pressing challenges and missed opportunities.

🔥 Topics covered:
Trump’s Gaza relocation vision: humanitarian solution or strategic misstep?
Why many Gazans want to leave — and what’s stopping them
The failure of international organizations and the Arab League to offer real solutions
The dangers of Hamas remaining in power and why military defeat is critical
The myth of the Palestinian Authority as a viable alternative in Gaza
Egypt’s refusal to take in refugees and the politics of Arab states
Iran’s role as the central destabilizing force in the region
Why quiet diplomacy and cultural nuance matter more than ever

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Current State of the Middle East
01:18 The Gaza Riviera: Vision vs. Reality
03:10 Challenges of Palestinian Relocation
06:00 Perceptions and Misunderstandings of Gaza
08:50 Military Control and Governance in Gaza
12:11 The Need for a New Government in Gaza
15:19 Reoccupying Gaza: Lessons from the Past
17:09 The Hostage Crisis and Its Implications
18:18 Demilitarization and Future Governance of Gaza
19:20 The Role of Hamas in Gaza
20:15 The Palestinian Authority's Challenges
23:00 Rebuilding Gaza: Who Will Take Responsibility?
24:11 The Arab World's Response to Gaza's Crisis
27:07 The Humanitarian Perspective on Palestinian Displacement
30:55 The UN's Role and Responsibility
33:15 A Call for Action in the Middle East


Israel’s left takes to the streets: civil disobedience or national betrayal? | Israel Undiplomatic
Are the anti-Netanyahu demonstrations weakening Israel’s negotiation leverage with Hamas? Are opposition leaders fanning the flames of civil unrest for political gain?

Welcome to Israel Undiplomatic, the sharp, no-nonsense weekly show hosted by Ruthie Blum, JNS Senior Contributing Editor, and Mark Regev, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Each week, Ruthie and Mark cut through the spin and break down the most critical stories shaping Israel, the region, and the world.

In this week’s episode, they tackle the intensifying anti-government protests in Israel amid a multi-front war and explore the broader consequences of internal dissent during wartime.

🗣️ Key topics covered:
The firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and its political fallout
Civil disobedience vs. national unity during wartime
The impact of protests on hostage negotiations and public morale
Iran’s nuclear threat and America's changing approach under Trump-era envoys
Protests in Gaza and Turkey, and their stark contrast with Israeli democracy
Why judicial reform is no longer just a legal debate, but a national security issue
Regional unity against the Iranian regime and its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis)

Chapters
00:00 Protests in Israel: A Democratic Right?
05:52 Political Motivations Behind Protests
09:12 The Role of Hostage Families in Protests
11:53 Judicial Power and Political Strikes
14:51 The Impact of Protests on National Security
18:07 Iran's Influence and Regional Dynamics
33:08 Opportunities for Change in the Middle East


Israel: State of a Nation with Eylon Levy: MUST SEE ENDING - Debate Meltdown | Shattering Truth About the Future of Peace
Is peace still possible after October 7th and who is even left to fight for it? In this explosive episode, Ittay Flescher, a longtime peace activist and educator, sits down for a raw and revealing conversation about the failures of peace movements in Israel and the region, and the deep ideological divide in Israeli-Palestinian relations. But what starts as a respectful debate takes an unexpected turn…

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:
How October 7th shattered long-held beliefs about peace
The failures of peace activism and uncomfortable truths about Hamas’ support
Inside the Israeli government’s messaging strategy—what’s working and what’s failing
How Israel should handle the war of narratives in global media
What Ittay Flescher’s experience inside a peace movement reveals about Palestinian perspectives

Chapter Markers:
0:00 - Introduction and Setting the Stage
2:36 - How October 7th Changed Ittay Personally
7:00 - Debate on Israel’s Response to Hamas
10:55 - Visions for Peace: Confederation vs. Security
19:06 - Clash of Conceptions and Palestinian Intentions
28:24 - Building Partners for Peace and Historical Examples
40:55 - Israel’s Role and Path to Peace
45:48 - Ittay’s Meltdown and Reflections on Peace Partners


Western support crucial for Palestinians rising against Hamas in Gaza: Alex Ryvchin
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin encourages the West to advocate for the Palestinians in Gaza who are rallying against Hamas’ reign.

Extraordinary footage has emerged from Gaza, showing thousands of Palestinians marching through the streets and chanting, calling for an end to the terrorist group’s rule of the region.

“Those that call themselves a pro-Palestinian movement in this country and in Western countries around the world are actually pro-Hamas and viciously anti-Israel,” Mr Ryvchin said.

“If there has been an awakening in Palestinian society that Hamas has brought them nothing but misery … and they finally want to take a different path, they need voices in the West to elevate them, to march in solidarity with them.”


Jonny Gould's Jewish State: 181: Andrew Fox LIVE: It's a terrible dilemma between the security of 9 million Israelis and 25 living hostages.
Phase 2 of the Gaza War is underway, as strikes continue against Hezbollah in the north - even though their command has been decimated "upto 80% of it", according to our guest, Andrew Fox.

In this Voices of Clarity series of live events at Chabad of Hampstead Garden Suburb, Andrew discusses the live issues affecting Israel as the conflict on seven fronts continues since October 7th.

We talk about a newly rebooted Syrian enemy beyond Mount Hermon and Turkey's growing influence and how reliable a friend is President Donald Trump in the White House?

With thanks to Rabbi Bentzi Sudak.


UK announces new laws to stop intimidating protests near synagogues
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced new laws to protect synagogues from increasingly intimidating protests and rising antisemitism.

The new measures, which will be included as an amendment in the government’s Crime and Policing Bill, will give police new powers to enforce conditions on disruptive demonstrations.

The move follows widespread communal anger and complaints about pro-Palestinan demos in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre that have been staged close to shuls in central London.

Cooper’s announcement will be seen as a major victory for communal leaders who have lobbied the government and police chiefs, pointing out the impact of the pro-Palestine demos on shuls and Jewish buildings in the capital, and elsewhere in the UK.

These changes to the law will build on existing laws under the Public Order Act and provide a new threshold for officers to be able to impose conditions – including on the route and timing of a march – where the effect of the protest is to intimidate those attending a place of worship.

This will give the police total clarity on how and when they can protect religious sites from the types of protests designed to disrupt them.

In a further announcement, made in her keynote speech at Wednesday night’s Community Security Trust (CST) dinner, Cooper announced new protections for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre scheduled to be built next to Parliament.


What's It All About, Carlson & Rogan?
If Carlson’s motives remain opaque, we are now at least privvy to the calculation, the Barnum-esque decision, to dress up the podcaster as this “greatest,” this “most important” historical expert in the whole of these United States. This created what I see as the moving target. Step right up and take you turn … and sure enough, a flurry of “outlets” I don’t pay attention to, and a clutch of “court historians” (ditto) stepped right up and took their turn at shooting down some of the clunkier clay pigeons Cooper launched — Churchill, the “chief villain” of World War II (Cooper also called him a “psychopath”), Hitler, the peacemaker (Cooper did not call him a “psychopath”), and the Holocaust, the accident, which Cooper did not name at all. The massive response was more like shooting fish in a barrel. Surely, I thought, something else was going on in or around this apparent provocation.

My own concern at the time, truth be told, was Donald Trump. The interview aired in early September, the traditional kick-off of the final stretch of the presidential campaign. As usual, the Left, reading from the old communist playbook, was desperately, noxiously slandering Trump as the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. What was Tucker thinking — as closely associated with Trump as he is, and with that huge MAGA audience — when he deliberately interjected Hitler into the campaign season? After all, it was Tucker’s Trump-adjacent platform that accounted for most of the angry denunciations, drawing a level of criticism a Trump-neutral venue would not have inspired from the White House, Congress, even Yad Vashem.

As the saying goes, there are no coincidences, comrade — so, really, what was this all about? An air of contrivance still nags at me. I say this, I feel this, at least partly because I have a peculiar non-role in this whole — dare I use the Yiddish word? — geschrie. That’s because I, a journalist, not a historian, wrote a counter-conventional-history of World War II and the Cold War. It’s called American Betrayal, and it is a chronicle of the long-hidden war that no one wants to talk about, whether Conventional Churchillian or Carlsonian Hitlerite. It lays out the massive, secret war of communist subversion waged inside our policy- and war-making councils, which, once perceived, turns the World War II we all know and regularly commemorate into the war that actually made the world safe for communism. It turns the leaders we are taught to honor for "saving Western civilization” from Hitler into patsies of (see FDR), if not parties to (see FDR), Stalin’s long-term strategy to capture and destroy it. By the way, Stalin and FDR are AWOL from these online Cooper interviews.

In any case, having written such a book (which, in podcasting terms, comes to an audiobook of 20 hours and 41 minutes) — I came to know what controversy is. I know what smear campaigns are, too. My book triggered both and more — including what one reviewer called a “disinformation campaign.” In the course of this campaign of villification, there were so many straight-up, demonstrable lies published about the contents of my book that I spent a couple of years in fairly constant turmoil rebutting them. These features are not present in the current controversy.

I mention this background because it is my experience in these matters that tells me there is something ersatz in the “creation” of Darryl Cooper as a free-speech-hero pushing the boundaries of — pushing the boundaries of what? Not the boundaries on what is discussed about World War II exactly, including its origins. I am still thinking again about the absence of the super-villainous roles played by Stalin, also FDR, which failed to make it into these MAGA+ presentations. They complain about taboos and the “reductionist perspective” even as they tee up a “reductionist” storyline of their own which packages WWII as a face-off between Churchill and Hitler — and, pace Darryl Cooper, Hitler, we hardly knew ye.




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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



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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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