Thursday, September 11, 2025

09/11 Links Pt1: Hamas Fights for Power Built on a Mountain of Corpses; Charlie Kirk was a better anti-fascist than most of the left

From Ian:

John Spencer: A Siege on Gaza City Is Not a War Crime
Israel has called for the mass evacuation of civilians from Gaza City, signaling that the final battle for the city is inevitable. As the disinformation campaign intensifies, accusations that sieges are illegal or immoral will surge. They are not.

A siege, properly defined, is the surrounding and isolation of an enemy force to cut off supplies, reinforcement and maneuver, usually to compel surrender. It remains permitted under the laws of armed conflict when directed against combatants and undertaken with precautions to minimize harm to civilians. Indeed, it can be the best way to reduce civilian casualties.

In almost every major urban operation of the last generation, the U.S. and its partners have surrounded a city, urged civilians to leave - and then began a well-planned attack. Given Israel's record thus far, its attack on Gaza City will be lawful, moral and necessary. The IDF will proceed like any modern military facing an entrenched enemy in dense cities.

No government can allow a terrorist army to maintain a safe haven in a dense city while holding hostages and firing rockets. If Hamas refuses to release captives and surrender its grip on Gaza City, Israel is justified in completing its siege and assault until Hamas is defeated.
Hamas Fights for Power Built on a Mountain of Corpses
Anyone who examines the rhetoric of Hamas will quickly discover it is a project of organized death. It is a system that turns blood into political currency and suicide into a collective identity. Hamas was built on the lethal formula: "If you kill, you are a hero; if you are killed, you are a martyr in heaven." This equation leaves no room for an ordinary person to choose their own life, dignity, or future. In their world, a hero is one who blows himself up among others because he is guaranteed a direct path to heaven.

The true tragedy of this dark and regressive ideology is that death is an absolute obligation. Followers must either kill or be killed. Every tragedy is turned into publicity. A grieving mother is not left to mourn; she is forced to stand heroically before the cameras, shouting that her sons are all potential martyrs. A widow is turned into a symbol of piety and endurance.

As for the children, their fate is predetermined. They are the "cubs of the cause," and their next step is not toward school but down the path to another death. In essence, Hamas operates death factories, producing the dead while preparing the living to be their ready replacements.

Hamas invests in the business of death, which it sells to the gullible and the deluded. The more corpses pile up, the higher Hamas's political stock rises. For Hamas, victory is not peace. It is the rising death toll. This perverse logic desecrates the sanctity of human life. Hamas is fighting for power built on a mountain of corpses. It is not liberating a people; it is bleeding them dry.
Why Israel's Strike Against Hamas Was Both Justified and Overdue
The Israeli attack on Hamas in Qatar marked a restoration of moral clarity.

For nearly two years since the Oct. 7 massacres, Hamas's leadership had orchestrated genocide from the comfort of Qatari luxury hotels, protected by the fiction of diplomatic immunity and the shield of a supposed American ally.

Those who plan mass murder cannot claim sanctuary anywhere on earth. This attack should have happened years ago.

Qatar provided an extraterritorial sanctuary where its leadership could direct operations, manage finances, and plan attacks while remaining physically removed from consequences.

This arrangement represents a perversion of both warfare and diplomacy that no civilized nation should tolerate. When Qatar transformed itself into a command center for terrorism, it challenged the fundamental architecture of international order.

When those who order atrocities remain immune from their consequences, this incentivizes maximum violence with minimum personal risk. Israel's strike restored the principle that those who choose war must share its dangers.

By demonstrating that Hamas leaders were vulnerable even in the heart of a wealthy Gulf capital, Israel restored the element of personal risk that constrains extremist behavior.

The message was: choose terror, and you choose to live as a target, regardless of which government provides your refuge.


Avi Issacharoff: Israel's Strike Against Hamas in Qatar Should Have Come a Long Time Ago
The strike on Hamas leaders abroad was a legitimate and justified move that should have been carried out long ago. Qatar was wrongly granted a status of near immunity early in the war.

How could a country that openly funds and supports the Muslim Brotherhood, hosts Hamas's top leadership responsible for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, channels billions of dollars into Hamas's coffers, and zealously nurtures its global propaganda arms - primarily through the Al Jazeera network and influence campaigns reaching as far as the White House - become the central mediator between Hamas and Israel?

Egypt is expected to return to center stage as the primary mediator. Egyptian intelligence officials have no affection for Hamas and certainly none for its parent movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, which they regard as an existential threat to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's rule.
Israeli security establishment said to believe Doha strike failed to kill targets
The Israeli security establishment’s growing assessment is that Tuesday’s strike aimed at killing Hamas’s leadership in Qatar failed, according to an unconfirmed Israeli television report on Thursday evening, which said Israel has conveyed as much to the US.

The most recent indications received by the defense establishment are that the majority of the targets of the operation were not killed, Channel 12 news reported, citing an unnamed Israeli source who said Jerusalem was still holding out hope that one or two may have been killed, but that this too was seeming more doubtful.

In addition to the US, cabinet ministers were informed on Thursday that the operation likely failed to meet its intended goal, the report added.

Security officials discussing the strike are checking whether insufficient explosives were used or whether the Hamas officials managed to move to a different part of the targeted building before the bombs fell.

The bold Israeli airstrike on Tuesday targeted a meeting of Hamas’s top leaders as they were said to be gathered in Doha to discuss a new US-sponsored hostage-ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

The gathering was believed to include all of the terror group’s top leadership outside Gaza, including the leader of Hamas’s Gaza units, Khalil al-Hayya; Zaher Jabarin, who leads Hamas in the West Bank; Muhammad Darwish, the head of Hamas’s Shura Council; Nizar Awadallah; and Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas abroad.

Hamas has insisted that none of its leadership cadre was killed in the strike, but that five lower-level members were killed, including Jihad Labad, head of the office of top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya; Himam al-Hayya, Khalil al-Hayya’s son; and three others described as “associates” — either advisers or bodyguards: Abdallah Abd al-Wahid, Muamen Hassouna and Ahmad Abd al-Malek. In addition, a Qatari security officer, Lance Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, was killed.


Behind Closed Doors, Arab Leaders Pleased to See Qatar's Humiliation
Arab leaders will rush to condemn Israel and embrace Qatar with soothing words. But it is lip service.

Behind closed doors, they are rubbing their hands in delight, smiling broadly at Qatar's humiliation.

For many of them, Qatar is not just a rival but a dangerous adversary, thanks to its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, jihadist terrorist groups, and destabilization efforts through its Al Jazeera network.

They will be pleased to see Qatar weakened, just as they would welcome Hamas's destruction.


Hamas’ Big Lies: Blaming Israel for Their Own Crimes
To use the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war with Hamas is not only factually false—it is deeply insulting to the memory of those who endured real genocide. The suffering in Gaza is real, and every innocent life lost is a tragedy. But context matters. This war began when Hamas launched a savage attack on October 7th, murdering approximately 1,200 people—babies, children, the elderly, entire families—and kidnapping 251 others into Gaza, where dozens remain in savage captivity. Israel’s military campaign is aimed at dismantling Hamas’ vast terrorist infrastructure, which is deliberately embedded within civilian areas. The number of casualties in Gaza, while tragic, does not meet the criteria for genocide under any credible legal or historical definition. Genocide requires an intent to destroy a people as a people. Israel’s objective is to end Hamas’ capacity to wage terror—not to destroy the Palestinian people.

Another frequent accusation is that Israel is an apartheid state. Under South African apartheid, the Black majority was denied the right to vote, excluded from political life, and subjected to a legally codified system of segregation. By contrast, Arab citizens of Israel—about 20% of the population—vote in national elections, serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, and have full legal rights under Israeli law. Is there inequality in Israel? As in any society, yes. Is there conflict? Certainly. But a system of racial apartheid, as defined by international law, does not exist. Ironically, Hamas’ charter explicitly calls for a state with no Jews. Jews are forbidden from living in Gaza. That is exclusion based on ethnicity and religion—something far closer to apartheid than anything in Israel.

Projection is another favorite tactic. Hamas and its supporters often brand Israel as the “real terrorist.” Yet Hamas fighters filmed themselves on October 7th gleefully murdering civilians, burning homes, raping women, and kidnapping children. Their entire strategy is built on terror: launching rockets from civilian areas, storing weapons in hospitals, hiding among schools, and daring Israel to respond. When Israel defends itself, Hamas cries “terrorism,” projecting its own atrocities onto its enemy.

Words like “genocide,” “apartheid,” and “terrorism” have real meaning. They are not casual insults to be thrown around in a propaganda war. Misusing them not only slanders Israel but also insults the memory of the actual victims of genocide, those who suffered under real apartheid, and the countless lives shattered by genuine terrorism.

And so we return to the core truth: these are not random misunderstandings—they are deliberate, calculated lies. Hamas is not just guilty of the crimes it accuses Israel of; it is defined by them. Hamas is the terrorist, the oppressor, the advocate of apartheid, the racist that dreams of a land cleansed of Jews. In calling Israel what Hamas itself is, Hamas turns morality inside out, hoping the world will lose sight of the obvious. We cannot allow that inversion to stand. Seeing clearly—and saying so without fear—is the first step toward defending truth, justice, and any possible hope for peace.


John Spencer: Urban Warfare Project Case Study #14_ Operation Cast Lead
Operation Cast Lead marked a significant evolution in the urban conflict between Israel and Hamas. For the first time, Hamas attempted to defend territory through a structured, brigade-based system, combining elements of conventional organization with irregular tactics. Its deliberate embedding of fighters, weapons, and command infrastructure within civilian areas reflected a hybrid doctrine tailored to Gaza’s urban terrain. In response, the IDF executed a coordinated air and ground campaign that showcased the doctrinal reforms and combined arms integration developed after the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The IDF demonstrated improved tempo, maneuver, and tactical adaptation, particularly at the brigade and battalion levels.

The battle reinforced enduring truths about urban warfare: The terrain is complex, the enemy is adaptive, and civilians are present in nearly every zone of combat. The IDF’s use of armored engineers, mine-clearing systems, dog teams, and precision intelligence enabled Israeli forces to degrade Hamas’s capabilities while minimizing their own casualties. Yet these tactical and operational gains did not translate into lasting strategic effect. Much of Hamas’s leadership survived, its forces reconstituted, and its rocket fire resumed. The decision to isolate rather than seize Gaza City reduced the costs of combat but also left key components of Hamas’s infrastructure intact.

Operation Cast Lead provides a defining example of modern urban warfare between a state military and a hybrid adversary. It offers insight into how cities can be weaponized by nonstate actors, and how conventional forces must adapt at every level to confront that reality. Most importantly, it highlights a central paradox of urban war: Even when militaries succeed tactically and operationally, they may still fall short of achieving lasting political or strategic outcomes. As more conflicts are fought in cities, the case of Operation Cast Lead underscores the need for military strategies that do more than destroy enemy forces—they must also align battlefield actions with broader political purpose.


UN Watch: Fox News Podcast Interview: Hillel Neuer on What To Expect at the U.N. General Assembly
UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer was interviewed on the Fox News Rundown podcast with Eben Brown to discuss what to expect from the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, U.S. sanctions on U.N. officials, Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, and the ongoing controversy over UNRWA.




Starmer has declared war on Western values
There are still those who maintain that the grotesque campaign of defamation against Israel isn’t the latest manifestation of anti-Semitism. That is delusion. Yes, we can and should criticise and scrutinise every country. I slam Starmer’s Government: this does not mean I hate Britain. But the campaign against Israel is something else.

Anti-Semitism is a virulent, ever-evolving pathogen. It is the original conspiracy theory, a demented theory of everything, a shape-shifting scapegoating to bolster the egos of inadequates. As a form of social contagion, it is ideal for social media, with its fake or misleading viral images, incendiary accusations and propaganda campaigns. A world where critical reasoning has been superseded by short-form videos is an ideal ecosystem for the resurgence of a medieval hatred based on rumour, gossip and hearsay.

Anti-Semitism weaponises the moral norms of every age, making wildly false claims to accuse Jews of the opposite of whatever is deemed right and proper. When the West was Christian, the libel was that Jews killed Christ; when the West was racist, Jews fell foul of purity laws. Jews have, at times, been too capitalist or too communist, too “oriental” or too “white”, too introverted or too assimilated, too rich or too poor, too religious or too atheistic.

In today’s post-Protestant woke world, which worships a certain form of weakness and glamourises the oppressed, Israeli Jews are too strong. Their country represents everything the woke detest: a patriotic, demographically healthy nation-state that believes in strong borders and military virtues, all with a biblical backdrop.

The Left, which used to see Israel as a case study in decolonisation and anti-imperialism, a beautiful story of the return of a dispossessed people to its indigenous homeland, has switched sides. It now falsely categorises Israel as a “settler-state”, like the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, countries that it deems to be axiomatically racist and guilty of “white supremacy” and “genocide”.

To the woke, the Balfour declaration, a great moment, was Britain’s original sin. The Labour Government should be fighting this tidal wave of madness; instead, it is trying to ride it. The scale of its betrayal is off the charts.
Israeli president, in UK to talk with British Jewry, meets with Starmer
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday. Both said that it had been a tense exchange, with Herzog firmly opposing the U.K. government’s stance on Israel and Starmer criticizing the Jewish state over the war against Hamas in Gaza and Tuesday’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar.

The meeting was only announced on the second day of the president’s visit to London at the invitation of the Jewish community.

Herzog, speaking at Chatham House—the Royal Institute of International Affairs—a London-based think tank, directly after the meeting described it as difficult, The Guardian reported.

“It was a meeting between allies, but it was a tough meeting,” Herzog said. “Things were said that were tough and strong, and clearly we can argue, because when allies meet, they can argue. We are both democracies. We both understand the threat from the jihadists.”

Herzog said he rejected claims of famine in the Gaza Strip and proposed a fact-finding mission to examine the flow of aid into Gaza. He blamed the high civilian death toll on Hamas’s practice of storing missiles in and firing them from civilian homes.

Herzog offered no apology for Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, accusing Qatar of siding with the terrorist organization rather than acting as a neutral mediator, The Guardian reported.

He said sanctions against Israel and its leaders were “unacceptable.”

Herzog also condemned Britain’s intention to recognize a Palestinian state, warning it would be “dangerous” and undermine future peace efforts. Such a unilateral move would not benefit Palestinians or the hostages in Gaza and could instead embolden Hamas, he said.

Starmer similarly characterized the meeting as “tough,” marked by sharp exchanges over aid to Gaza as protests took place outside demanding Herzog’s arrest as a war criminal.


Israel President DEMANDS world refuses to speak to Palestine until hostages released
'We reject the idea of a unilateral declaration recognising a Palestinian state.'

President of Israel Isaac Herzog, explains why the UK should not recognise a Palestinian state.


Netanyahu’s office accuses Spanish PM of ‘genocidal threat’ against Israel
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office has condemned what it described as a “genocidal threat” from the Spanish Prime Minister, after the Iberian leader said his country did not have significantly powerful resources – including “nuclear bombs” – and so “alone can’t stop the Israeli offensive.”

During an announcement of additional measures Spain would take against Israel, including a full arms embargo and a total ban on imports from Israeli settlements, Pedro Sánchez said that his country “doesn’t have nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers, or large oil reserves. We alone can’t stop the Israeli offensive. But that doesn’t mean we won’t stop trying. Because there are causes worth fighting for, even if winning them isn’t in our sole power.”

Responding to Sánchez’s comments, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said:
“Spanish PM Sánchez said yesterday that Spain can’t stop Israel’s battle against Hamas terrorists because ‘Spain does not have nuclear weapons.’ That’s a blatant genocidal threat on the world’s only Jewish State.

“Apparently, the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews of Spain and the systematic mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, is not enough for Sanchez. Incredible.”

In the last six months, Sánchez has become Europe’s most vocally anti-Israel leader, continuously accusing Israel of “genocide”, calling for boycotts of Israel from international competition, and condemning the EU for not suspending its trade agreement with Israel. Simultaneously, Sánchez, who is the leader of a minority coalition, has been clinging to power despite an extended and wide-ranging corruption scandal, which has seen his own wife facing allegations of corruption and influence-peddling. The Spanish Prime Minister, leader of a traditionally centre-left party, is therefore almost completely reliant on his fiercely anti-Israel far-left coalition partners to remain as the country’s leader and ignore calls for his resignation.


Report: Hezbollah officer captured by IDF swapped for Israeli scholar held in Iraq
Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov returned to Israel on Wednesday after spending two and a half years in the custody of Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, but the circumstances surrounding her release remain murky, with no official word on whether a deal was brokered by Israel, the United States or both. Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency reported Thursday that Tsurkov was freed in exchange for two members of the “resistance,” including Imad Amhaz, a Lebanese naval officer and senior Hezbollah operative reportedly captured by Israeli commandos in northern Lebanon last year.

Amhaz was apprehended in November 2023 during a covert nighttime operation by the Israeli Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 unit in the Lebanese town of Batrun, about 140 kilometers north of the Israeli border. According to Arabic-language media, more than 25 Israeli naval commandos landed on the Lebanese coast and extracted Amhaz, who was described as a key expert in his field.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper claimed Tsurkov’s release was not part of a traditional security exchange, but rather the outcome of what it called “complex understandings” involving influential intermediaries. The report stated that the deal was orchestrated under the direction of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani.

According to one unnamed source cited by the newspaper, the understandings included guarantees that Iraq would not become a target of Israeli or U.S. military action, and possibly laid the groundwork for additional prisoner swaps in the region. The source added that Baghdad feared Israeli retaliation, and suggested that Israel's strike in Qatar on the same day Tsurkov was released—reportedly targeting senior Hamas figures—may have accelerated the deal. There were also unconfirmed reports that Israel had compiled a list of 26 targets inside Iraq it could strike if Tsurkov was not freed.
Struggling to walk, Elizabeth Tsurkov embraces loved ones after return to Israel from captivity
In the first official images since her release from 2.5 years in captivity, Elizabeth Tsurkov can be seen struggling to walk but in upbeat spirits as she reunited with loved ones in an Israeli hospital on Wednesday evening.

Footage of the freed Israeli-Russian academic was released Thursday by the Prime Minister’s Office, which said that Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Tsurkov, who described “harsh conditions” in captivity in Iraq.

In the video, Tsurkov, 38, walks with difficulty while holding onto her brother and a medical staffer. She is said to be suffering from severe back pain that was exacerbated during her captivity. She had undergone a spinal operation prior to being kidnapped in March 2023 by the pro-Iran Iraqi militia Kataeb Hezbollah.

Wearing a gray US Embassy Baghdad shirt, she is seen smiling and joking with doctors and loved ones at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, where she arrived Wednesday night after landing in Israel from Cyprus following her release.

She told one hospital official that she recognized her after “seeing you in press conferences,” to laughter. The brief clip also showed Tsurkov having to lie on a couch as loved ones embraced her, while she struggled to hold back tears.

Netanyahu’s office said that Tsurkov thanked the prime minister for helping secure her release. The Times of Israel reported earlier Thursday that Israel had very little to do with freeing Tsurkov, with the US and Qatar playing much bigger roles in the efforts.


Brendan O'Neill: Charlie Kirk was a better anti-fascist than most of the left
It is sick-making to see the digital left gnash its teeth over Kirk’s ‘far right’ politics. For many of these people went further than the carpers at Cambridge and didn’t only falsely equate Hamas’s Jew murder with the Jews’ own fightback – they openly celebrated it. It feels surreal to see leftists who called the bloodiest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust a ‘day of celebration’ brand Kirk ‘far right’ because he thought it unwise to subject young lesbians to double mastectomies. That Kirk is being maligned as Nazi-like by people with the Hamas red triangle in their social-media bios, by people who’ve spent two years calling a pogrom ‘resistance’ and praising the Jew-hating Houthis – it’s too much to take.

Kirk, towards the end of his too short life, witnessed something extraordinary: the campuses on which he had been defamed as a fascist came to be overrun by actual fascism. By a frothing Israelophobia that was often just Jew hatred in drag. At Columbia they called the Jewish State ‘the scum of nations’ and ‘the pigs of the Earth’. Jewish students were told to fuck off ‘back to Poland’. At George Washington University they said ‘Glory to our martyrs’, referring to the men who had just raped and murdered more than a thousand Jews. Pennsylvania University admitted its campus had fallen under the sway of a fascistic animus, including the daubing of ‘swastikas and hateful graffiti’ on university property.

Just imagine what was going through Kirk’s mind as woke Jew hatred swept like a pox through the very campuses from which he’d been cancelled for supporting Trump and believing men are not women. After 7 October, ‘antifa’ turned ‘fa’. A left that had posed as anti-racist made excuses for the racist butchery of Jews. It fell to individuals still in possession of their moral faculties to take the true anti-fascist position and condemn Hamas’s violent dehumanisation of the Jewish people. Kirk was one of those individuals. I could not give a damn about the issues on which he and I differed. All that matters is that when fascists returned to slit the throats of Jews, the left excused it and he opposed it.

It wasn’t only the left’s bowing to the fascist imagination that he called out – it was the right’s, too. He bristled at the crank right and its embrace of swirling conspiracy theories about the Jewish State and the Jewish people. He lamented that right-wing ‘corner of the internet’ that wants to ‘blame the Jews for all their problems’. It is ‘demonic’, he said, and ‘should not be tolerated’. That’s the twisted irony of the claim that Kirk was a hard-right ‘radicalising’ force: in truth he had a moderating influence on the American right, helping to draw young men in particular away from the sick Nick Fuentes view of the world. As Deutsche Welle says today, he was ‘at odds with neo-Nazi groups’.

If only the same could be said of the woke left. They’ve too often been as one with neo-Nazis, especially of the Hamas variety. Kirk was a ‘lionhearted friend of Israel’. He was also a passionate believer in the power of free, open debate to fix our problems. His ruthless murder doesn’t only steal a dad from two children. It also robs the world of someone who on the two key issues of our time – the future of the Jewish nation and the future of freedom – was able to see clearly. RIP, Charlie.
Ben Shapiro: The Assassination Of Charlie Kirk And The Fight For America’s Soul
A wave of violence is building, from the assassination of Charlie Kirk to the attempted shooting of President Trump, from the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to the slaying of two Israeli embassy staffers. All of these acts of extreme violence have found support in the dark precincts of political radicals.

The temperature in our country has steadily been rising. And it’s been rising because many people have determined that their political opponents aren’t just opponents, but enemies, threats to their very existence. That determination by fringe actors is often reinforced in the online spaces that prize virality and mirror emotional excess. And then, it breaks free from the world of the online, into real life, with bloody and horrific consequences.

Yes, that phenomenon crosses the political aisle. But to pretend that the phenomenon is distributed equally would be a mistake. The rising tide of violence on the left has become more and more virulent over the course of the last several years. The argument that speech is violence, to be met with violence; the argument that opposition to contention amounts to a form of “genocide” or “erasure”; the argument that political opponents are moments away from ending our republic outright. These views all trend toward revolutionary violence.

And the wave of violence, a wave already breaking on the shoreline, appears as though it is only the beginning. It has already destroyed Charlie Kirk’s family and ended his life at the age of 31.

But it feels as though a tsunami is coming. The water has already receded from the shoreline. And what comes next could be far more devastating even than what we have seen thus far.

That tsunami, if left unchecked, will wash away this entire republic.

I’ve spoken at dozens of college campuses; I’ve required heavy security at many of them. My security has instructed me to wear bulletproof vests, insisted on metal detectors, told me to leave venues they considered nonsecure. And yet I’ve never truly felt unsafe, because to do so would be to accept—even consider—the idea that an American would truly harm someone simply for speaking freely in the United States of America. I don’t believe that anymore. I’m not sure who does.

So, what can be done? It’s frequently said by those of politically liberal persuasion that thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. That action is necessary. But here is the truth: We need more thoughts and prayers. Thoughts for our political opponents: recognition that while we disagree, they are our fellow Americans; understanding that the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States can hold only if we treat each other as friends, not enemies; realization of the fact that speech is not violence, and that we must, as Americans, speak with each other. The way Charlie did.

And we need prayers: prayers for our country, which is torn apart, under attack from within and without; prayers for our own souls, that we hold ourselves accountable for the way we treat others.

Our America is a robust place of discussion and debate, of liberty and rights. But all of that must be undergirded by basic virtue. Basic decency. Respect for others. And yes, reverence for the uniqueness of an America that values speech and deplores violence.

Charlie had that reverence. And for that, he was murdered.

May his memory be a blessing—for us, and for our bleeding nation.
Ben Shapiro: UNTHINKABLE: Charlie Kirk, 31, Assassinated
Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of TPUSA and transformative young conservative leader, is assassinated in cold blood on a college campus in Utah…we remember him, and examine what it means for America.


The Free Press: Charlie Kirk’s Murder: Bari Weiss, Ben Shapiro, and More
Yesterday afternoon, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking onstage at Utah Valley University during one of his signature events: a debate for college students. The gruesome video made its rounds on social media.

At just 31, Charlie was one of the most important figures on the contemporary American right, the founder of the incredibly influential organization Turning Point USA, bringing conservative ideas to high schools and universities, a husband, and the father of two young children.

Charlie spent much of his time on college campuses, hosting conversations at his “Prove Me Wrong” table. He didn’t take the easy route of talking to only those who agreed with him, but went out of his way to engage with young people across the political spectrum, especially leftists and liberals—he was willing to talk to anyone. People lined up to challenge him, often fiercely disagreeing. That was the point. Charlie believed in the power of free speech and civil disagreement. His mission was to engage young Americans in the political process.

Charlie’s murder is a tragedy, not only for his family but for the country. We have been covering the terrible upsurge in political violence for the last few years that threatens to tear our country apart—and Charlie’s assassination is perhaps the most shocking example yet. Whoever assassinated Kirk was also attacking democracy itself, using political violence as a response to ideas they didn’t agree with. As Ben Shapiro wrote yesterday, we must now grapple with the reality that “an American would truly harm someone simply for speaking freely in the United States of America​​.”

This afternoon Bari Weiss is sitting down with Ben to talk about his friend Charlie, and about this chilling moment we now find ourselves in.


Douglas Murray and Rita Panahi respond to Charlie Kirk assassination
Author Douglas Murray and Sky News host Rita Panahi have reacted to the tragic assassination of Turning Point USA founder and conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.

“My thoughts are with Charlie but also his wife – his young wife and his two young children he leaves behind,” he told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“It’s an extraordinary, appalling act of violence.”

Ms Panahi claimed the death of Charlie Kirk is a “heartbreaking, unimaginable loss”.


Commentary PodCast: Charlie Kirk and the Turning Point
Noah Rothman joins us to talk about political violence and the cultural atmosphere that helped lead to the assassination of a 31 year-old man in the open air of a Utah college campus.






Benjamin Netanyahu shares memories of Charlie Kirk: 'Once in a generation'



Hugh Hewitt: Victor Davis Hanson and Hugh react to the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah
Charlie Kirk had many friends and admirers, among them Victor Davis Hanson, who joined me today to talk about Charlie, what moved him, and what his assassination could portend for the U.S. Victor’s new book “The End of Everything” is the somber backdrop to yesterday tragedy.


Yishai Fleisher: Charlie Kirk | Defender Of Israel, FREEDOM Fighter and A True Friend



Israel Advocacy Movement: They're Already Hijacking Charlie Kirk's Death



'Unacceptable': MSNBC Analyst Michael Dowd Fired After Blaming Charlie Kirk for His Own Murder
MSNBC has fired political analyst Matthew Dowd after he made what the network's president called "inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable" comments as news broke that an assassin shot and killed prominent conservative activist and Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk.

"Matthew Dowd is no longer an MSNBC political analyst, according to a network source," CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter reported in an X post late Wednesday. Multiple media outlets confirmed the news Thursday morning.

Dowd sparked widespread backlash Wednesday afternoon when he told MSNBC anchor Katy Tur that the shooter could have been "a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration" and that Kirk has "been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger, figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups."

"I always go back to 'hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions,'" Dowd said, adding, "You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place."


'More. MORE!!!': Columbia Encampment Organizer Khymani James, Who Fantasizes About 'Murdering Zionists,' Celebrates Charlie Kirk's Murder
Columbia University encampment organizer Khymani James, who has fantasized about "murdering Zionists," celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday and called for more violence.

Shortly after news broke that Kirk, the conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, was shot while giving a speech at Utah Valley University, James posted to X, "More. MORE!!!" and "Down with all the fascists."

"'[B]e careful what you post' and it's people rightfully celebrating the inevitable and just fate of fascists. anywho… NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED," James wrote Wednesday afternoon.

James also shared a string of posts celebrating Kirk's murder, with one reading "I will never mourn a genocide apologist. Not sorry, rest in piss."

"Thoughts and prayers for the bullet," another read. "I think Nazis should be shot, actually," read a third.

A Columbia spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon, "Encouraging violence against others is unacceptable and has no place in our civil discourse."

James served as a leader and spokesman for Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the school's most notorious anti-Semitic student group, during the unlawful tent encampment that disrupted Columbia at the close of the 2024 spring semester. At one point, he mobilized participants to remove "Zionists" he said entered the encampment.

James was suspended from Columbia after video surfaced of him arguing that university officials should be "grateful that I'm not just going out there and murdering Zionists." CUAD initially denounced those comments, but later backpedaled, apologized to James, and released a statement saying "liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance" and "violence is the only path forward." James thanked his "comrades" for their "beautiful, powerful" words and said he "couldn't agree more" with the endorsement of violence.

"I will not allow anyone to shame me for my politics," he wrote. "Anything I said, I meant it."

It's unclear if James was expelled, but a person with knowledge told the Free Beacon he is not a registered student, is barred from campus, has not been in attendance, and has not been an active Columbia community member since April 2024.


IDF soldiers wounded in IED explosion at West Bank crossing near Tulkarm
An Israeli armored personnel carrier ran over a bomb in the area of Tulkarm near the Nitzani Oz crossing on Thursday.

Two soldiers were reportedly lightly wounded, and the vehicle was damaged. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

IDF troops have imposed a lockdown on the city and are carrying out roadblocks and inspections in the area, the military said.

It has been five months since IDF troops were involved in an IED explosion in the West Bank, according to Army Radio.

Last month, in mid-August, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that terror attack threats in the West Bank had decreased by 80%.

Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps were “hotbeds of terrorism built with Iranian financing, arms, and guidance as an additional front” in the Axis of Resistance’s fight against Israel, Katz stated.


CNN Investigative Piece Focused Less on Facts and More on Smearing Israel
Is There Famine in Gaza?
Polglase wraps up her report by noting that “The international body classifying food now says famine has set in in much of Gaza.”

Like much of the above, this claim too is bereft of context and nuance.

First, the IPC did not find famine “in much of Gaza” but in one of Gaza’s five governorates, the Gaza Governorate (home to Gaza City).

Second, this classification is not without controversy. As HonestReporting noted when this famine was first declared in late August 2025, several analysts have pointed to concerning aspects of the classification that signal a biased review committee that was intent on declaring a famine regardless of the facts on the ground.

Some of the questionable aspects of this famine classification include:
The skewed reliance on hospital records (as opposed to field surveys).
The baseless presumption of a higher mortality rate from malnutrition than what has been promoted by Hamas authorities.
The use of only partial statistics to achieve the results needed to declare a famine.
The inclusion of two virulently anti-Israel academics on the review committee.

When it comes to Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip over the past two years, one can be critical of certain policies and question whether it is doing its utmost to safeguard Gaza’s civilians while fighting the Hamas terror network that is embedded throughout the coastal enclave.

However, this is not what Katie Polglase has done in her “investigative” piece on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

It appears that she concluded that Israel was guilty of fomenting a famine in Gaza and then presented a variety of superficial claims and context-free assertions as evidence for her preconceived conclusion.

This was not only a faulty investigation–it was bad journalism.


Briefing: How Hamas is Elevating the Threat Landscape in Gaza
In a live press briefing today, GHF Spokesman Chapin Fay spoke to the influx of demand at our sites and threats from Hamas that has elevated the threat landscape in Gaza.




What the Hell Is Going On PodCast: WTH There Is No “State of Palestine”. Elliott Abrams Explains. Explicit
After splashy announcements from our European, Australian, and Canadian allies, later this month, the UN will vote to “recognize a Palestinian State”. While theatrical and without legal import, the vote can only be understood as a reward for terrorism and October 7th. Hamas and too many Palestinians have no interest in state building, institutions, democratic elections, or taking part in the “two-state solution” and never have. And yet, while Hamas is still holding hostages and blocking humanitarian aid, the UN is displaying its bias against Israel. Will a “state” ever satisfy Palestinian nationalism? Are European leaders just making a play for domestic favor? Will the Jordanian option ever see the sun? And if we wanted to, how would we return to the status quo ante October 7?
Recognising a ‘State of Palestine’: A Violation of International Law with Dr Michael Calvo
AJA Weekly Zoom hosted Dr. Michael Calvo on the topic: “Recognising a ‘State of Palestine’: A Violation of International Law.”

We examined how the Albanese Government’s plan to recognise a fictitious 'Palestinian' state breaches international law.

Dr Calvo is an author and expert in International Law. He was a Member of the International Court of Arbitration.




Ireland says it will boycott Eurovision 2026 if Israel allowed to take part
Ireland will not take part in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates, the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ said on Thursday, saying that it would be “unconscionable” amid the war in Gaza.

In a statement made available online, the Irish broadcaster said it was “RTÉ’s position that Ireland will not take part in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if the participation of Israel goes ahead.”

A final decision would be taken when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) makes a ruling on the matter, following concerns raised by several members at a general assembly in July, it said.

The brief statement explained that “RTÉ feels that Ireland’s participation would be unconscionable given the ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza.”

“RTÉ is also deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza, and the denial of access to international journalists to the territory, and the plight of the remaining hostages,” it added.

Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza since the October 7, 2023, massacre led by the terror group that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 hostages taken to Gaza. It denies deliberately targeting journalists but has said it killed several active terrorists who were using journalism as a cover.

Israel also strongly denies accusations of genocide, saying that it makes efforts to mitigate harm to civilians, but that Hamas makes widespread use of civilian infrastructure.




Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

Copyright © Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates