Thursday, April 10, 2025

04/10 Links Pt1: Palestinian billionaire resigns from Harvard role after suit alleging he abetted Oct. 7; The insane campaign to decriminalise Hamas; Douglas Murray vs. Dave Smith

From Ian:

JCPA: Why Israel Should Embrace Its Role as a Regional Power
It is time to embrace a bold reality: Israel can, and should, begin to act not merely as a state defending its survival, but as a proactive regional power shaping the future of the Middle East. Israel's recent military performance has underscored its unmatched capabilities in the region. The decimation of Hizbullah's infrastructure, the crippling of Hamas's command structures in Gaza, and the calculated response to Iranian provocations, culminating in significant operational successes, all point to an overwhelming tactical edge.

Iran, long the most aggressive challenger for regional dominance, has found its proxies weakened, its economy strangled, and its influence diminishing amid internal unrest and international scrutiny. The fall of the Assad regime in Syria further dismantles Tehran's axis of influence.

Yet one existential threat remains unaddressed: Iran's nuclear program. Israel must lead a coalition - diplomatic or military - to either dismantle Iran's nuclear capability by agreement, by force, or both.

For Israel to lead regionally, strategic normalization with moderate Sunni states is essential. The Abraham Accords were just the beginning. Deepening relationships with nations like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Morocco, and even re-engaging Jordan and Egypt with renewed respect and incentives is vital.
Seth Mandel: Treat Syria’s Chemical Weapons Like the USSR’s Nukes
The Times notes that the number of such sites has been “a mystery” since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led a rebel coalition that chased Bashar al-Assad out of Syria last year. In truth, it is still a mystery, but the OPCW’s number is certainly possible, and it is always better to err on the side of caution in such situations.

Meanwhile, the echoes of 1991 get louder. “Experts are cautiously optimistic about the government’s sincerity,” reports the Times. “The current government allowed a team from the watchdog to enter the country this year to begin work documenting the sites, according to people with knowledge of the trip.”

Yet the current chaos in Syria makes any such optimism foolish. As Cheney said back in 1991, even if the government was sincere in its efforts and quite competent in carrying out the weapons purge, a threat would almost certainly remain. Plus, the new Syrian government doesn’t quite have full control over all its territory—and there isn’t time to wait for it to consolidate its control.

Another parallel to 1991 is the fact that these loose chemical weapons are relics of a failing empire. Iran had stretched its influence all the way to the Mediterranean, and Assad was a satrap of Tehran. Israel’s military gains against two of Iran’s proxies—Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon—combined with Assad’s overthrow caused the Iranian wave to recede for the time being.

The new Syrian government would like U.S. sanctions on it lifted, and it would also like Israel to give up its extended buffer zone sooner than later. None of that should be considered until there is a plan in place, preferably with U.S. and European involvement, to clean up every one of those chemical weapons sites.
Palestinian-American billionaire resigns from Harvard role after suit alleging he abetted Oct. 7
A Palestinian-American billionaire has resigned from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Dean’s Council after families of Oct. 7 victims filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that he had aided and abetted Hamas, the New York Post reported on Thursday.

Harvard confirmed to the Post that Masri resigned from the council, which according to the school’s website provides “financial support and practical advice” to “advance positive change at the local, state, national and international levels so people can live in societies that are more safe, free, just and sustainably prosperous.”

“The lawsuit raises serious allegations that should be vetted and addressed through the legal process,” a spokesperson for the school said.

More than 200 American family members of Oct. 7 victims filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, alleging that Masri and his companies knowingly worked with Hamas in developing business properties in Gaza that concealed and provided electricity to the terror group’s elaborate, militarized tunnel network.

The plaintiffs include Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, whose son Moshe was killed in action in the Gaza Strip in November 2023, and the family of Omer Neutra, who died in Gaza on the day of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, after being taken hostage by Hamas, which continues to hold his body.

Masri was also reportedly a close advisor to Adam Boehler, a Trump administration special envoy who conducted unprecedented direct negotiations with Hamas in March, and provided Boehler with private jet travel to Qatar for the talks, per Israeli media reports.

The office of the Palestinian-American business mogul denied the allegations against him and his companies in a statement to JNS on Monday and said that he would seek their dismissal in court.

“Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy,” Masri’s office stated.


Trump says Gaza hostage deal is close, Israeli officials note movement
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that the US is "close to getting hostages in Gaza back," while Israeli officials told The Jerusalem Post that there has been "some movement" from Hamas's side concerning the negotiations, and there is a higher chance of reaching a deal before.

In recent days, talks have been held between Israel, Egypt, and the US on bringing the Egyptian proposal closer to the Israeli proposal. These talks were without the involvement of Hamas.

Hamas has not yet seen the proposal, and there is currently no indication whether it will agree to it, an official with knowledge told the Post.

Trump said that his administration was "dealing with Israel and Hamas" and that all parties were working on a deal to bring the hostages in Gaza home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a situation assessment regarding the hostages with the negotiation team and the heads of Israel's security establishment, his office announced shortly after Trump's statement.


Report: US envoy held direct talks with Hamas to try to give Trump win before speech
The first of three early March meetings took place in Doha between Trump’s special hostage envoy Adam Boehler, his adviser and three Hamas political officials — Taher al-Nono, Basem Naim and Osama Hamdan.

The men ate knafeh and drank orange juice under a large poster of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and a photo of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the report said, as Nono argued the terror group was simply trying to achieve freedom — a core American value — for Palestinians.

Two days later, The Times said, Boehler met with senior Hamas politburo official Khalil al-Hayya, who told the American that Alexander’s release would usually cost 500 hostages, but that as a goodwill gesture, Hamas would free him for 250 prisoners in Israeli jails, including 100 who are serving life sentences.

Without consulting Jerusalem, even though the terrorists in question were sentenced and held by Israel, Boehler came back with an offer of 100 prisoners serving life sentences, with the other 150 prisoners to be released in the future.

The direct US-Hamas discussions broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups that the US has designated terrorist organizations. Hamas has been proscribed as such since 1997.

Israel caught wind of the talks on March 4, and Boehler received an angry phone call from Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. Beyond the problematic aspect of breaking with established policy, the notion of hostages with a specific dual nationality receiving preferential treatment would be highly problematic in Israel.

A Western official told The Times of Israel that Dermer “lashed out” at Boehler upon learning of the talks after the fact. (Boehler later insisted in the media that Israel had been informed and that he was able to put Dermer “at ease.”)

The next day, on March 5, “two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions” leaked to Axios that the US was talking to Hamas.

The Ynet outlet reported that US officials believed Israel was behind the leak, in a bid to torpedo the talks.
‘Don’t start a war with Israel’: Top Biden aide’s lesson from Oct. 7 and its aftermath
“Don’t start a war with Israel.”

That is the lesson of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and the Gaza conflict that has ensued, according to former US president Joe Biden’s Mideast czar Brett McGurk.

McGurk gave the succinct response on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi when asked by The Times of Israel what historical lessons might be drawn from the past 18 months in Gaza.

“Don’t start a war with Israel. It won’t work out well for you. That’s the lesson,” the former Middle East and North Africa Coordinator of the White House National Security Council asserted.

“Ask Sinwar, Nasrallah or Khamenei how they’re doing today compared to October 6,” he added, referring to the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah who were killed by Israel last year, along with the supreme leader of Iran, which has sustained significant blows over the 18 months.

McGurk was one of the architects of the ceasefire and hostage release deal that was inked in January between Israel and Hamas. The agreement fell apart after two months, but US President Donald Trump — who helped finalize the accord before entering office — is working to revive it.

While only speaking briefly in between panels at the Middle East-America Dialogue (MEAD) summit, the senior Biden aide’s answer indicated his rejection of efforts to scrutinize Israel’s offensive in Gaza more than the attack that provoked it.
Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 9: Did Biden derail Saudi normalization?
The Abraham Accords have the potential to transform the Middle East. The very fact that they survived the Gaza war proves their resilience. Indeed, trade between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners has risen dramatically and stayed high through the war.

And now the “kit” of dozens of agreements drafted between Israel and the UAE, from the overarching peace agreement to treaties on cellphone network interoperability and double taxation, stands ready to be copied over to a Israeli-Saudi peace.

But will the Saudi normalization go forward? What would it take? Does it depend on what happens in Gaza, and can this Israeli government deliver the conditions in Gaza that would facilitate such a peace?

I posed these questions to Shiri Fein Grossman, the former head of regional affairs at the Israeli National Security Council who was one of the key coordinators and planners of the Abraham Accords. Shiri now serves as CEO of the Israel-Africa Relations Institute.




168 Rabbis call out Andy Kim for failing Jewish community
In a critical first vote, Senator Kim failed our ally…and our community.

New Jersey’s elected officials have always been proud to support and strengthen the US-Israeli relationship. They understand the shared values and mutually beneficial relationship. Our Senators have always stood with our ally to ensure it has the resources it needs to defend itself—until today.

For the last 18 months, our ally Israel was forced to fight a war it did not want and did not start. A genocidal terrorist organization launched this war bent on killing Israelis and destroying the Jewish state. Iran and its terrorist proxies surrounding Israel have attacked Israeli families with onslaughts of mortars, drones, rockets, and missiles—their brutality on October 7th and since make clear that their threats are not merely words.

Israel continues to fight to defend its borders and prevent future attacks on its citizens. It has asked the United States to sell it the American-made weapons it needs to protect its people and defeat the forces of evil. The vast majority of our elected officials know how important these arms are to the threat Iran and her proxies pose.

Some of these weapons sales were initiated by President Biden. Others by President Trump. And the majority of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate approved the sales. They know how important the US-Israel relationship is and that Israel is the front line in confronting Iran’s hegemonic aspirations.

Sadly, a small minority in Congress do not understand the importance of the US-Israel relationship and seem to have accepted Hamas’ lies and propaganda. Now, knowingly or not, they are doing Hamas and Iran’s bidding and want America to abandon our ally and block these weapons sales. Bernie Sanders is the ringleader. Once again, while Hamas still holds hostages, including Americans, and Israel once again faces missile attacks on numerous fronts, he forced a vote on anti-Israel resolutions to prevent the sales from going through. It is shameful but sadly not surprising, given his record.

Despite numerous pledges that he would stand by our ally and by his Jewish constituents, in his first vote on an issue critical to Israel’s security, Senator Andy Kim voted with the anti-Israel fringe, against our ally, and our community.

We are shocked. We are dismayed. And we are angry.

As leaders in New Jersey’s Jewish community spanning religious denominations and political affiliations, we join together in our condemnation of Senator Kim’s irresponsible and misguided vote to undermine Israel’s security.

Each one of us wants to see this painful war come to an end, to see every hostage come home, and to see Hamas’ stranglehold on Gaza removed forever. We are grateful to Senator Cory Booker for once again showing true leadership in voting against Sanders’ anti-Israel resolutions and ensuring these weapons sales were approved.

With this vote to block weapons sales to Israel, Senator Kim ignored his pro-Israel constituents and Israeli leaders across the political spectrum – notably those who are most outspoken against the current government. He did so after meeting with numerous New Jersey Jewish community leaders and pledging his support.


‘Didn’t hear that word,’ Canadian PM says, of agreeing with heckler who accused Israel of ‘genocide’
Mark Carney, who took over from Justin Trudeau as Canadian prime minister last month, claimed that he hadn’t heard a heckler accuse the Jewish state of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip when he agreed with the protester on Wednesday.

During a rally in Calgary on Tuesday, an anti-Israel activist yelled, “Mr. Carney, there’s a genocide in Palestine” at the Liberal leader, who is seeking another term as premier in Canada’s national elections on April 28.

“I’m aware,” Carney told the protester. “That’s why we have an arms embargo.”

Asked the next day to clarify his response, Carney said that he did not hear the word “genocide” and that he was just “stating a fact in terms of the arms restrictions.”

“It’s noisy, you get—if you’re up there, you hear snippets of what people say,” he said. “My point was, I’m aware of the situation in Gaza.”

The Canadian leader’s response was “Kamala Harris all over again,” wrote Elliot Kaufman, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. (The former U.S. vice president and Democratic nominee for president appeared to agree often with hecklers who said the Jewish state was genocidal, and her office often issued subsequent clarifications.)

In September, the Trudeau government revealed it had revoked some 30 arms export permits issued for Israel before January, when Ottawa announced a ban on sales of weapons that could be used in the war against Hamas.

“We will not have any form of arms, or parts of arms, be sent to Gaza,” stated Mélanie Joly, the Canadian minister for foreign affairs and international development.

Last month, Carney charged—without naming the Jewish state—that it was wrong to cut off electricity to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

“It has been more than two days that the supply of electricity to Gaza has been shut off,” he stated. “It must resume. Essentials including food, electricity and medical supplies should never be used as political tools.”


‘I worry about safety of my wife, daughter,’ pro-Israel Canadian politician says
Kevin Vuong, 36, was walking with his wife last summer, who was then pregnant in her last trimester, when they saw posters on the street in Toronto along a route that the pro-Israel Canadian parliamentarian’s wife had taken the prior day, accusing him of supporting genocide.

“We pulled down the posters, and they were so wet from the glue,” Vuong told JNS. “About 20 minutes into doing that, my wife realized that actually there was someone following us in a car, taking pictures of us.”

She photographed the car and its license plate before it sped away. Vuong called the sergeant at arms, who oversees security for parliamentarians, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Toronto Police, which sent a cruiser.

Vuong had thought to note where the posters were and to share that with the police, so officers could seek security camera footage. Police later told Vuong and his wife that the suspect thought the couple was lost.

“Number one, it was daytime. Two, we had our phones. And three, they never said a word to us,” he told JNS. He added that he heard nothing further from the national or city police force.

“I worry about the safety of my wife and my daughter, and all we can do is practice vigilance and be as safe as we can,” he told JNS.

Since taking office, he has received bomb threats, including five before Oct. 7, 2023, and scores of harassing calls tied to his support for Israel or his vocal opposition to foreign interference and the Chinese Communist Party. He also receives hate for being outspoken on organized crime and against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Vuong told JNS.

“They’ve tried to intimidate me at different public events, but that was probably the most violating, and now my wife holds the distinction as one of the few parliamentarian spouses with their very own panic button,” he said.
'Have nothing but praise for India': Ex-Israeli diplomat hails extradition of 26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana
Former Israeli ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, has lauded New Delhi's persistence in pursuing justice in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case, calling the extradition of Tahawwur Rana a powerful message to terrorists worldwide.

"I have nothing but praise for the Indian authorities, the Indian government, for not giving up, for chasing the terrorists, more than 17 years down the line and for bringing them to justice," Sofer said, reacting to news of Rana's imminent arrival in India. "Almost 200 people or so that were massacred by the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT) in 2008, they deserved justice. The families deserve justice."

Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin and known associate of David Coleman Headley, is being extradited from the US after his last legal challenge was rejected by the US Supreme Court. He had been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles.

"It was a trauma for Israel, but above all, it was a trauma for India," Sofer said, recalling the coordinated terror attack that killed 166 people and injured hundreds more. The targets on November 26, 2008, included railway stations, luxury hotels, and the Chabad House, a Jewish outreach centre in Mumbai.

Sofer stressed the long-term impact and symbolism of the move. "It sends a strong message to terrorists anywhere that we will never give up, that India will never give up. You will be held responsible for the attack."

"We worked very closely then with the Indian authorities in trying to save the lives of the hostages. It was a four or five-day horror that we all went through," he said. "Today is in many ways a historic or momentous occasion in the fact that people are being brought to trial and being extradited to India for the crimes that they committed even 17, 18 years ago."


Triggernometry: The Truth about October 7th - Douglas Murray
Douglas Murray is an author and journalist based in Britain. His latest publication "On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West" is now available to order.

00:00 Introduction
01:25 Why Did October 7th Happen?
07:35 Why Is Hamas Willing To Die For Its Ideology?
20:26 The IDF Response To October 7th
27:08 What Should The West Be Learning From This?
38:58 Anti-Semitism In Universities
46:49 Right-Wing Anti-Semitism




Joe Rogan Experience #2303 - Dave Smith & Douglas Murray
Dave Smith is a stand-up comedian, libertarian political commentator, and podcaster. He's the host of the "Part of the Problem" podcast, as well as a co-host of the "Legion of Skanks” podcast.

Douglas Murray is a political commentator, cultural critic, and author of numerous books, the most recent of which is "Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization."




Neutralizing the ICC with a European non-collaboration pledge
The strategic threat coming from the International Criminal Court (ICC) is being underestimated. The focus is naturally on the arrest warrants the ICC has issued against the leaders of the Jewish state and on its setting the groundwork for the mass arrests of Israeli Jews. Yet, even more alarming is some European countries’ immediate commitment to collaborate with the ICC.

This is part of a European challenge to the world order led by the United States.

For 2,000 years, Europe dominated the world. Then, in the 20th century, power shifted abruptly from Europe to the United States. Mainstream Europe has yet to accept this.

Europe today is dependent on America’s military, economic, and political might. Currently, through the ICC, Europe is attempting to create a reciprocal American dependency.

The European commitment to arrest the leaders of Israel, based on ludicrous charges – recycling the age-old “Jews deliberately starve Europeans” slander – is a proxy assault on the US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said so explicitly. “This is a trial run to see: ‘Can we go after a head of state from a nation that’s not a member [of the ICC]?’ If [the ICC] can go after them and [the ICC] can get it done with regard to Israel, they will apply that to the United States at some point,” he cautioned.

An 'Iron Dome' against the ICC assault
US President Donald Trump has a range of options with which to counter the threat coming from The Hague. He can impose tougher sanctions on the ICC; press its member states to follow Hungary’s lead and withdraw; sanction countries that have committed to collaborate with the ICC’s assault on the Jewish state; or take measures to shut down the ICC.

However, those and other alternatives could take time to implement and do not offer adequate protection since lawfare attacks can come not just from the ICC, but also from individual European countries, if, for example, one of their citizens were killed in a strike in Iraq, Yemen, or Gaza.

President Trump could choose to pursue an alternative course of action that would yield immediate results. He could secure an enforceable pledge from European countries never to collaborate with the ICC or with any lawfare efforts targeting the US or the Jewish state. This could be done immediately, at the level of heads of state, with phone calls to French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders. It could be followed up with the placement of long-term enforcement mechanisms. Paradoxically, the European Union (EU) could be beneficial in installing such mechanisms, given its vast experience in enforcing rules and standards on member states.

In addition to threatening to arrest Israeli Jews en masse, the ICC’s actions lead to demoralization and are an attempt to shake Jewish self-confidence, which has been restored after 2,000 years of European oppression.

Moreover, as discussed in my book The Assault on Judaism, the West has prevented the people of Gaza from fleeing a war zone as part of the Western assault on Judaism. After all, how could the ICC accuse the Jewish state of “deliberate starvation of Palestinians,” if those Palestinians had already fled and were enjoying a normal peaceful life elsewhere?
UN high court sets five days of hearings in case on anti-UNRWA Israeli laws
The International Court of Justice, a U.N. agency in The Hague, set five days of public hearings, starting late this month, in the U.N. General Assembly’s case against Israel for banning the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

The General Assembly passed a resolution in December by a 137-12 vote seeking an advisory opinion from the court about Israel’s anti-UNRWA laws, which the Knesset passed in October and which took effect in January. (There were 22 abstentions in the General Assembly vote.)

The court is to assess Israel’s responsibility, as a U.N. member state, to provide and facilitate essential services and humanitarian assistance for the population in what the United Nations calls the “occupied territories,” according to the resolution.

One of the Israeli laws banned UNRWA, whose ties to Gazan terror groups Israel has documented, from operating in the Jewish state, including throughout Jerusalem. The United Nations considers part of the Jewish capital to be Palestinian territory.

The Israeli law mandated that all UNRWA facilities, including administrative offices, schools and health clinics, be shuttered.

Earlier this week, Israeli authorities gave six UNRWA educational institutions in Jerusalem notice that they will be closed in 30 days.

The other Israeli law forbids officials of the Jewish state from communicating with UNRWA officials. The United Nations has said that these developments will make it very hard, if not impossible, for UNRWA to carry out its work in Gaza. UNRWA operates under a mandate from the U.N. General Assembly.

The hearing is slated to run from April 28 to May 2, with 44 states and four international organizations scheduled to present statements. Israel does not plan to participate. The United States does.

Almost all of the first day of hearings is reserved for testimony by the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority.


Seth Frantzman: Houthis claim new attacks on US, Israel amid rising tensions ahead of Iran talks
The Iran-backed Houthis aren’t backing down - at least not yet. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Iranian-backed terror group targeted US warships and Israel on Wednesday, adding that some of the attacks involved drones.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces [Houthis] have carried out new drone operations, targeting a US warship in the Red Sea and an Israeli military site in Tel Aviv,” Iranian state media said. Saree said “an operation was carried out against the Israeli military in the occupied region of Jaffa using a drone, which successfully achieved its objective,” the Iranian report said. He said the strike was “in support of the oppressed Palestinian people and their dear mujahideen [jihadists], and in response to the ongoing war of genocide against our brothers in Gaza.”

The group said it launched drones targeting the American aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman. “Yemen will never surrender to American aggression and will continue its operation against Israel until the regime ends its war and lifts the siege on Gaza, he reiterated,” the report added.

The strikes come as the US continues to bolster its military power in the region. The US has the Truman, in addition to six B-2 bombers stationed at Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean. The US and Iran are set to hold indirect talks in Oman on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Capt. Christopher “Chowdah” Hill, the commander of the Truman, has recently posted several images and videos from his ship. He posted scenes from the bridge, writing, “Behind the scenes look on the bridge of the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea as the team prepares to launch a fighter into the night. It sounds like chaos, but it’s completely professional.”

US Central Command also showed images of warplanes being armed aboard the carrier. The former commander of the Truman was replaced in February, and Hill took command. He was commanding the USS Eisenhower at the time.


IAF chief acts swiftly to dismiss reservists calling for end to war
Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, commander of the Israeli Air Force, announced the dismissal on Wednesday of every active IAF reservist who signed an open letter that called for the public to rise up and demand an immediate cessation to the current war against Hamas.

As it turned out, the IDF said that only 10% of the letter’s 950 signatories are active reservists. The rest are retired.

The IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, supported Bar’s decision. The military said in a statement that it “cannot accept a situation in which active soldiers sign a letter expressing distrust in the IDF.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also backed Bar’s move. In a statement on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office said: “Refusal to serve is refusal to serve—even if it is implied and in polite language. Expressions that weaken the IDF and strengthen our enemies in wartime are unforgiveable.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz also expressed outrage at the letter, saying it was an attempt to undermine Israel’s “just war” to both bring home the hostages and defeat Hamas.

The letter, published in Israeli media outlets on Wednesday, demands the return of the hostages held in Gaza—an estimated 59 remain, of whom 24 are believed to remain alive—”even at the cost of an immediate cessation of hostilities.”

The letter accuses the government of pursuing the war for “mainly political and personal interests.” IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar speaks at a ceremony in honor of the 75th anniversary of the airstrike at the Ad Halom Bridge in Ashdod, May 29, 2023. Credit: Flash90.

It rejects the government’s view that military pressure will help free the hostages, arguing the reverse; that it will only lead to the death of more hostages and soldiers.

“We call on all citizens of Israel to mobilize in action, to demand everywhere and in every way: Stop the fighting and return all the abductees—now,” it said.


IDF says 12 Oct. 7 terrorists killed in recent strikes, including Shejaiya Battalion chief
The IDF said Thursday that it had recently killed 12 terrorists who took part in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, including the current head of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, who led the devastating attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil is the fourth head of the Shejaiya Battalion to be killed since the Hamas onslaught, during which thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, sparking the war.

He was killed Wednesday in an airstrike on Gaza City, in the Strip’s north, the IDF said. Palestinian media reported some 30 people were killed in the strike, which the military said targeted a Hamas command center.

“Several Hamas terrorists operated at the site to plan and carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the IDF said.

According to the IDF, Khalil “commanded the infiltration into Nahal Oz during the murderous massacre of October 7.”

The attack virtually destroyed the kibbutz and saw roughly one in four of its 400-odd members murdered or abducted. Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil, the commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, in this IDF infographic released on April 10, 2025. (IDF)

Despite the dozens said to have been killed in the strike, the IDF said it had taken steps to mitigate harm to civilians, including by the use of “precision munitions,” aerial surveillance and other intelligence.

“The Hamas terror organization systematically violates international law while cruelly exploiting civilian buildings and the civilian population as human shields for its terror activities,” the military said.

During the war, Khalil planned and carried out attacks against Israeli troops in Gaza and worked to plant bombs in combat zones, according to the IDF.

Khalil previously headed a company in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, and was appointed to head the Shejaiya Battalion after his predecessor, Jamil Omar Jamil Wadiya, was killed in March.


Brendan O'Neill: The insane campaign to decriminalise Hamas
Yet this case – of course – is not a plea for free speech. It’s a demand that we buy into Hamas’s vile lie about being a ‘liberation and resistance movement’ that just wants to ‘confront the Zionist project’. It’s a call not for liberty but for submission – the submission of the British government, and by extension British citizens, to Hamas’s frothing hatred for the Jewish nation that it perfidiously disguises as a political challenge to Zionism. This case is of a piece with the punishingly illiberal ideology of ‘Islamophobia’, in that it seeks to ringfence Islamist extremism from our moral judgement. In this case, our moral judgement that Hamas is a terrorist group and that its war on Israel is anti-Semitic barbarism.

Here’s the thing, though: it isn’t only Hamas and its weird lawyers who think the t-word should not be applied to this murderous movement. Polite society is packed with people who refuse to call these terrorists terrorists. Remember when the BBC published that smug, pious explanation for why it doesn’t call Hamas ‘terrorists’? It’s because it’s a ‘loaded word’, it said, and it isn’t our job ‘to tell people who to support and who to condemn’. Who do they think they’re kidding? The Brexit-bashing, Trump-hating BBC has suddenly discovered impartiality? It published that piece just four days after Hamas raped and butchered the Jews of southern Israel. Reith spins in his grave.

On our campuses and streets, too, it is widely argued that Hamas aren’t terrorists. Many in the lost left, the left that’s in a suicide pact with Islamism, agree with Hamas that it’s a ‘liberation movement’. Queers for Palestine would probably still holler ‘They’re not terrorists!’ even as they fell to their deaths from a tall building in Gaza. ‘Glory to our martyrs’, said students at George Washington University in the US after those ‘martyrs’ murdered more Jews in one day than anyone else since the Nazis. Hamas’s violence is ‘resistance’ and its mass murder of Jews was a ‘day of celebration’, say the Fisher-Price revolutionaries of the privileged West.

This is the most galling thing about Hamas’s legal request to be un-proscribed: swathes of the well-educated will be nodding in vociferous agreement. That unholy alliance of the West’s upper-class Israelophobes and its radicalised young Islamists will concur entirely with Hamas’s self-flattering calumny that its slaughter of Jews is ‘resistance’. Hamas’s plea to be re-designated as a political organisation speaks to its slipperiness and wickedness. The fact that its plea will find such favour among the privileged youths who will one day run Britain and America speaks to something worse: our own societies’ ferocious turn against the virtues of civilisation, which means even the barbarism of Hamas now captures some in its spell.

Of course the UK government should wholly reject Hamas’s lunatic plea. There must also be a very serious discussion about the European Convention on Human Rights. That that document can be wielded by Hamas as part of its sick campaign to make Jew-murder look respectable suggests it really is past its sell-by date. ‘Human rights’ law is now exploited by rapists who don’t want to be deported from Britain and by a terrorist organisation that wants to fool the world into thinking its barbarism is liberation. Rip it up.

But the rest of us have a tougher task: to restore reason to society. To confront the sympathy for barbarism that surrounds us. To say out loud that Hamas are terrorists, scum, Jew exterminators. To say Western civilisation is superior to Islamism, and to ignore the inevitable wails of ‘Islamophobe!’ that will follow.
Britain must not fall for this grotesque legal attempt to rehabilitate Hamas and whitewash its crimes
Specifically, the case argues that the proscription of Hamas deprives British citizens of their rights to freedom of expression and protest.

But haven’t we been told for a year and a half that all the protesters on our streets and the activists who have spent months intimidating Jews on campuses, in cultural institutions and elsewhere are not terrorist sympathisers? So whose rights are being curtailed, exactly?

Are there people in Britain who are desperate to be able to reveal that they support Hamas and its aspiration to annihilate the Jewish people?

This case appears to rest on the claim that there are.

Whatever the lawyers may say, this claim demonstrates that Hamas is struggling by any means necessary to stay afloat as pressure is brought to bear on the murderous Islamist group.

If Hamas is no longer proscribed, it can be funded from the UK.

That is likely what the organisation is really after.

Clearly, the Home Secretary must deny this application, which is what she implied on LBC this morning that she intends to do, and if this desperate claim somehow makes it to the courts, it must be refused there as well.

It is notable that this case happened to be submitted on the same day that our lawyers wrote to the Crown Prosecution Service about another matter: a Hamas-affiliated migrant who arrived in the UK by dinghy.

After we revealed his past activities and rhetoric, he was arrested on immigration charges, but we are now calling for a prosecution on terror charges as well.

Hamas isn’t confined to Gaza, and if we don’t take a stand against it now – on all fronts – it will be even more active right here at home as well.


Hamas Launches Effort to Reverse UK Terror Designation: Everything You Need to Know
The petition to overturn the UK government’s Hamas designation is reflective of what is widely considered to be a growing Hamas advocacy network within the European continent, with Britain as one of its strongholds.

In fact, according to an in-depth report published by the European Leadership Network (ELNET), Hamas uses civilian front groups across Europe to further its agenda. These include charities, NGOs, and lobbying organizations, many of which operate behind humanitarian façades.

A central figure in the UK arm of this network is Zaher Birawi, described by ELNET as “one of the most prominent Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated operatives in the UK.” In October 2023, UK Labour MP Christian Wakeford named Zaher Birawi as a key Hamas operative residing in London. Previously, the Israeli Ministry of Defense designated him as a main Hamas operative in Europe.

According to ELNET’s UK report, Britain has served as a strategic base for Hamas-linked operations since the 1990s. Groups like the Palestinian Return Centre, Interpal, Education Aid for Palestinians, and the Palestinian Forum in Britain are part of a network that uses charities, media outlets, and lobbying campaigns to subtly advance Hamas’s agenda.

According to a December 2024 article in The Telegraph, Majed al-Zeer is listed on Companies House as the sole director of the Palestinian Return Centre. In October 2024, al-Zeer was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, which described him as “one of the senior Hamas members in Europe” who has “played a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising.”

The UK’s Response
One day after the petition was filed, British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stated:
“Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It was a barbaric terrorist attack on October the seventh in Israel, and Hamas has long been a terrorist organisation and banned in the UK….We maintain our view about the barbaric nature of this organisation.”

This moment serves as a critical test of whether democratic institutions can uphold their values without becoming tools for groups like Hamas—an organization widely recognized as a terrorist group—to exploit in service of their broader agendas.
UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff discusses the application to de-proscribe Hamas on GB News
Patrick Christys interviews Natasha Hausdorff, international lawyer and UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director, on GB News about the application to remove Hamas from the list of terrorist organisations proscribed by UK counter-terrorism legislation.




London Green Party councillor shared posts calling Zionism ‘pure evil’ and comparing it to Nazism
A Green Party councillor in the London Borough of Lewisham compared Zionism with Nazism and shared a post on social media saying the ideology was “pure evil” and should be “abolished”.

Hau-Yu Tam, a councillor in Evelyn ward in the south London borough was elected as a Labour councillor but later joined the Green Party, shared the content on her X account.

On March 18, Tam, who serves on the council’s Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education, retweeted a post that said: “Zionism is pure evil and must be abolished”.

A few days later, on March 24, she shared another post saying Zionism was “undoubtedly, unquestionably the Nazism of our time.”

And yesterday, following London-based firm Riverway Law’s revelation that they were representing Hamas in its attempt to remove its designation as a terrorist organisation in the UK, Tam heaped praise on one of the barristers involved.

“Extremely proud of my brilliant comrade and lawyer Franck Magennis for being among those blazing the way on this intervention”, she said in a social media post.

Magennis previously used a photo of Hamas gunmen storming into southern Israel on October 7 as his X banner and on the day of the atrocities called for “Victory to the intifada”.

Tam’s social media feed is full of posts in support for the Palestinians. In her X profile, her name features alongside emojis of the Palestinian, Sudanese and transgender rights flags.

Her profile’s banner image is a picture of an anti-Israel demonstration in Lewisham, with protesters holding up placards calling for divestment from Israel and demanding the government “stop arming Israel”.

As part of her online advocacy of the Palestinian cause, Tam expressed support for Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who has previously been accused of making antisemitic comments.

In November last year, she said her X account had become a “stan account” – an online term meaning enthusiastic fan – dedicated to the UN official. She would later share an image posted by Albanese suggesting parallels between the process that led to the Holocaust and the current conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.


Greenpeace boss arrested after group dumps blood-red dye into US Embassy pond to protest war in Gaza
The head of Britain’s Greenpeace branch was arrested alongside five other activists after they poured 80 gallons of blood-red dye into a pond at the US Embassy while protesting the war in Gaza Thursday.

Will McCallum, the environmental campaign group’s UK chief, arrived at the embassy with his group disguised as delivery riders on bikes, Greenpeace said.

The protesters could be seen hauling a red container with the label, “Stop Arming Israel,” which they dumped into the pond outside the embassy.

Areeba Hamid, co-executive director at Greenpeace, defended the vandalism as a clear message calling on the US to stop providing weapons for Israel to use in Gaza.

“We took this action because US weapons continue to fuel an indiscriminate war that’s seen bombs dropped on schools and hospitals, entire neighborhoods blasted to rubble, and tens of thousands of Palestinian lives obliterated,” she said in a statement.

“As the biggest supplier of weapons to the Israeli military, the US government bears a heavy responsibility for the horrors unfolding in Gaza,” Hamid added.


Gutless cops CHOKEHOLD Jewish grandma as violent anti-Israel mob run wild
Over the weekend, a small group of brave Australian Jews staged a peaceful counter-protest in Melbourne’s CBD against the massive, often aggressive anti-Israel rallies that have dominated the city for the past 18 months. The police response? Target the vulnerable.

After shocking footage went viral showing a 75-year-old Jewish woman being tackled to the ground by Victoria Police, I did what no mainstream outlet bothered to do — I found her and heard her story firsthand.

Elza, the woman in that footage, told me, “He just pushed me. Move. Anyway, so I had an umbrella because I had my Australian flag on it and I just put it in front of me. Then the next thing I know there is about four or five of them jumping on me, ripping the umbrella out of me, holding my neck and putting me aside.”

Her crime? Apparently “obstructing peace” and “attacking police officers” — a laughable accusation for an elderly woman who simply stood her ground. “I mean what? I’m a reasonable person. What kind of chances would I have with this big guy?” she said.

Elza, who came to Australia from communist Poland 55 years ago, is deeply proud of the country that gave her a better life. “I started with nothing and Australia gave me all the opportunity and I took all the opportunity… Why disrupt the best country in the world, for God's sake?”

Shortly after Elza’s arrest, other organisers from the Lions of Zion group were also detained, including Yaacov Travitz. He told me, “Basically we have to evacuate anytime the mob comes because the police can't control them. This is Australia.”

What’s truly disgraceful is the Victorian police treating peaceful Jews like threats while letting mobs of pro-terror agitators run wild. “They think we are weak,” Elza said. “We don’t have the numbers, and the others do, so they are scared…”






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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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