Sunday, September 28, 2025

09/28 Links: Jews don’t owe a hostile world any apologies; Abba Eban was wrong about the Palestinians; Can ‘The New York Times’ repent for lies spread about Israel?

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Jews don’t owe a hostile world any apologies
Opposing a Palestinian state isn’t, as Netanyahu correctly observed, a marginal point of view in Israel. It’s part of a consensus that stretches from the moderate left to the right. That is because the overwhelming majority of Israelis know that what happened on Oct. 7 was the result of there being a Palestinian state, which is what Gaza was on Oct. 6, rather than the absence of one.

What Netanyahu was doing in Turtle Bay this week was telling us that Jews who fight successfully for their lives owe the world no apologies for choosing life.

That’s a difficult lesson for Diaspora Jews. Many aren’t accustomed to being victims of Jew-hatred or positively viewing Jewish identity other than as something rooted in universalist values. However, if they hope for their prosperous communities to resist efforts to break and isolate them, then channeling the spirit of defiance that Netanyahu modeled is the only path forward.

A spirit of blind partisanship has become commonplace in Israel and America—one that has caused many on the left to denounce Netanyahu or think that a surrender to Hamas would be terrible, but worth it if it brought him down. What they should be doing at this moment is uniting behind Netanyahu’s insistence on the end of Hamas, as well as ensuring that never again should the Palestinians, their enablers and their allies be put in a position to endanger Israelis.

Friends of Israel, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are doing just that. But as opinion polls and the tenor of public discourse about the Middle East indicate, many Americans have been influenced by a biased media, leftist ideology and traditional tropes of antisemitism being spread by the likes of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and the even more hateful political commentator Candace Owens.

We don’t know what will happen next in Gaza or whether the Trump administration can resolve the cognitive dissonance that defines its current policies, backing Israel’s quest for Hamas’s destruction while also letting the funders of Islamist terror that rule Qatar lead it around by the nose.

We do know that Israel cannot allow itself to be pressured into letting Hamas win the war it started on Oct. 7. The only way to ensure that won’t happen is if Netanyahu remains defiant, even if it means standing alone. And no matter how much it may cost individuals who dissent from mainstream culture and opinion, at this moment, those who care about Israel and Jewish survival must stand with him.
Benny Gantz: What the World Gets Wrong about Israel
Some in the West have misinterpreted Israel's actions in prosecuting its war against Hamas. For Israelis, Oct. 7, 2023, was not another round in a yearslong conflict. It was a strategic rupture - and a reminder of what may happen when terror on our doorstep is underestimated.

Israel's core security interests are not partisan property. They are anchored by a national consensus that is rooted in the hard realities of our region. Opposition to the recognition of Palestinian statehood stands at the heart of that consensus. Any path forward for broader Palestinian civil autonomy must first incorporate a proven long-term track record of accountable governance, comprehensive de-radicalization reforms, and a successful crackdown on terrorist elements targeting Israelis.

The truth is that international recognition of Palestinian statehood under current conditions is a rejection of Israel's bipartisan security consensus. The PA has failed to thwart terrorism originating in its territory against Israel. It has incited violence and glorified terrorism in school textbooks, and waged unilateral campaigns to isolate and delegitimize Israel in international forums. At the UN, in international courts, through boycott movements, it has sought to bypass reform, accountability and dialogue - and dismiss Israel's security concerns altogether.

A declaration passed last year by 99 of 120 members of the Knesset in a democracy proclaimed that "Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state," and that "such action following Oct. 7 would be an unprecedented rewarding of terror and prevent any future peace arrangement."
Stephen Daisley: UK Prime Minister's Palestine Doesn't Exist
In recognizing a state of Palestine, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is attempting to summon a tide which flows counter to history and human nature. Men like Starmer flatter themselves that they can, with the flick of a remote pen, will a nation-state into being like modern heirs to Arthur Balfour.

This reflects the common misconception that the Balfour Declaration created the State of Israel, when that communique merely expressed British favor for the Zionist project in Palestine/Eretz Yisrael. Israel was (re)founded by the efforts of Jews, not the sympathies of the British Foreign Office.

Neither Starmer nor any other Western leader can recognize a Palestinian state because no such entity exists and there is no prospect of one in the near future. Across Palestinian politics, in culture, among intellectuals and activists, on the streets and in the mosques, the dominant cause is anti-Zionism.

Palestinian liberationism is a misnomer because, except for a narrow segment of liberal opinion, Palestinian society does not wish to be free from Israel, it wishes to be free of Israel. Theirs is a counter-nationalism, a common identity forged in reaction to and rejection of another people's identity.

Starmer doesn't want a Palestinian state, he wants his notion of a Palestinian state, a liberal market economy with free elections and the rule of law, living in peace with its neighbors. But you can't press release Western liberal democracy into the Middle East.

The lessons the Palestinians and others will take are that the West is so weak and decadent that it will reward mass murder with diplomatic prizes. That provoking Israel into war will quickly turn the West's stomachs and thereafter their policies. That governments in Europe and the Anglosphere are compelled by mass immigration to treat foreign policy as a domestic issue.


Ruthie Blum: Abba Eban was wrong about the Palestinians
Netanyahu proceeded to excoriate the leaders recognizing a Palestinian state for conveying the “very clear message [that] murdering Jews pays off.”

He continued, “When the most savage terrorists on earth are effusively praising your decision, you didn’t do something right; you did something wrong. Horribly wrong. Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere. It will be a mark of shame on all of you.”

He then addressed the claims of those professing to “believe in a two-state solution, where the Jewish State of Israel will live side by side in peace with a Palestinian state.”

Yes, well, he said, “There’s only one problem with that. The Palestinians don’t believe in this solution. They never have. They don’t want a state next to Israel. They want a Palestinian state instead of Israel. That’s why every time they were offered a Palestinian state but were required to end the conflict with Israel and recognize the Jewish state, every time over the decades, they turned it down. That is why every time they were given territory, they used it to attack us. In fact, they effectively had a Palestinian state—in Gaza.”

What—he asked—”did they do with that state? Peace? Coexistence?”

No—he answered—”they attacked us time and time again, totally unprovoked. They fired rockets into our cities; they murdered our children; they turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the Oct. 7 massacre.”

Here, he presented the “uncomfortable truth: The persistent Palestinian rejection of a Jewish state in any boundary is what has driven this conflict for over a century. It is still driving it. It’s not the absence of a Palestinian state; it’s the presence of a Jewish state.”

Thankfully, he emphasized that that the “so-called moderate” P.A.—with its pay-for-slay policy and other forms of terror-glorification—is not better than Hamas. And that its promises over the years to undergo reform are empty.

This reminder was especially important given Abbas’s reiteration of those false vows in his video oratory on Sept. 22 at the UNGA. Naturally, it was dripping with typical deception about a commitment to the “rule of law,” while filled with lies about Israel.

There was one honest thread throughout, however: open disdain and loathing for the Jewish state. Nothing new there.

Even the Israeli left has been having a tough time ignoring this reality, as hard as it might try. This explains its campaign to portray Netanyahu as a villain, rather than attempting the harder task of praising Abbas. The best it can muster is referring to some made-up Palestinian entity or group who will be responsible for governing Gaza when the war is over.

Netanyahu, who concluded on an optimistic note about peace in the Middle East with “forward- looking Arab and Muslim leaders,” highlighted that “giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving Al Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11.”

Calling this “sheer madness,” he declared, “Israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats. We will not commit national suicide because you don’t have the guts to face down a hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel’s blood.”

Amen.

Netanyahu was articulating what most Israelis have come to accept: that Abba Eban was wrong. The Palestinians take every opportunity to kill and turn the world against Jews.


Palestinian sovereignty and international law: Limits of UN recognition
Yet again, we write that international law is not a suicide pact. Israel has no legal obligation to carve a new enemy state aggressor from its own still-living body. Moreover, the rapidly accumulating recognitions of “Palestine” avoid larger justice issues altogether.

On this contradiction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s core comment to the UN General Assembly was correct. In essence, assigning sovereignty to violence-centered entities that seek Israel’s elimination violates law (Montevideo Convention), justice, and logic.

Under the British Mandate, in confirmation of decisions made at the San Remo conference of April 1920, all of Palestine was reserved for the establishment of a “Jewish national home.” In 1922, though no part of mandatory Palestine had ever been designated for the creation of another Arab state, Britain illegally carved Transjordan out of 78% of its mandatory territory. Transjordan became Jordan in 1949, just one year after the declaration of the State of Israel.

On May 15, 1948, one day after the State of Israel was declared by David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv, Azzam Pasha, secretary-general of the Arab League, forecast regarding the war being planned by combined Arab forces: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre.”

The UN partition resolution (1947) included only 22% of the lands originally pledged to establish a Jewish national home. In the interests of a peaceful start, Jewish national authorities accepted the lawlessly reduced landmass (essentially half of the residual one-fifth) in exchange for establishing a Jewish state.

In view of continuing misinformation alleging Israeli displacement of a pre-existing Arab state, all current issues concerning Palestinian statehood and disposition of Gaza should be understood in an accurate historical context. At no time in history has there been a Palestinian state. Among other things, if current UN member states seek to establish the first Palestinian state, they will have to honor all listed expectations of the Montevideo (1933) and Vienna (1969) conventions.


Gil Hoffman: Can ‘The New York Times’ repent for lies spread about Israel?
The New York Times has spread dangerous lies about Israel throughout the Gaza war, from its claim that Israel bombed the Al-Ahli Hospital killing 500 people 10 days into the war, to its front-page photo of skeletal Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, whom the newspaper falsely accused Israel of starving, along with other Gazan children.

The Times ran the outrageous headline "No proof Hamas routinely stole UN aid, Israeli military officials say," quoting anonymous sources, even after official IDF Spokesperson Nadav Shoshani proved that the opposite was true.

It published the easily disprovable claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours.


7 Arab men jailed for 12-14 years for role in death of Jewish man in 2021 Lod riots
The Lod District Court on Sunday sentenced seven men to between 12 and 14 years in prison for their role in the death of Yigal Yehoshua in 2021 during a riot that took place during a short war in Gaza that year.

The 56-year-old victim’s family demanded a harsher sentencing and will ask the State Prosecutor’s Office to appeal the ruling.

The seven men sentenced are five Lod residents — and Israeli citizens — Yusef al-Qadhayim, 21; Walid al-Qadhayim, 25; Karim Bahlul, 18; Iyad Marahla, 20; and Haled Hassouna, 51; along with two West Bank residents, Ahmad Danun, 25; and Kamel Deif Alla, 21, who were in Israel illegally at the time. The ages given are their ages at the time of the crime.

The seven were convicted in May this year on charges of causing injury with terrorist motivations and other crimes for their role in pelting Yehoshua’s car with rocks, bricks and other objects as the 56-year-old made his way home in Lod in May 2021. Yehoshua, who was hit in the head by a brick, was seriously injured and later succumbed to his wounds.

Like other mixed Jewish-Arab cities, Lod, just south of Tel Aviv, saw a series of violent inter-communal disturbances that month following the May 10 outbreak of a conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The seven men who were sentenced to prison on Sunday were originally charged with causing Yehoshua’s death, but due to “significant evidentiary problems” were convicted on the lesser charges in a plea bargain.


Iran slams ‘illegal’ reimposition of UN nuclear sanctions, urges countries not to comply
Iran condemned the reinstatement of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program as “unjustifiable” on Sunday, after the collapse of talks with Western powers and Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear sites, and said it would weigh its response.

The measures, which bar dealings linked to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities, took effect overnight after Western powers triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 nuclear accord.

“The reactivation of annulled resolutions is legally baseless and unjustifiable… all countries must refrain from recognizing this illegal situation,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will firmly defend its national rights and interests, and any action aimed at undermining the rights and interests of its people will face a firm and appropriate response,” it added.

Israel, meanwhile, hailed the sanctions as a “major development in response to Iran’s ongoing violations, especially on its military nuclear program.”

“The goal is clear: prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. The world must use every tool to achieve this goal,” wrote Israel’s Foreign Ministry on X.

Weighing how to respond to the reimposed sanctions, one Iranian lawmaker suggested parliament would consider potentially withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Editor of state-linked Qatari daily shares video praising Hamas, casting Trump, Netanyahu as devils
The editor-in-chief of a Qatari newspaper closely aligned with Doha’s ruling family on Saturday shared a video clip depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as devils, while praising Hamas and calling for Israel’s destruction.

“[Yahya] Sinwar’s prophecy … is coming true … And other prophecies are inevitably on their way to being fulfilled,” tweeted Al-Sharq editor-in-chief Jaber al-Harmi, sharing a clip of the slain Hamas terrorist.

The recording shared by al-Harmi was an except from a speech Sinwar gave leading up to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, in which the terror leader warned that Hamas would isolate Israel “in an extreme and powerful manner, and end its integration in the region and the entire world.”

Al-Harmi’s post also contained video footage showing Arab and African delegates walking out of Netanyahu’s Friday address to the U.N. General Assembly, as well as a clip from Instagram influencer Mazen Sukkarieh.

In the Instagram reel, Sukkarieh addresses Netanyahu as a “psycho,” claiming “even your allies are opting feeling the heat and opting out.”

“Look how member states walk out when you start speaking filth, lies,” he continued, saying that “everything he [Sinwar] said is coming true.”

“It is inevitable, psycho,” he continues. “You and the redhead: gateway to the end of the apartheid, the fall of Zionism.”

Sukkarieh’s video shows Netanyahu and Trump as devils, with the Jewish state’s longtime leader even depicted as having horns.


IDF soldier killed in Samaria terror attack
An Israel Defense Forces was killed on Sunday afternoon in a terrorist attack in the area of the Jit Junction in Samaria.

The slain soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Inbar Avraham Kav, 20, of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 890th Battalion, from Lotem. Staff Sgt. Inbar Avraham Kav, 20, was killed in a terror attack in Samaria, Sept. 28, 2025. Credit: IDF.

Rescue Without Borders in Judea and Samaria reported that an Israeli suffered a head injury from a car-ramming attack near the junction, located near Kedumim.

The victim was then struck by gunfire as IDF troops shot and killed the terrorist during the attack.

Israeli media identified the terrorist as a Palestinian from Nablus (Shechem) in Samaria.


Hamas says it has lost contact with two hostages amid IDF push into Gaza City
Hamas claimed Sunday that it had lost contact with two hostages during Israeli operations in a pair of Gaza City neighborhoods, as three Israel Defense Forces divisions moved deeper into the northern city in a bid to conquer it.

In a statement, the terror group’s al-Qassam Brigades armed wing said it had demanded that the IDF “withdraw to the south of Street Eight (one of the streets in Gaza City) and halt aerial sorties for 24 hours starting at 6 p.m. today so that attempts can be made to extract the prisoners (hostages).”

The statement’s apparent indication of the hostages’ exact location is unprecedented.

Both hostages were abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that their families were working with authorities to review the Hamas statement, and asked that the names of their loved ones not be made public.

Families of captives have repeatedly raised concerns that the military’s push into Gaza City — which the government has said is necessary to defeat remaining Hamas forces — could endanger hostages held in the area.


IDF downs Houthi missile from Yemen
The Israeli Air Force overnight Sunday intercepted a ballistic missile launched by Houthi terrorists in Yemen, the military confirmed.

The attack triggered air-raid sirens across central Israel, including Tel Aviv, as well as in parts of Judea and Samaria, sending millions rushing to shelters around 1 a.m. local time.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday attacked Houthi targets in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, a day after a drone launched by the Iranian-backed terrorist group wounded 22 people in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

“We have just delivered a powerful strike on numerous terrorist targets of the Houthi terrorist organization in Sana’a,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said, dubbing the raid “Operation Pass the Parcel.”

The IAF “attacked several military camps, including a camp of the Houthi General Staff, eliminated many dozens of Houthi terrorist operatives and destroyed stockpiles of UAVs and weapons,” he said.

“Whoever harms us will be struck twice as hard,” added Katz.

Twenty-two people were wounded, including two seriously, when a drone launched by the Houthis impacted near a major shopping center adjacent to Eilat’s main boardwalk on Wednesday evening.




Iran Builds Underground Missile Factories in Yemen, Houthis Train for Invasion from Jordan
Israeli security officials say the Houthis in Yemen have made significant advances in recent months, developing longer-range missiles and explosive drones and moving much of their production and storage underground.

"The threat is evolving: the Houthis are not only launching rockets and drones, they are building resilient production and storage capabilities," a senior military official said.

Israeli intelligence has also been watching a Houthi plan to train militias for a large-scale incursion modeled on Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

While the training takes place in Yemen, any actual operation would likely be launched from Jordan or Syria.

"This is an idea beyond anything they have attempted before," a military official said.


IDF strikes Hezbollah weapons facilities in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday struck Hezbollah weapon storage facilities in Southern Lebanon.

According to the military, the depots were used by the Iranian-backed terror group to plan and carry out attacks against Israel.

“The presence of these terror infrastructure sites constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military said, referring to the Nov. 27, 2024, ceasefire deal that ended more than a year of war.

“The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel,” it added.

The Israeli military on Friday struck a Hezbollah precision weapons manufacturing facility in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, located approximately 20 miles east of Beirut.


UN Watch: Hillel Neuer on Fox Business: “We need to support democracies who are trying to fight terrorism.”
UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer joined Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, including U.S.-led efforts to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas.




Zohran Mamdani employed woman caught on camera tearing down hostage posters
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani employed a Hunter College graduate who went viral for tearing down posters of Israeli hostages, in the latest controversy for the politician facing accusations of antisemitism.

Frances Hamed is a Hunter College and Macaulay Honors College graduate who attracted international attention after being caught days after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack tearing down posters of Israeli hostages who were abducted by Hamas.

Hamas invaded Israel on that day, killing more than 1,200 people, kidnapping about 250, wounding thousands more and raping women. At least 378 concertgoers were murdered when terrorists opened fire at the Nova music festival.

Two years later, Hamed landed an internship with New York State legislator turned NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani, according to Canary Mission, an organization that combats antisemitism.


Police arrest dozens at Palestine Action protest outside Labour conference

Ex-Pro-Palestinian Exposes The Entire Free Palestine Movement As A Cult!





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