Thursday, August 07, 2025

08/07 Links Pt1: Israel to take control of Gaza, then hand it to Arab forces; Feeding the Enemy; The Macron-Starmer delusional disorder; Boris: Taiwan has better claim to statehood than Palestine

From Ian:

Feeding the Enemy
Israel is not starving Gaza. Any claim to the contrary is mendacious propaganda. That said, Israel did create the situation that gave rise to the current avoidable crisis, which it has badly mishandled, to boot. It is not too late, however, to course-correct and resume focus on the mission of defeating Hamas.

Here are the facts: Enough food enters Gaza. Pockets with shortage are the result of two things: the United Nations not relinquishing control to the American Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and Hamas’ war strategy of increasing its own population’s suffering to put international pressure on Israel—confident in the press’ willful cooperation.

Israel’s original plan at the end of the long second cease-fire in March would have denied Hamas the ability to execute this strategy. The plan was to break Hamas’ control over Gaza’s population by breaking its control of the aid entering the strip. The IDF was to divide Gaza into discrete areas, isolating each one while providing it with a humanitarian corridor to enable civilians to leave combat zones and move south to temporary accommodation in safe sanctuaries, which is what the IDF had already done before the second cease-fire (during which many evacuated Gazans returned). Meanwhile, the American GHF was to distribute food in these sanctuaries. It would do so in family packages, rather than through wholesale supply, which invites middlemen. More than 100 million such meals were distributed by GHF in the past two months.

After the evacuations, any remaining person in the combat zones would be considered a combatant. A siege would be applied until all combatants surrendered and gave up the hostages they held. It’s important to note that a siege is a legal means of war sanctioned by international law and authorized by the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual (2015), even when applied to a civilian population in certain cases. However, the IDF plan was to implement it only after civilians were safely evacuated.

Implementing the original plan will surely result in opprobrium from a hypocritical international community, but at least it will succeed and end the war.

But Israel did not execute this plan. Instead, it concentrated on the effort to reach a hostage deal while attempting to prove its morality to the world. Subjecting itself to standards far stricter than international law requires, the IDF opted for half measures and did not move the population to designated safe zones to supply them with food. Instead, fearing a humanitarian crisis, the IDF began sending aid to pockets where Hamas has been using the population and the hostages as human shields to create safe havens for itself. In so doing, Israel became the first country in the history of warfare to assume responsibility for feeding the enemy population. It thus relieved Hamas of responsibility instead of insisting that the group surrender and release the hostages. So far from scoring points for morality, Israel dug itself into a hole, and still it was blamed for the crisis that Hamas and the United Nations have manufactured.
Seth Mandel: Hamas Is a Terrible Employer
Amid all the talk of Hamas stealing food aid, it’s worth also noting that Hamas takes a variety of other regular actions that exacerbate poverty and food insecurity in the enclave. Hamas is the government of Gaza, and it is an extractive entity: It takes what Gaza makes (or gets).

The BBC, to its credit, today covers the issue of Hamas’s weakness. Its reporting expands on what we know to include the wider context of what Hamas is still able to do and how it is able to do it.

For example, the BBC spoke to a few Hamasniks who received payments of $300 in the past week. That puts them “among tens of thousands of employees who have continued to receive a maximum of just over 20% of their pre-war salary every 10 weeks.”

Not only are they on minimal salaries, but their money has been devalued by inflation, which Hamas itself is responsible for. Food costs more because Hamas is hoarding it and reselling it at high prices while simultaneously cutting its ranks’ pay.

There’s another hidden tax, too. The Wall Street Journal reported in April on the sorry physical condition of cash in Gaza. In response, money-patchers have cropped up, repairing bills for a fee. But according to the BBC’s latest reporting, it’s too late to save a lot of that cash.

“I received 1,000 shekels (about $300) in worn-out banknotes — no trader would accept them,” one employee told the outlet. “Only 200 shekels were usable — the rest, I honestly don’t know what to do with.”

So in reality, instead of getting paid one-fifth of their salary, the fighters are receiving (at least in instances such as the above) one-fifth of one-fifth of their salaries.

How do they even get paid? That has become a complicated task thanks to the IDF’s targeting of key nodes in Hamas’s financial team. To even get the (mostly ragged) bills, Hamas employees have to channel their inner secret agent. First they receive an encrypted message to meet someone for tea at a specific time and place. Once there, they will be approached by someone with an envelope. The handoff is made in silence and the two go their separate ways.

Says one Hamas bureaucrat: “Every time I go to pick up my salary, I say goodbye to my wife and children. I know that I may not return.”
Federal Investigators Compile Evidence of Systematic Hamas Aid Theft, Undercutting Leaked USAID 'Report'
The chief oversight body responsible for tracking American foreign assistance is compiling evidence that Hamas systematically steals U.N. aid in Gaza, including by placing terrorist operatives into U.N. facilities, and conducting active investigations into the issue, undercutting a recently leaked U.S. Agency for International Development "report" that found no evidence of such theft.

The investigations center on occasions in which Hamas "commandeered U.N. aid trucks," embedded terrorist operatives in "U.N. agencies or at U.N. facilities," and ensured humanitarian goods were "directly delivered to Hamas officials," senior U.S. officials and congressional staffers briefed on the issue told the Washington Free Beacon. The USAID inspector general's office has obtained evidence of those practices and is investigating "credible allegations of Hamas interference, diversion, and theft of humanitarian aid in Gaza," according to a memo on the inspector general's "Gaza-related oversight work" that was transmitted to Congress and obtained by the Free Beacon.

Though the Trump administration dissolved USAID itself earlier this year, USAID's inspector general's office is an independent entity that Congress established in 1980 to provide oversight of U.S. foreign aid programs. That office remains in place as its investigators probe "diversion, fraud, product substitution, smuggling, and other misconduct compromising lifesaving humanitarian assistance intended for civilians in Gaza," the memo states.

Those probes—and the evidence of widespread Hamas aid theft informing them—stand in stark contrast to an internal USAID "report" that was leaked to Reuters in late July. It found "no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies," the outlet reported.

That report was not conducted by USAID's inspector general but rather by career USAID staffers, who "completed" it in late June, days before the Trump administration formally shut down the agency. The staffers based their report on official information from U.N. agencies, senior U.S. officials familiar with it told the Free Beacon. The inspector general probes, by contrast, are based on information from a variety of sources that include "aid workers and other whistleblowers on the ground who may not feel comfortable reporting through their employers' reporting chain due to fear of retaliation," according to a source familiar with the office's operations.

One former investigator in the inspector general's office said he "directly observed" how Hamas manipulates aid channels in Gaza, including "multiple cases where aid was clearly not reaching its intended targets, and in many cases, being diverted to hostile actors."

The inspector general has opened at least four active audits into USAID's mismanagement in Gaza.


Netanyahu: Israel to take full control of Gaza, then hand it to Arab forces
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will seize temporary control of Gaza before handing it to “Arab forces”, in remarks that prompted a rare public split with the military.

“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter, and we don’t want to govern it. We want to give it to Arab forces,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday.

His comments come as the UN Security Council prepares to meet to discuss Israel’s potential plan to occupy the Strip, nearly ten months into the war against Hamas.

Shortly before the session, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir signalled that the army does not back a full occupation of Gaza and would raise its concerns in the meeting.

“We are dealing with matters of life and death, in the defence of the country, and we do so while looking toward our soldiers and the civilians of Israel,” said Zamir. “We will continue to act with responsibility, integrity, and determination – with only the security and well-being of Israel in mind.”

Netanyahu did not clarify which Arab nations might take over control of Gaza, nor the terms of such a transfer. The prime minister made the remarks while attending a Christian conference in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu announces Israel will take control of Gaza

Seth Mandel: Rising Sa’ar
Gideon Sa’ar has thus far been a nimble and effective foreign minister at a challenging time for Israel. He knows when to be diplomatic, as when he rightly defended the visiting German foreign minister from Itamar Ben-Gvir’s insults: “Germany is a friendly country, and Foreign Minister Wadephul is a friend of Israel. This does not change even when there are disagreements between us.”

But he also knows when to go on the offensive. Not every fight is worth picking, but there are moments when Israel’s critics unquestionably err in significant ways, and Sa’ar must put them on the defensive.

One such moment was the thoughtless rush toward recognizing a Palestinian state precisely when it would do the most harm to all parties. French President Emmanuel Macron did the most damage, but the UK’s Keir Starmer and Canada’s Mark Carney gave the issue a momentum that distracted everyone involved from the war and the hostages.

Israel had bent over backwards to produce a cease-fire agreement, and the pressure was on Hamas. Then the three stooges jumped into the fray to recognize a “state of Palestine” and signal to Hamas that these three countries had the terror group’s back. Hamas then blew up the talks, since the West made clear it would gain the benefit of a cease-fire without having to make any concessions to Israel—most significantly, it wouldn’t have to free any hostages.

The lives this blockheaded intervention cost, and the damage it did to attempts to free Gazans from Hamas, make this blunder an unforgettable one. And I mean that literally: France, the UK, and Canada should not be allowed to forget it, not in the near future, anyway. On Tuesday, Sa’ar was at the UN with a reminder:

“There are countries that acted, also in this building, to pressure Israel, instead of Hamas, during sensitive days in the negotiations by attacking Israel, campaigning against Israel, and the announcement of a recognition of a virtual Palestinian state. They gave Hamas free gifts and incentives to continue this war. They directly assassinated the hostage deal and cease-fire. Let me be clear: These countries prolonged the war.”

The result was that Hamas officials used the recognition promises and the West’s turn against Israel to argue for the wisdom and justification, from the Palestinian perspective, of the Oct. 7 attacks. There is nothing that could possibly be worse for the cause of peace than lending any credence to the idea that Oct. 7 should be repeated. And yet, that’s exactly what France, the UK, and Canada have done.


Huckabee announces plan to expand aid distribution operations in Gaza
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee announced a plan to expand aid distribution operations in the Gaza Strip early on Thursday morning.

The US plans to finance the new aid distribution centers, which will expand from the current four to a total of 16 new points where Gazans will be able to pick up aid.

The news comes as Israel announced plans to ramp up aid distribution in the Strip by either funding the Gaza Humanitarian Fundation (GHF) or allowing foreign countries to send supplies.

“The administration intends to significantly ramp up the amount of humanitarian aid being distributed,” a source familiar with the talks told the Post on Wednesday.
Mike Huckabee: These are the ‘TORMENTERS’ Gazans hate

Rubio: Freeing hostages, disbanding Hamas must remain a focus
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized on Wednesday the importance of freeing the hostages being held by Hamas, dismantling the terrorist group and addressing critical humanitarian needs in Gaza, while calling for greater focus on the first two issues.

“There’s a lot of attention being paid to the humanitarian, and we want to do everything we can to be helpful on the humanitarian problem, but not enough attention being paid to the fact that 20 people that had nothing to do with this are being held hostage in tunnels on the verge of death, and no real talk about how Hamas needs to be disarmed and disbanded,” the top American diplomat remarked during an appearance on Fox Business‘s “Kudlow,” where he discussed U.S. and Israeli policies regarding the ongoing conflict and the future of Gaza.

“We have to focus more on those two things. You have to do all three, and all the talk is about humanitarian—which is important; we are willing to do a lot to be helpful there—but we have to focus on the other two. Those other two cannot be forgotten,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he wants all of the hostages returned from Gaza, including the deceased, “not five, not seven, all of them,” Rubio emphasized.

He insisted that any long-term solution must include ending the terrorist group’s rule in Gaza, saying that “ultimately Hamas cannot continue to exist. Even the Arab League says it. As long as Hamas exists as an armed group in Gaza, there will not be a peace, there will not be a peaceful future because it’s going to happen again and this can never happen again.”


Death penalty on table for man accused of killing Israeli embassy staffers in DC, Trump admin says
The Trump administration said on Thursday that Elias Rodriguez would be eligible for the death penalty if found guilty of shooting and killing two Israeli embassy staffers, as they left the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on May 21.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, on Wednesday, accusing him of murdering a foreign official, hate crimes, gun offenses, first-degree murder and assault with intent to kill, the U.S. Department of Justice stated.

“Rodriguez previously was charged by complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with the murder of a foreign official, causing death through the use of a firearm and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence,” the department said. “In addition, he had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder under the D.C. criminal code.”

The indictment “adds two federal counts of hate crime resulting in death and two local counts of assault with intent to kill while armed,” the Justice Department said. “Multiple charges in the indictment carry a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment.”

It added that Pamela Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, will decide “at a later date” whether to seek the death penalty.


Yisrael Medad: The Macron-Starmer delusional disorder
My last immediate reaction was to mull over the real reason for Macron’s announcement. Could it be memories of the early eighth-century C.E. conquest and occupation of France during the Muslim Umayyad caliphate? That period was a great era for Muslim colonization and empire-building.

Could Macron be seeking to stave off another, modern-style occupation of France by Muslims? Is he placating the pro-Palestine movement in his country, which, in turn, is creating a feeding frenzy of violent, murderous Jew-hatred against French Jews?

Another matter of concern is exactly what lies behind France’s historic commitment to peace in the Middle East. How historic is that history?

During the First Crusade, Raymond IV, Count de Saint-Gilles from Toulouse, France, on his way to conquer Jerusalem in 1101, set up a fort near Shiloh known since then as Sinjil, a mispronunciation of his name. The town was established in 1105. Its residents are descended from the Murra Tribe, which emigrated from the Arabian Peninsula. While not biblical, that still may be too ancient for our current woke generation.

A good place to start would be in 1847, when the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem re-established French Catholic charity institutions, which became tools for colonization, and cultural and economic domination, as well as missions of conversion. It was in 1882 that French pilgrims set off for Jerusalem on a first “penitential pilgrimage” that proved a future success.

All that was developing due to this foreign interventionist campaign came to a halt in December 1918, when Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France and Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Great Britain reached an agreement whereby France yielded its claim to Palestine. It is thought that Clemenceau was fixated on La Syrie Intégrale (a “Greater Syria”), which would include part of Palestine to the south and Cilicia to the north.

Is Macron trying to reinvent a “presence,” as it were, in “Palestine”—this time an Arab one, rather than a Jewish national homeland?

When Macron received interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on May 7, he announced this was in line with “France’s longstanding (sic!) commitment to supporting the Syrian people in their aspiration for peace and democracy.”

Or is Macron trying to keep “Palestine” out of France? Or rather, any “Palestinian refugees”?

On July 11 this year, France’s National Court of Asylum ruled that Palestinian nationals from Gaza who are not under the U.N. protection may be granted refugee status. The ruling is a precedent, as previously, only Palestinians covered by the mandate of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) could be considered for refugee status in France under specific conditions.

Macron is not only playing with history, diplomacy and humanitarian ideals; he is playing with fire. Recognition of an Arab Palestine before peace and security for Israel is in place is not commensurate with the vision he puts forward. The “Free Palestine” campaign is genocidal in its intended results to Israel, and those promoting a two-state solution have blinded themselves, purposefully or foolishly, to its consequences.

Worse, that act surely will cause more pain, suffering and death than the media has been highlighting—quite disingenuously at that.


The return of Sykes-Picot: Misunderstandings of historical Palestine plans
Landler enlisted Eugene L. Rogan, a professor of modern Middle East history who lectures at Oxford University. The podcaster had him say that now recognizing “a Palestinian state does Israel a favor by opening the way” to “a form of cohabitation that is sustainable.” He thus ignores the history of the Arabs of Palestine refusing to accept any Jewish statehood, as well as their official propaganda line that Zionism is colonialist and therefore illegal.

For example, even Article 8 of the modified second 1968 PLO Charter promotes the twinning of “the forces of Zionism and of imperialism.” Furthermore, Article 15 terms “the liberation of Palestine” as “repel[ling] the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine.” Article 22 defines Zionism as “associated with international imperialism and antagonistic… to progressive movements in the world. It is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial in its aims, and fascist in its methods.” Zionism, as per Article 23, is “an illegitimate movement.” If history is relevant, why is all this ignored?

Rogan, quoting the Balfour Declaration’s proviso that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,” posits that Britain’s willingness to recognize a state of Palestine is “that it’s time to make good on the second half of that promise.” But the term “Arabs” is absent from that document’s promise, and for good reason.

After all, a la Rogan, the British government is “using history as a legitimating factor.” If only we Jews also had the right to use history to legitimize our claims. Interestingly, Palestine, as a defined geopolitical unit, does not appear on the map nor even in the text of Sykes-Picot.

The region then known as Palestine was smaller than the later Mandatory Palestine area as defined by the League of Nations. Moreover, it was to fall under an “international administration” according to the agreement.

In any case, by 1917, the Sykes-Picot Agreement was dissolving into a dead letter. It was superseded by the Balfour Declaration, the 1920 San Remo Peace Conference decisions, and the 1922 League of Nations Palestine Mandate decision, granting the Jewish homeland international legal recognition.

If artificial borders are a cause for concern, the creation of what would become the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a classic example of the colonialist mindset that, with no historical justification, exists today as a vestige of Sykes-Picot. The colonialism of that period is not quite over on the “East Bank” of the Jordan River – nor, it seems, on the pages of The New York Times.
OUTRAGE as more countries recognize 'Palestine'...What does it mean? (w/Elliott Abrams)
Host Aylana Meisel, Executive Director at the Israel Law and Liberty Forum, explores the critical legal and diplomatic implications of the growing international push for Palestinian statehood. As countries like Canada, the UK and France consider recognizing a Palestinian state, Israel is locked in its ongoing battle with Hamas and contemplating a major military strategy to end the conflict by fully conquering Gaza. What does this shift mean for international law, diplomacy and Israel’s future?

Joining Aylana to explore these seismic developments is Elliott Abrams, Chairman of the Tikva Fund and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, one of America’s foremost voices on Middle Eastern diplomacy. Together, they examine the legal standards of statehood, the potential consequences of these recognitions and how these moves affect Israel's standing on the world stage.

They discuss the symbolic and political impact of recognizing Palestine, the shifting dynamics within the UN and the potential legal challenges Israel faces as the momentum for Palestinian statehood continues to grow. What does it mean for Israel when countries begin to recognize Palestine? How does it challenge long-standing peace processes, and where does Israel go from here?

Chapters
00:00 Shifting Dynamics in Middle Eastern Diplomacy
03:02 Legal Standards and Symbolism of Palestinian Statehood
06:02 Implications of Recognition on Israel's Future
08:41 The Role of International Relations and Trade
11:37 The American Veto and Its Future
14:56 Israel's Assertiveness and Territorial Claims
17:39 The Question of Palestinian Statehood
20:34 Alternatives to the Two-State Solution
23:25 The Political Landscape of Palestinian Statehood
26:30 The Future of Palestinian Governance
29:05 U.S. Policy and Its Impact on Israel
32:31 The Intersection of Law and Politics
35:05 Concluding Thoughts on International Relations


Boris Johnson: Taiwan has better claim to statehood than Palestine
Taiwan has a “far more robust” claim to statehood than Palestine, Boris Johnson has said.

While an “analogy” can be drawn between the two places, the former prime minister added, Taiwan’s claims for recognition are stronger.

Mr Johnson told an audience in Taipei: “[The Taiwanese] actually have a recognised government. They actually have boundaries that they control.

“They actually have a proper democratic system, none of which you could say, with all due respect, about Palestine.”

Taiwan’s claims are “far more robust” he said at the Ketagalan Forum, a security conference in Taipei.

While Taiwan and Palestine are both seeking international recognition, they differ in many ways given their distinct histories and political systems.

Taiwan is an island nation located off the south-east coast of China, with a population of approximately 23 million people.

It is recognised as a distinct country with its own democratic government, visa rules, airline and army. It is also largely integrated into the global economic system.

The island is under threat from China, which claims the territory as its own. Wu Qian, China’s defence ministry spokesman, said earlier this year: “We will come and get you, sooner or later.”
Sweden Walks Back Israel Stance, Admits Hamas at Fault for War
Amid a flood of internal criticism, the centre-right government in Sweden appears to be backtracking on its “one-sided” stance towards Israel, potentially including its calls to cut off EU trade.

Last week, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced that Stockholm wanted a suspension of the trade agreement between the European Union and Israel over supposed failures in “fulfilling its most basic obligations” around humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Members of all three governing coalition parties were quick to criticise the stance, which many argued failed to recognise that Hamas was to blame for the start of the war with the October 7th terror attacks and therefore bears the primary responsibility for the suffering of the inhabitants of Gaza.

Coalition partner and leader of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats (SD), Jimmie Åkesson, wrote in the Expressen newspaper that pushing to freeze trade with Israel “is not only economically and diplomatically harmful – it is morally wrong and politically short-sighted.”

Åkesson went on to say that if his party had known that the government would have been “so erratic and weak in Middle Eastern politics,” it would have pushed for foreign policy guarantees in the coalition agreement that saw his party join the government in 2022.

Israel’s ambassador to Stockholm, Ziv Nevo Kulman, thanked Åkesson for his “important contribution that clarifies the reality – that so many others quietly support.” This marked a notable shift from Jerusalem towards the SD, which had previously refused to have any contact with the populist party for being too “far-right”.


IDF shoots down rocket fired from northern Gaza
Air-raid sirens sounded in the southern Israel kibbutz of Nir Am on Thursday evening as Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket toward the Jewish state, the Israel Defense Forces said.

“Following the alerts that were activated a short time ago at the Nir Am firing range, one [rocket] launch that crossed from the northern Gaza Strip was intercepted,” the military said in a Hebrew-language statement on X.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Nir Am is an agricultural community of some 700 residents, located around 1.25 miles from the northern Gaza Strip. During Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, two IDF soldiers died defending the kibbutz, and two hatchery workers were kidnapped and taken to the Strip.

On Saturday, the IDF said it “most likely” intercepted a rocket that had triggered alerts in Kibbutz Nirim and Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha near the border. There were no reports of injuries or damage in the aerial assault.
IDF demolishes Hebron home of Jaffa shooting plotter
Israeli forces demolished the Hebron home of Abd al-Rahim Himouni overnight Wednesday.

Himouni assisted in the Oct. 1, 2024, terrorist attack at the Tel Aviv Light Rail’s Erlich Station on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, in which four Israeli and three foreign civilians—one each from Georgia, Greece and Moldova—were killed and 14 civilians and an IDF soldier were wounded.

Judea Brigade forces and combat engineers from the elite Yahalom Unit participated in the Hebron operation.

Himouni belonged to a Hamas cell that orchestrated the deadly shooting. According to an indictment filed last year, Himouni and another accomplice were not present during the attack itself because they lacked firearms, while two other members of the cell carried out the assault.

The IDF in March destroyed the Hebron homes of the two terrorists who perpetrated the shooting in Jaffa—Ahmed Himoni and Muhammad Masak.

Murdered in the attack were Revital Bronstein, Shachar Goldman, Victor Samson Green, Jonas Krosis, Ilya Nozadze, Inbar Segev-Weigder and Nadia Sokolenco.


We’ve seen Hamas loot, fire at civilians seeking aid, IDF commander in Gaza says
Hamas has been looting humanitarian aid and opening fire on civilians trying to access it, Maj. A., commander of the support company in the Shimshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, told Walla on Thursday as he concluded his post.

He said his soldiers have treated civilians wounded by Hamas gunfire and accused the terror group of hijacking aid intended for Gaza’s population.

“We’ve seen Hamas loot and fire at civilians who tried to approach,” he said. “We see and hear that Hamas is taking control of the aid that is supposed to reach the civilians. We’ve treated civilians who were wounded by Hamas gunfire.”

Maj. A. has spent the past year operating in the al-Far’a and Tubas refugee camps in the northern West Bank, as well as in Beit Hanun for three months, just before the January hostage deal.

“In my view, the fighting is more calculated than what we saw in the North; we are destroying combat infrastructure,” he said.

“There are still terrorists in the area, and in most cases, we have the upper hand. We continue with missions aimed at securing our forces and achieving our military objectives,” he said.

'Enemy hides among civilians'
He added that “the enemy hides among civilians, and we identify them. We are still on missions to secure our forces, and there are still terrorists in the southern part of the Strip. Like anything done over a long period, there’s sometimes a drop in tension, but my job as a commander is to make sure that tension doesn’t drop so we can complete the mission.”

Maj. A. concluded by praising his troops.
Andrew Fox on the background to the Gaza humanitarian crisis: No. It is not simple. Part I.
In the first of this two-part podcast focuses on the many twists and turns that have landed Israel in its current very difficult spot in the Gaza Strip. A veteran of multiple deployments with the U.K. military in wars and humanitarian crisis zones throughout the world, Fox brings depth, experience, knowledge and compassion to his analysis of the challenges faced by Israel in the Gaza Strip. He has seen a lot. And he says that he has never witnessed a more complex environment that what presents in the Gaza Strip.


Part 2. Andrew Fox in Rafah: An inside, exclusive look at food distribution in Gaza
Andrew and I recorded the second part this morning and I was keen to get it out ASAP. We speak at length about his experience on the ground in Rafah last week at the food distribution site operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. His professional eye and observations make clear that there is much to be commended and improved.


Andrew Fox: What I saw in Gaza | The Brendan O’Neill Show
Andrew Fox – former British Army officer and an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society – returns to _The Brendan O’Neill Show_. Andrew and Brendan discuss the real reasons Gazans are going hungry, why Hamas’s casualty figures can’t be trusted and how the rush to recognise a Palestinian state is only prolonging the war.




Ben Shapiro: How Trump Is Leading a Historic Counter-Revolution | Ben Shapiro & Victor Davis Hanson

Manhattan Institute: Douglas Murray on Political Violence, Immigration, and His Defamation Win
Douglas Murray joins Charles Fain Lehman to discuss the Manhattan shooting, rising urban disorder, and lessons from political violence past and present. They break down Trump’s latest immigration push and what the U.S. can teach other Western nations. Murray also reflects on his recent defamation case win—and what it revealed about press freedom.


Netanyahu says Israel intends to take control over Gaza Strip
Jonathan Sacerdoti discusses the latest news following Benjamin Netanyahu's interview with Fox News in which he says Israel will take over the entire Gaza Strip.


‘Inescapable reality’: Australia nearly ‘unsafe to live’ as Labor does nothing over racism
Sky News host Sharri Markson slams the Albanese Labor government’s inaction on the climbing racism in Australia.

“I want to speak about racism in Australia, the truth is the Albanese government is not serious or genuine about tackling racism; isn’t it ironic, a left wing woke government that claims to care about minority groups has taken no action whatsoever on recommendations to address racism,” Ms Markson said.

“Racism has never been worse in modern Australia.”




‘They wanted the casualties’: Hamas welcomes West's push for recognition of Palestine
Former US Army vice chief of staff General Jack Keane discusses the impact of October 7, 2023, and how Hamas has welcomed Western countries’ push for recognition of a Palestinian state.

“This is one of the most outrageous things I’ve seen,” Mr Keane told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

“They wanted the casualties, you don’t deny that.”


Western media accused of ‘swallowing’ Hamas propaganda
Sky News host Sharri Markson says the world’s media is “swallowing” Hamas propaganda that Israel is to blame for the war not ending and for Palestinian suffering.

“Yet the reality is that Israel can’t withdraw from Gaza until the hostages are free,” Ms Markson said.

“And far from deliberating starving Palestinians, Israel is doing everything it can to deliver aid to Gaza.”


Mahmoud Khalil ripped over attempt to ‘justify’ Oct. 7 attack in NYT interview: ‘Must be immediately deported’
Anti-Israel campus leader Mahmoud Khalil was ripped Thursday over his attempt to “justify” the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks in a recent interview — with elected officials saying it boosts the Trump administration’s case seeking to kick him out of the country.

New York and national officials condemned Khalil for his statements seemingly sympathizing with Hamas’ rationale for the cowardly assault on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage in Gaza.

“Mahmoud Khalil must be immediately deported,” Upstate New York Rep. Elise Stefanik told The Post.

The Republican congresswoman has long lambasted Khalil, a green card holder, for his role in fomenting virulent anti-Israel protests at Columbia University.

“He is a chief pro-Hamas terrorist agitator who contributed to the antisemitic encampments at Columbia, the rioting and violent takeover of Hamilton Hall, and the harassment and physical assault of Jewish students,” she said.

“Naturalized citizenship is an earned privilege of our nation, and he has not earned it. The government should continue taking every lawful step necessary to remove this enemy from the United States,” Brooklyn Assemblyman Kalman Yeger seethed.

Speaking with New York Times journalist Ezra Klein on his podcast this week, Khalil, 30, called Oct. 7 a “desperate” moment which Palestinians “had to reach” in order to have their voices heard.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid such a moment,” he said, when asked about the attack by the terror group — which is still holding 50 hostages in Gaza, of whom just about 20 are believed to still be alive.

He also seemed to tie the attack to an agreement that would have normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“It was clear that the Saudi-Israel deal is very imminent, and Palestinians wouldn’t have any path to statehood and self-determination. So they had to do that, according to their calculations — which, it’s obvious, were not right.”

He told Klein that the terror attack was “to break the cycle” of Palestinians “not being heard” by Israel, calling it “a desperate attempt to tell the world that the Palestinians are here, that Palestinians are part of the equation.”

“To me, it felt frightening that we had to reach this moment in the Palestinian struggle,” Khalil said.
‘So sick’: Mahmoud Khalil claims October 7 attack was a way for Palestinians 'to be heard'
Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power discusses Algerian-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil going on The Ezra Klein Show and claiming the October 7 attacks were a way for “Gaza to be heard”.

“Now, in a recent interview with the New York Times, he defended the October 7 terror attack by Hamas,” Ms Power said.

“It’s just so sick, I just don’t understand how anyone can rationalise it.”




University of Sydney removes Palestinian flag from professor’s window
Sky News host James Macpherson discusses how a Sydney University professor has been told to remove a Palestinian flag flying from his office window.

“A Sydney University professor … is all upset because he was ordered to take down a Palestinian flag that he was flying from his office window,” Mr Macpherson said.

“Now, this relates to a university policy that was brought in after the encampments.”




US pro-Palestinian activist paid $75k to protest, funding traces back to Chinese Communist Party
One of the lead organizers of pro-Palestine rallies in New York – David (Sung Mo) Chung – is paid $75,000 to protest, Nate Friedman first revealed in an investigation that he posted to his social media.

Friedman has been talking to people at protests for over a year, and now works to uncover professional protesters. He first came across Chung at a “Hands Off Iran” protest in NYC, he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Thursday. Friedman was trying to speak to a man with a flag that read, “There is no god but Allah,” but just “two sentences into the interview, another man interrupted and pulled the guy aside, and told him they were getting ready to march.” The other man was Chung.

Friedman flagged this as “paid behavior” as the man with a flag had consented to speak, so there was no reason for the interview to be interrupted.

He looked into Chung and found that he is listed as General Manager of The People’s Forum organization, which, due to being a 501(c)(3) listed NGO, has publicly available financial filings. Its Form 990 for 2023 lists Chung as the one and only paid employee with compensation of $64,021 and “other” payments of $9,581. The other seven members, including the directors, are listed as $0. Chung was also listed the year before, with compensation of $64,588 and “other” of $10,019. The same thing is seen tracing back to 2018.

Friedman told the Post that he confronted Chung about his findings, but he replied “no comment” to every question. “He had every chance to deny it, he had clearly seen my videos,” added Friedman.


Five arrested as student protest against war in Gaza causes chaos in Melbourne CBD
Five people have been arrested after about 300 high school and university students skipped class to rally against the war in Gaza by stopping traffic in Melbourne's CBD.

A tense stand-off took place between the group and police outside Flinders Street Station after the protesters sat in the middle of the busy intersection at Flinders and Swanston streets about 3pm.

Police said one male was moved on for breaching the peace and five protesters were arrested for obstructing the roadway.

They are expected to be charged on summons.

The protest, which was organised by Students for Palestine and the National Union of Students, began about 2pm outside the State Library.

The crowd of several hundred people then marched to Flinders Street Station.

The protesters were demanding an end to Australian military trade with Israel and for universities to end research and investments in the defence sector.
Police crackdown on Pro-Palestine activists who shut down CBD intersection | 7NEWS



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