Monday, October 06, 2025

10/06 Links Pt1: Israel’s Forgotten Army; Hostage families endorse Trump for Nobel peace prize; Why do Jews’ warnings keep falling on deaf ears?

From Ian:

Israel’s Forgotten Army
A full, honest accounting of the post-Oct. 7 period would highlight the extraordinary accomplishments of the modern Israeli security forces as well as critiquing its failures and weaknesses. The dismantling of Iran’s regional proxy network, including Hezbollah, as well as the crippling of Tehran’s nuclear program both relied on the application of long-term deception plans and strategic power projection that would have made Ben-Gurion proud. In Gaza, the fusion of tactical early warning systems and advanced intelligence capabilities has accomplished a targeting and maneuver capability not seen before in modern wars.

Yet, despite the sacrifices and devastation of the past two years, the IDF has not yet achieved the total victory that Prime Minister Netanyahu has promised since the start of the war. Nor has it managed to fully evict Hamas as a ruling power in Gaza. Many IDF commanders have displayed the characteristic aversion to territorial control, routinely spending blood to conquer areas of Gaza only to relinquish them weeks or months later, dooming soldiers to repeat costly clearing operations.

Moreover, the IDF has not yet demonstrated the capacity, nor the will, to fully sustain its own operations. Instead, it continues to rely on the network of volunteer groups that it can neither fully deputize nor live without.

This in turn enables what has become a toxic relationship between the U.S. and Israel. Aryeh Leib Shapiro, a milluimnik born in the U.S. and a member of an Israeli organization called the Vision Movement, dedicated to what it calls the cause of Jewish liberation, spoke with me about how American Jews influence Israeli security. “The way that many American Jews want to contribute to the IDF’s success is by remaking them in their image. Just like in general Israeli politics, the Reform movement wants Israeli religious law and immigration law to reflect American Jewish sensibilities.The IDF is no different, except that these diaspora Jewish orgs no longer have much influence over the Knesset anymore so they’ve been putting more funding into education and the army.”

Much of that influence is exerted through what appears to be philanthropy. The way it works, said Shapiro, is “by sending our top and most promising commanders in the IDF to learn what it means to be a Jewish leader in the 21st century from the Wexner Foundation or at the Harvard Kennedy School.”

The IDF, greatly influenced by fashionable but disastrously misguided ideas that have been popular among the American ruling class, has turned its official partner in the American diaspora into a piggy bank to subsidize those ideas. The shiniest monument of this failed two-way konceptsia is the FIDF. The organization gives American Jews an illusion of helping that actually handicaps Israel.

The best scenario for Israel would be one in which it acts like an independent and sovereign nation by taking full responsibility for its military supply needs. Instead of relying on logistical backup from unregulated volunteers, it could then funnel diaspora support into less sensitive areas. That will require wisely analyzing the current political and security situation in its own region and at large, separate from the interests of its patrons. Having done so, Israel can then make plans that are founded on a realistic vision of the future, which would be one that does not assume that land will no longer be important in warfare or rest on other similarly dangerous hallucinations.
How Hamas’s hostage tactic checkmated Israel’s war strategy
Whatever happens now, there is one element that Israel and other Western states can learn from this stalemate, and that is to apply a set of preventive measures to make it less likely that any terror organization or rogue state (think Iran/Turkey/Yemen/Libya or others) will try to emulate the actions of Hamas in the future.

It is actually quite surprising that Israeli legislators have not yet found the time to address this burning issue. To be successful in preventing future strategic hostage-taking by its enemies, Israel needs to revise legal, military, political, and diplomatic practices. And it shouldn’t be doing it alone, since it is likely that other Western countries and their civilian population will be targeted by jihadi abductors as well.

Needless to say, yet difficult to achieve perfectly, Israeli security organizations must adjust intel collection, combat operations, and responses to prevent their enemies from abducting Israelis in Israel or abroad. This is mostly a matter of priorities within existing capabilities.

Legally, Israel needs to make it illegal and impossible for elected officials with executive power to fulfill the demands of terrorists in order to release hostages. Israel also needs to declare to its current enemies, neighbors, and detractors that the abduction of its civilians is an act of aggression that will be met with disproportionate and punitive measures that will extend well beyond the combatants who actually abducted Israelis. Anything and anyone that supports or facilitates the abduction or incarceration of Israeli hostages will be a legitimate military target.

A future Israeli government with better international standing should focus on building a global coalition to deprive terrorists of the benefits reaped from hostage-taking, which includes severe punitive measures against any state that supports such crimes.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Israeli leaders and institutions need to adapt to the reality that this and the next war will be fought and won primarily on the cognitive battlefield, where local, enemy, and international media, including and increasingly more on social media, is where reality is forged and decided.

Israel may be able to maintain its qualitative military advantage over its many enemies, but without monumental improvements in all facets of soft power, Israel will find it increasingly challenging to exist, thrive, and enjoy its past military victories.
Jonathan Conricus: Is Egypt on a collision path with Israel?
‘Just rhetoric?’
Wasserman Lande told JNS that the cessation of operations by the U.S.-led international force in the Sinai Peninsula is a great cause for concern.

According to Israel Hayom, the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), the body entrusted with overseeing the terms of the Israel-Egypt peace deal, has stopped carrying out reconnaissance flights over Sinai or inspecting the contents of the tunnels in the peninsula ever since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Wasserman Lande said that to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, the Americans, as guarantors of the peace treaty, must reinstate the mechanism of the MFO effective immediately. Moreover, Israel must insist that military presence in Sinai that exceeds the 1979 terms be dispersed, she added.

Additionally, to calm things down, the highest echelons in Israel must inform the Egyptians that Jerusalem has no interest in relocating Gazans to Egyptian territory. However, “it is an Israeli interest to have them potentially move via Egypt into third countries, with full Egyptian coordination and supervision that they don’t remain in Egypt,” the expert continued.

Lastly, “Israel must demand that the indoctrination of the Egyptian public [against Israel] ceases. This must be demanded by Israel without any concessions,” Wasserman Lande stressed.

Cohen enumerated five reasons why an Egyptian offensive is unlikely.

First, under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, misuse of U.S.-delivered weapons can lead to suspensions and cancellations of further deliveries, which would harm systems requiring regular maintenance. Much of Egypt’s U.S.-made military equipment would be less effective if this were implemented.

Second, Egypt receives more than a billion dollars annually from the U.S. thanks to the 1979 peace deal. War would cut this revenue stream, to the detriment of debt-laden Egypt.

Third, the American role in the supervision of the peace deters Egypt from breaking it.

Fourth, war would further strain Egypt’s shattered economy.

An fifth, the Egyptian Armed Forces have not fought a real war since 1973. Despite its “propaganda videos,” Egyptian soldiers are largely inexperienced, Cohen said.

The orientalist stressed, however, that after Oct. 7, no one can be certain about the future. “Threats with words can lead to threats with guns,” he said.

Hassan noted that Israel had recently begun to take “practical steps” against the peace treaty violations. Decisionmakers in Jerusalem have brought up the topic with Washington, and the IDF has openly commented on the repeated drone incursions from Sinai into Israel, he said.

But, he warned, while “Israel is taking the threat seriously, it is not taking it seriously enough.” The defense establishment still seems to dismiss Egypt’s threats as “just rhetoric that won’t materialize.”

Israel’s top security personnel have built up an assumption that “Egypt will never go to war against Israel because it would mean that Egypt would be destroyed …, [so] they start dismissing actual threats, saying, ‘This will never happen, everything is OK,’” Hassan said—“which is very similar to the ‘conception’ Israel had before the Yom Kippur War.


Hostage families endorse Trump for Nobel peace prize as Gaza truce talks begin
Families of hostages held in Gaza urged the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Monday to give the Nobel Peace Prize to United States President Donald Trump this month for his efforts to secure the release of their loved ones.

As Gaza ceasefire talks began in Egypt based on Trump’s proposal, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the majority of hostages’ relatives in Israel, said in a statement that it sent a letter to the committee calling on it to name Trump as the laureate this Friday.

“At this very moment, President Trump’s comprehensive plan to release all remaining hostages and finally end this terrible war is on the table. For the first time in months, we are hopeful that our nightmare will finally be over,” the Forum wrote. “We are confident that he will not rest until the last hostage is brought home, the war has ended, and peace and prosperity are restored to the people of the Middle East.”

“From the moment of his inauguration, [Trump] brought us light through our darkest times,” the Forum said, expressing gratitude for the dozens of living and dead hostages returned through the US-brokered ceasefire between January and March.

“In this past year, no leader or organization has contributed more to peace around the world than President Trump. While many have spoken eloquently about peace, he has achieved it,” added the Forum, concluding: “We strongly urge you to award President Trump the Nobel Peace Prize because he has vowed he will not rest and will not stop until every last hostage is back home.”
‘Positive atmosphere’ reported at first round of talks between Hamas and mediators
The first round of Gaza talks between Hamas and mediators have ended in Egypt “amid a positive atmosphere,” Egyptian state-linked media reports early on Tuesday.

Al-Qahera News, which is linked to state intelligence, reports the talks will continue on Tuesday, also between Hamas and mediators in the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, where an Israeli delegation arrived on Monday.

A report carried by Qatar’s Al Jazeera similarly describes the meeting as positive.

Israel and Hamas are expected to engage in indirect talks on the details of a proposal by US President Donald Trump for a hostage-prisoner exchange and long-term ceasefire.
Trump ‘pretty sure’ there will be a Gaza deal, denies telling PM to not be ‘f*cking negative’
US President Donald Trump on Monday denied that he recently told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop being so “f*cking negative” and “take the win” after Hamas accepted parts of Washington’s proposal for ending the Gaza war, while saying that it would have to hold talks regarding other portions of the plan.

“No, it’s not true. He’s been very positive on the deal,” Trump said of Netanyahu.

Trump at times has avoided criticizing Netanyahu in public, even as reports have mounted about his private frustration with the Israeli premier, including during a tense phone call last week in which the Axios news site reported the US president responded angrily when Netanyahu said Hamas’s ambivalent response was “nothing to celebrate.”

Asked whether he has any red lines for Hamas in the fresh round of negotiations that kicked off Monday in Egypt, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he does.

“If certain things aren’t met, we’re not going to do it,” he said.

“But I think we’re doing very well. Hamas has been agreeing to things that are very important,” Trump revealed, without elaborating.
White House refers to convicted Palestinians to be swapped for hostages as ‘political prisoners’
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, referred on Monday to convicted Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons, including those with blood on their hands, as “political prisoners” during a press briefing.

Leavitt confirmed that Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy for special missions, and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser, are in Egypt to lead technical talks with Israel and Hamas on implementing the peace plan Trump unveiled last week.

Leavitt said that Hamas’s conditional acceptance of the plan on Friday is “truly remarkable” and that the “administration is working very hard to move the ball forward as quickly as we can.”

“The president wants to see a ceasefire. He wants to see the hostages released, and the technical teams are discussing that as we speak, to ensure that the environment is perfect to release those hostages,” she said.

“They’re going over the list of both the Israeli hostages and also the political prisoners who will be released,” she said.

Anti-Israel critics often refer to the Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails as “political prisoners.” The jailed Palestinians have been convicted, often with overwhelming evidence, of murdering Israeli civilians and other terror acts.

Israel calls them “security prisoners,” and the United States has historically used that same term.
Commentary Podcast: Israel on the Cusp
Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to discuss the ways in which the maligned Israeli approach to the war in Gaza may have, in fact, made its victory this week possible—and if there is no end at hand, establishes its grim but necessary path forward. Programming note: No podcast on Tuesday, October 7, in observance of Sukkot.


FDD Morning Brief | feat. Hon. Elliott Abrams (Oct. 6)
IS HAMAS SERIOUS ABOUT ENDING THE WAR?

HEADLINE 1: The U.S. government approved a new aid package for Lebanese security forces.

HEADLINE 2: Syria held elections for the first time since Bashar al-Assad’s fall.

HEADLINE 3: Israel intercepted all the boats and there was no violence or bloodshed. But poor Greta Thunberg was grumpy because she wasn’t greeted with hugs and a dance party.


FDD: Edmund Fitton-Brown on President Trump demanding Hamas accept ceasefire deal
Edmund joins Fox LiveNOW to discuss the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war as President Trump pushes for Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal and release the hostages.


Jonathan Conricus on Israel and Hamas implementing Trump's ceasefire-hostage release plan — i24 News
Jonathan joins i24 News alongside correspondent i24 Middle East Correspondent Ariel Oseran to analyze the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war as Israel agreed to, and Hamas parts of, President Trump's hostage release and ceasefire deal.


Jonathan Conricus on why October 7 was Hamas' most "brilliant terror attack against Israel"— Newsmax
Jonathan joins Newsmax Saturday Agenda to discuss Hamas' October 7 attack against Israel as well as the rise in global antisemitic violence.


🚨Trump Plays The Card on Hamas! A Dramatic Shift Is Unfolding in Gaza...

I Actually Read The "Trump Gaza Peace Plan" Here's What You Didn't Know...
Josh Hasten gives a breakdown on the Trump's Gaza Peace plan, the escalation of terror in Judea & Samaria.


‘Divisions in Hamas’: Updates on peace deal negotiations happening in Egypt
Bar Illan University Professor of Politics Gerald Steinberg speaks live from Israel on peace talks in Cairo.

“There are divisions in Hamas,” Mr Steinberg told Chris Kenny.

“There are not that many people left in Hamas to be able to make those decisions.

“Hamas has to decide what it’s going to do.”




Why do Jews’ warnings keep falling on deaf ears?
The attack on the Heaton Park synagogue did not occur in isolation. For the past three years, being openly Jewish in Britain has become a quietly radical act. Being shouted at by people in the street is now a regular occurrence for our community. On the bus, school pupils in uniform have shoved and hissed at my children, even thrown things at them. We don’t consider reporting it anymore – we just pass the stories along like weather reports.

Looking at that swastika scrawled on the school wall beside the Star of David, I thought I had reached the most demanding task of Jewish parenting in 2025 – that figuring out how to explain the symbol of the Holocaust to my child on our walk to school would be the worst the UK could throw at me. Manchester showed me how tragically wrong I was.

For a long time, we’ve spoken about rising anti-Semitism in Britain in terms of ‘slippery slopes’. But when Jews are attacked in a major British city on the holiest day of the year, the slope pretty quickly becomes a sheer drop. Still, perhaps even more chilling than the violence itself is what follows: the caveats, the equivocations, the silence. We saw our own prime minister – who did not send any Labour representation to the March Against Anti-Semitism last month – acting shocked and surprised on TV. There is a sense that we are somehow meant to explain ourselves.

Jews are tired of explaining. We are exhausted from defending our right to be visible. We don’t want special protection. We want to gather in worship without guards. To live Jewish lives of dignity and devotion that aren’t framed by security protocols and news alerts. To walk our children to school without fear.

The writing is on the wall. It’s been there for years. Except now, it’s not written in ink – it’s scrawled in blood. The question is whether Britain will finally look up and take notice, or carry on pretending it never existed at all.
The threat of Islamist anti-Semitism is too lethal to ignore
Yet at the same time, there is a risk of holding British Muslims collectively responsible for the actions of anti-Jewish Islamists. It shouldn’t solely fall to ordinary British Muslims to tackle militant Islamists. Those posing a threat to wider public safety need to be tackled primarily by the state – that is, by the police and intelligence services. It is worth noting that Al-Shamie was already on police bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape earlier this year. Questions need to be asked of the police’s handling of this clearly dangerous individual, and whether more could have been done to protect the public.

There are also serious questions to be asked about the UK’s immigration and asylum policies. After all, it is this failing system that has too often welcomed Islamists from dysfunctional parts of the Middle East with open arms. Indeed, it granted the Syria-born Al-Shamie British citizenship back in 2006.

Part of the problem is that the authorities haven’t listened to British Muslims when they have raised the alarm over Islamist extremism. Before carrying out the Manchester Arena suicide bombing in May 2017, Islamist terrorist Salman Abedi was banned from a mosque for his pro-ISIS views. Relatives and members of the local community warned the authorities of Abedi’s radical beliefs, but to no avail.

This is not a surprise. The British state is not equipped to hear the concerns of ordinary British Muslims about the threat in our midst. State-sponsored multiculturalism has tended to treat the more vocal, assertive and extremist elements of our communities as the authentic voice of Muslims – as our so-called community leaders. All too often, these figures have tended to champion the Islamist regulation of the public sphere, silencing and ring-fencing Islamism from criticism, all in the name of protecting minority rights and tackling ‘Islamophobia’.

The challenge of addressing Islamist extremism and combating the normalisation of anti-Semitism across society is certainly not the sole responsibility of British Muslims. It needs all of us to contribute. It needs hard-headed thinking about immigration policies and border security, as well as issues of integration and identity. We need to reflect seriously on who should be able to live freely here and who shouldn’t.

Above all, the British state needs to abandon its failed model of multiculturalism. For too long, the views of a hardline minority of Muslims have been privileged above all others. It’s time the law-abiding and anti-extremist majority made themselves heard.
UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff discusses hate and threats with Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk TV
Natasha Hausdorff, UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director, discusses hate marches, increasing threats to the UK Jewish community and Trump's peace plan with Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk TV.


Why They'll Never Be Honest About Islamist Violence - Konstantin Kisin

“They Just Don't Care" | Rise of Antisemitism And BBC's Unapologetic Bias
Mike Graham speaks with Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), following a report on the rise of antisemitism and a controversial interview Mr Falter had with the BBC.

Mr Falter expresses his deep disappointment and frustration with the BBC, stating that coverage of Jewish issues is completely biased, leading him to conclude that the broadcaster has become a “mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda.” He stresses that this is not just his personal view, citing a CAA poll showing that 92% of British Jews believe the BBC’s coverage of Jewish matters is unfavourable.

Mr Falter supports his claim with several examples of bias: the BBC’s initial refusal to label Hamas as a terrorist organisation, its decision to verify and broadcast a segment showing the family of a Hamas terrorist sending money, and the controversy surrounding Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance that included chants calling for the death of “Zionists.”

He is especially critical of the BBC’s conduct following terrorist attacks, saying that when there are “dead Jews in pools of blood on the street,” the BBC’s hesitation or delay in reporting the full facts represents a moral collapse.

Mr Falter cites one incident in which the BBC reported that the father of terrorist Jihad al-Shami distanced himself from his son’s actions, even though other outlets had confirmed that the father praised the October 7th attacks.


Nine Manchester MPs join call to cancel Bob Vylan show after antisemitism fears
Nine Greater Manchester MPs have joined the Jewish Representative Council (JRC) in calling for Manchester Academy to cancel next month’s Bob Vylan concert, warning that the rapper’s record of inflammatory language “crosses the line from legitimate political discourse into antisemitism incitement.”

In a detailed statement, the JRC said it was “deeply concerned” by the venue’s decision to host the artist on 5 November, highlighting a pattern of behaviour they described as “hateful and dangerous”.

“We are deeply concerned by Manchester Academy’s decision to host Bob Vylan, an artist who has repeatedly engaged in rhetoric that crosses the line from legitimate political discourse into antisemitism and incitement,” the JRC said.

“We are even more alarmed given that the Director-General of the BBC accepted that he was responsible for an antisemitic broadcast by covering their Glastonbury performance – one that directly led to an increase in hate crime against the Jewish community.” Manchester Academy. Credit: Wikipedia

“Subsequently, the band have mocked the murder of Charlie Kirk, performed Nazi salutes on stage and spoken about finding ‘Zionists in the streets’. These statements and actions do not provoke debate but carry a real danger by promoting hatred.”

The council added that while freedom of expression “is a central component of our democracy”, it “cannot be right to platform an artist who has consistently been condemned as hateful and racist.” It urged the venue to introduce “clear policies to ensure it will not legitimise prejudice under the guise of free speech.”


Observer editorial makes false claim about murdered Jews in UK
An antisemitism expert has called on The Observer to correct this week’s leader column after it falsely claimed that, prior to last week’s terrorist attack on Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue, there had been no antisemitic murders in the UK in almost 300 years.

In an October 5 piece titled “We cannot allow Britain to become an Unsafe Haven”, the paper’s editorial team wrote: “From the 1650s, for 300 years, there was no record of a Jew being killed in Britain for being a Jew.”

But this claim prompted a letter from Professor Tony Kushner from the Parkes Institute for the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relations at the University of Southampton, who pointed to at least three more recent examples.

In a letter to the paper, seen by the JC, he wrote: Sadly, this is not the case. In the eighteenth century, as I have outlined in my book, The Jewish Pedlar, several Jews were brutally murdered because of their Jewishness, including by having scorching bacon stuffed down their throats.

"Whilst these were relatively unusual moments, and the courts were free of prejudice in finding the perpetrators guilty, it is a warning to those who would see Britain as fundamentally different with regards to Jew hatred.”
Manchester Islamist attacker VILE past EXPOSED with 'grooming' and ISIS fantasies uncovered
The terrorist behind the Manchester synagogue attack groomed multiple women on dating apps and previously expressed interest in joining the Islamic State, it has been revealed.

Jihad al-Shamie, 35, is believed to have been obsessed with Islamic dating apps and was living with his mother following a divorce from his wife, who he cheated on.




IDF says it killed key Hezbollah air defense operative in south Lebanon strike
A prominent Hezbollah operative in the terror group’s air defense array, who was reportedly blinded in Israel’s so-called pager attack last year, was killed in a drone strike in southern Lebanon on Monday, the military said.

Hassan Atwi was killed alongside his wife, Zainab Raslan, in a strike targeting their car in Zebdine, on the outskirts of Nabatieh.

The IDF said Atwi was a “significant source of knowledge” in Hezbollah, and led efforts to rebuild infrastructure and procure equipment for the air defense array. The military says he also maintained contacts with Iranian officials who supplied Hezbollah with air defense systems.

According to Lebanese media, Atwi was blind due to the exploding pager attack that targeted Hezbollah members last year.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that the couple had two sons killed during the 2023-24 Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

The IDF said Atwi’s activities “constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” and his killing was a blow to Hezbollah’s efforts to re-establish itself.


Richard Tice: On the Gaza front line, I find the famine is a blatant lie
My own view is that senior figures from the UN who spout blatant lies about the reality on the ground need to be held to account for the failures of their own operations. They have received hundreds of millions of pounds from the UK taxpayer, much of it essentially funding Hamas. Did they properly explain why the British hostage Emily Damari was held in UNRWA facilities? Instead the UN convince gullible diplomats and leaders that there is a real famine in Gaza. I have seen enough with my own eyes, and heard enough from credible top people, to be convinced that this is simply untrue. This is a world away from real famine conditions in parts of Africa. Having spoken recently to a number of Palestinians living in Gaza, they reaffirm the food position. Why are we still funding the UN, and other organisations that fail and lie?

As I headed back north along a pothole-free highway, I stopped at a service station. Joining a queue for coffee with young female soldiers carrying semi-automatic machine guns was novel. As I stepped outside, the Gaza border fence was just a few hundred yards in front of me. I heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire and shelling. A couple of kilometres away was Gaza City.

My final stop was the most tragic music venue in the world. The Nova site makes one weep. It is now a memorial, with hundreds of beautiful young faces smiling from their individual posts: young lives, brutally cut short. I sat quietly with a survivor who choked as she recalled her horrific story on that fateful day. She had smothered herself in blood and dead bodies to avoid detection.

A Muslim police officer then described how he ferried carloads of Jewish festival-goers away from the carnage, returning seven times to save even more. Somehow he survived the bullets. What extraordinary courage.

It was all too much; I had to leave. A little further up the road, I stopped to visit a vehicle graveyard: what remains of more than 1,000 cars, hundreds burnt out, others riddled with bullet holes, from the Nova site. It was hard to process it all.

What I felt like was a stiff drink. Instead I changed into a jacket and tie and was driven to meet the Foreign Minister in Jerusalem to talk politics.

Without doubt, this was the longest day of my life.


The latest Gaza flotilla: What you may have missed
In the first line of its coverage of the flotilla on Oct. 1, The New York Times reported: “Activists on a flotilla of vessels carrying humanitarian aid,” and later, “their mission is to deliver food during the humanitarian crisis there.” It should be plain that the fanatics’ only goals were to provoke Israel and ensure that the media continued to portray Israel as the only bad actor in the current war with Hamas. The Times and others complied and never analyzed the signs the ships carried.

And news reports said the ships carried only a nominal amount of actual aid; the effort was more symbolic.

The official website for the flotilla spells it out: “Our efforts build on decades of Palestinian resistance.” Despite claims of nonviolence on the part of the Israel-bashing Sumud flotilla fanatics, “Palestinian resistance” has meant one thing since the 1964 founding of the PLO (when Gaza was occupied by Egypt and Judea and Samaria was occupied by Jordan), and that one thing is violence. Are there any leaders advocating for nonviolence among Palestinian Arabs? If so, where are they? Such figures rarely make headlines.

All of this reminds me of the quote below from a 2001 book, Eyes Upon the Land (Part 1): The Principles Underlying the Arab-Israeli Conflict, adapted by Eliyahu Touger from the Sichos in English Collection. It should have received much more attention from Israel’s supporters than it did, especially in light of the extremist flotilla news, as well as the recent decisions by far too many nations to recognize a nonexistent “State of Palestine.”

It said: “There is a fundamental argument that must be dealt with. At the bottom of all the Arab rhetoric lies one basic claim: ‘You are intruders. This is our land. We had been living here for centuries, and then you decided to take it from us.’ Once it is established that the Jews have a valid right to the Land of Israel, then the violence, hatred and disregard for life that has characterized the Arab position can be judged for what it is. Unless that right is established, the Arabs will always claim that they have a valid goal: reclaiming a land that is rightfully theirs. And once validity is granted to their goal, the debate whether all means are acceptable to attain it or not is one of philosophy.”

Israel’s supporters and advocates must do more to educate the public about the Jewish people’s authentic ownership of the land of Israel. It is absolutely crucial.


Bishops Castle woman charged after Hamas investigation
A SOUTH Shropshire woman has been charged with supporting a banned terrorist organisation.

West Mercia Police confirmed that detectives from Counter Terrorism Policing West Midlands CTU have charged 62-year-old Sarah Wilkinson, of Bishops Castle, with supporting banned terrorist organisation Hamas.

She was charged with five offences yesterday on October 5. The charges, under the Terrorism Act 2000, are one of encouragement, one of dissemination, and two of supporting, as well as one charge of failing to comply with a Section 49 RIPA notice

She is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on October 20.

Wilkinson was arrested in August last year and bailed while the investigation continued, police said.


What “Free Palestine” Really Means | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally attacked Israel, murdering over 1,200 civilians and taking 251 hostages. The world’s response? Mass rallies—in support of the attackers. Larry Elder explains why this moment is not only critical to contemporary geopolitics but is a pivot point for Western civilization.


UKLFI: GAZA - The Numbers and the Sources
This is a recording of a UKLFI Charitable Trust webinar - GAZA: THE NUMBERS AND THE SOURCES with Adv Jonathan Braverman and Natasha Hausdorff which took place on Sunday 5 October 2025.

The webinar discussed statistics, sources and methodologies on which serious allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza have been based.

The speaker, Adv. Jonathan Braverman, is a co-author of an extensive report which provides quantitative-statistical analyses relating to the allegations of deliberate starvation of the civilian population, deliberate killings of civilians, and indiscriminate and disproportionate bombing by the IDF in Gaza.

This study includes careful examinations of the statistics provided by Hamas-controlled ministries and the methodologies used by UN agencies and humanitarian organisations. It draws comparisons with data provided in other conflicts and other societies under oppressive regimes. Finally, it reaches conclusions as to the causes of recurrent analytical failures and the lack of subsequent corrective action.




Greens pass motion calling for IDF to be proscribed as terrorist organisation
The Green Party has passed a motion urging the UK to designate the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) as a terrorist organisation at their October conference in Bournemouth.

Alongside this, the motion called on the party’s elected representatives to push for the UK government and other democratic bodies to “support and resource the international case of genocide against Israel at the International Criminal Court”, to “implement a full arms embargo on Israel” and to “end the training of Israeli soldiers by British forces, and end the spy plane flights over Gaza from the British military base in Cyprus.”

The motion also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Gaza, cease military operations in Palestinian airspace, and ensure the delivery of sustainable aid—potentially via UK shipping.

Additionally, the party advocated for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in Gaza and the West Bank, and called for a formal UK apology for the Balfour Declaration.

Proscribing the IDF would make both membership in and public support for the organisation a criminal offense in the UK.

Later, the motion also said that “The UK should formally apologise to the people of Palestine for the Balfour Declaration” and “there should be a UN peacekeeping force in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure the safety of Palestinian residents.”

Leader Zack Polanski said there was a “moral imperative” to support the motion, adding Israel’s actions in Gaza aren’t just war crimes but genocide, backed by UN reports.

To cheers, he then tied it to climate justice, saying “colonial oppression and environmental ruin” are linked.


Mamdani again accuses Israel of ‘deliberate’ starving of Palestinians
Zohran Mamdani, the state representative who is frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race, attacked Israel again on social media on Friday, after the Jewish state detained people on a flotilla who claimed that they intended to deliver aid to Gazans.

Mamdani, who has criticized the Jewish state frequently and said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the premier comes to the Big Apple, accused Israel of war crimes.

“They must be freed at once, and the deliberate starvation of Palestinians must end now,” he said.


NSFW



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