Thursday, February 19, 2026

02/19 Links Pt1: Trump announces $10 billion U.S. investment in Gaza, 10-day timeline for Iran; Hamas Debunks the ‘Genocide’ Narrative; The Lancet’s dubious Gaza casualty figures

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Hamas Debunks the ‘Genocide’ Narrative
Hamas has wrapped up its latest revision of casualty data in the Gaza war, and it makes clear why Israel’s critics have been flailing since the end of the war.

The list has enough information to cite 68,800 deaths. Hamas has lost 25,000 fighters, which leaves 44,000 war deaths to account for. Included in that 44,000 are about 10,000 natural deaths. The remaining 34,000 would include civilians killed by Israel and those killed by Hamas and associated militant groups—either by execution, rocket misfires, turf wars, and the like.

The result is that even when using Hamas’s numbers, Israel’s civilian-to-combatant death rate is close to 1:1, an unheard-of accomplishment in an urban war setting, let alone one in which much of the territory has been turned into Hamas human shields. Given that Hamas started the war, refused to surrender, and fired at Israel from civilian homes, the terrible tragedy of Gazan lives lost is laid at Hamas’s feet.

It feels pretty silly at this point to even consider the “genocide” accusation, but this is another opportunity to note that Hamas goaded its defenders out on that limb and then personally cut it off under their feet. While plenty of bad-faith actors have been accusing Israel of genocide since the war started, and are therefore immune to facts, I’m sure there are a number of decent folks who fell into the “genocide” trap because they followed a trend in the name of “human rights.” I do not envy the humiliation they are experiencing now, but neither do I find such people particularly sympathetic. They ought to feel bad about what they’ve said and done, and I hope they do.

The reason people were willing to believe it is twofold. First, it is the quintessential example of the Big Lie. Hitler’s belief was that the bigness of the lie not only lends it credibility but serves as an emotional, rather than rational, appeal. As we watch Israeli companies flood Gaza with sweets and drinks for Ramadan, we cannot maintain any rational, conscious interpretation other than Israel won a defensive war while protecting civilians to an extent never seen before. But those who shape their beliefs based on subconscious appeals to emotion? Who knows what contradictions they can maintain.

The other reason is, yes, anti-Semitism. The public’s willingness to believe the worst about Jews is not new, and it’s not an accident. Those who have participated in the “genocide” Big Lie have not made an honest mistake. A mistake, perhaps—but not an honest one.
Colonel Mike Kelly: Debunking the Gaza Genocide Myth Overview
Dr Mike Kelly AM examines why a finding of genocide against Israel by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is highly unlikely under international law.

Drawing extensively on the 1948 Genocide Convention and relevant ICJ jurisprudence, he argues that genocide requires proof of a specific intent to destroy a protected group in whole or in part, and that this must be the only reasonable inference from the evidence.

Kelly analyses the ICJ’s current proceedings, prior genocide cases, and the Convention’s drafting history to demonstrate the high legal threshold required.

He contrasts the definition of genocide with the realities of urban warfare, reviewing casualty claims, humanitarian aid flows, medical operations, IDF precautions in attack, and internal investigative mechanisms.

He further critiques reliance on unverified casualty data and partisan UN reports, arguing that they fail to establish the specific intent required under the Convention.

The article concludes that, whatever criticisms may be made of particular incidents or conduct in the war, the legal standard for genocide has not been met, and that expanding the Convention beyond its original scope would require a formal international renegotiation of its terms. Download PDF Trump announces $10 billion U.S. investment in Gaza, 10-day timeline for Iran
President Donald Trump used the occasion of the first meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday to announce significant monetary and troop commitments from the U.S. and other countries to stabilize Gaza, as well as lay out a timeline for military action against Iran.

“I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace,” Trump said at the United States Institute of Peace, where several foreign leaders gathered for the meeting.

The president also named, for the first time, which countries have agreed to make additional financial contributions to the reconstruction of Gaza: Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait “have all contributed more than $7 billion toward the relief package,” Trump said.

The meeting comes as the administration works to address several issues in the Middle East, including rising tensions with Iran. The U.S. has amassed a large collection of military assets in the region in preparation for a potential strike, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a nuclear deal.

Trump said in his remarks, “Now we may have to take it a step further or we may not. Maybe we are going to make a deal [with Iran]. You are going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.” Last June, Trump said he would decide whether to take action against Iran within two weeks, and carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities two days later.

Trump also called on Iran to “join” the board “on a path that will complete what we’re doing.”

“If they [Iran] join us, that will be great. If they don’t join us, that will be great too, but it will be a very different path,” the president said. “They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal. Or if that doesn’t happen, I maybe can understand if it doesn’t happen, but bad things will happen.”


Amb. Alan Baker: Israel's Recent Changes in Judea and Samaria Are Not De Facto Annexation
Israel's security cabinet has approved a set of administrative changes affecting day-to-day governance and law enforcement in the territories. Those who see the changes as a step toward extending Israeli sovereignty through "de facto annexation" misunderstand the concept and legal meaning of annexation, and misread the nature of these administrative actions, as do those who cast the measures as attempts to annex territory in violation of Israel's commitments to the Palestinians and its international legal obligations.

Under the Oslo Accords, Israel agreed, and remains obligated, not to take unilateral steps that would change the status of the territories. In the territory under its administration, Israel is duty-bound to ensure public order and to prevent arbitrary obstructions that disrupt day-to-day life.

Streamlining legal and administrative procedures, improving planning and oversight, ensuring transparent property purchase and registration, and protecting archaeological sites are all part of Israel's responsibilities under the existing framework.

At the same time, nothing prevents private, legitimate, and transparent property transactions conducted lawfully by willing parties. The decision to enable lawful land transactions and not to apply in the territories a distinctly discriminatory and antisemitic Jordanian-era law that barred the sale of land to Jews cannot reasonably be described as "de facto annexation."

Annexation is a formal governmental act; it cannot be carried out quietly, "creepingly," or in secret through administrative adjustments.

The condemnation by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for the reversal of these measures reflects extreme bias and a superficial reading of the facts and legal framework underlying them.
David Horovitz: Beware Netanyahu’s Orwellian ‘War of Revival’ doublespeak
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determinedly seeking to have us all remember the war Israel had to wage against Hamas after the terrorists invaded on October 7, 2023, as the “War of Revival.”

By cabinet fiat last October, Netanyahu replaced the official IDF designation of the conflict, “Swords of Iron,” which had been announced on the very day that Hamas carried out its invasion, with his carefully chosen “War of Revival.” He routinely utilizes the term in his Knesset speeches. Presumably, it is what his planned self-appointed and self-mandated political commission of inquiry into the war would investigate, and pronounce Netanyahu unstained.

As things stand, the wording on the graves of soldiers killed on and since October 7 simply states, in lieu of a formal decision, that they “fell in battle,” without specifying a name for the war in which they were killed. The IDF noted this week that no decision has yet been made by the government as to whether to impose the “War of Revival” wording on the soldiers’ graves — a potential requirement that some families are bitterly vowing to resist.

In similar vein, last week, Netanyahu’s office ordered the excision of the word “massacre” from the title of legislation establishing an annual commemoration of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught.

The prime minister’s goal, needless to say, is to remove or at least marginalize the failures surrounding the Hamas-led invasion from the public consciousness and thus escape his crushing personal responsibility.

Most Israelis think of the two years of fighting, bluntly, simply and accurately, as “the October 7 war.” Netanyahu’s doublespeak seeks to misrepresent what was an essential resort to force — against any enemy that had been unfathomably allowed to breach Israel’s defenses and carry out the worst massacre in modern Israeli history — as some kind of war of choice, an initiated conflict that Israel opted to embark upon in order to achieve a glorious revitalization.

The war that Israel launched after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists brutally murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 to Gaza was not a “war of revival.” Neither, as some cynics have sniped, was it the “war of self-revival” for Netanyahu.

It was, rather, a war of survival, a necessary response to unprovoked mass murder by an enemy next door that was vowing (indeed, still is) to keep killing Israelis until our country is destroyed.

By misnaming the war, by falsifying what went wrong — his defense minister on that terrible day declared flatly on national television earlier this month that “we have a liar for prime minister” — and by refusing to allow the failures to be properly investigated by a state commission, Netanyahu aims to exculpate himself from blame. He peddles a skewed narrative that dishonors the dead, the injured, the traumatized. And he obscures the imperative to get to the root of the failures.
Khaled Abu Toameh: It Is Time To Listen To What Hamas Says in Arabic
When addressing Arab audiences in Arabic, however, Hamas leaders and senior officials have been saying the exact opposite.

Anyone who believes that Hamas would "keep their word" is grotesquely misguided. Before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, many people seemed to believe Hamas when its leaders used to say that they were interested in maintaining their ceasefire with Israel.

Moreover, the assumption that pro-Hamas members of the "Board of Peace" such as Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan would participate in any effort to disarm the terror group is clueless and misinformed.

Recent statements in Arabic by two of the terror group's senior officials, Khaled Mashaal and Mahmoud Mardawi, show that Hamas remains vehemently opposed to Trump's plan, specifically the provisions concerning disarmament, the involvement of foreigners in the governance of the Gaza Strip, and the deployment of an international security force there.

According to Trump's plan: "There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning..." [Emphasis added.]

Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist in any borders and understandably wants to keep its weapons to pursue its Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.

"We do not accept the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or a return of the mandate. Palestinians govern Palestinians." — Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas's political bureau abroad, manassa.news, February 8, 2026.

It is crucial that the Trump administration and the rest of the international community start paying attention to what Hamas says in its own language, Arabic, not what some of its leaders or friends in Qatar and Turkey tell foreign officials in English and behind closed doors.

Disarmament would undermine Hamas's core identity, reduce its political influence within Palestinian politics, and deprive it of what it claims to view as deterrence against Israel. Historically, however, Israel does not attack anyone unless it is attacked first.

The only way to ensure the success of Trump's plan is by insisting that Hamas cease to exist, both as a political and as a military entity, and vanish from the Palestinian universe. Failure to do so will only encourage Hamas and other Islamists to pursue their Jihad to kill more Jews, eliminate Israel, and defy Trump.
Trump’s Board of Peace convenes on Gaza as prospect of war with Iran surges
The Board of Peace convened by President Donald Trump to administer Gaza’s reconstruction is meeting for the first time in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

At the same time, signs are mounting that Trump could launch a long-threatened war on Iran imminently, which would throw the Middle East back into turmoil. U.S. warships are amassing in the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned trip to the United States this week and Trump met Wednesday with his top Iran advisors.

Trump surprised Israel by opening direct negotiations with Iran last year to limit its nuclear program. The ongoing talks, including this week, have reportedly left a wide gap in the two sides’ positions.

“There are many arguments one can make in favor of a strike against Iran,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday while maintaining that Trump would still like to make a deal.

Israeli media is reporting that a war could begin as soon as this weekend; Axios is reporting that U.S. officials view the end of the month as a significant deadline before making a final decision.


Full remarks: Sa’ar at inaugural Board of Peace meeting
Below is the full text of remarks delivered by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar during the inaugural meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19, 2026.


Shaath: Palestinian police force to deploy to Gaza by late April
A 50,000-man strong Palestinian police force is expected to deploy to the Gaza Strip within 60 days, Ali Shaath, chief commissioner of the U.S.-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), announced on Thursday, as he addressed the Board of Peace.

The “professional civilian police” will be created “under one authority, one law and one weapon,” Shaath said in his remarks in Washington.

The police force, which reportedly already has 2,000 applicants, will fall under the auspices of the NCAG and train in Egypt. It will be responsible for disarming all armed groups in Gaza, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations.

Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority, closely echoed remarks by P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas, who has long insisted that arms in Gaza, Judea and Samaria be brought under Ramallah’s control under his principle of “one authority, one law, one gun.”

Israel, however, opposes any role for the P.A. in Gaza, due to Ramallah’s incessant support for terror against the Jewish state.

Shaath, who was seated in front of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar during the Board of Peace meeting, wore a pin on his lapel with the flag of the Palestine Liberation Organization, long headed by Yasser Arafat, Abbas’s protégé.

“Thank you, President [Donald] Trump, for your leadership, for your continued efforts,” Shaath opened his remarks during the summit.

“A new governing authority is now in place for Gaza—with a clear mandate and a clear commitment to establishing development and stability,” Shaath declared, noting that his committee was operating in “extremely difficult conditions” following the two-year-long Gaza war.

‘This is a problem of peace,’ not money

Gaza High Representative Nickolay Mladenov, who spoke after Shaath, told the gathering that the police force will “allow us to ensure that all factions in Gaza are dismantled and all weapons are put under the control of one civilian authority.

“We now have a fully agreed framework,” Mladenov announced while publicly thanking Qatar, Egypt and Turkey “for their excellent support.”


Steinitz: Iran Learned Lessons from the 12-Day War, but Israel also Improved Greatly
Former Israeli Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz, chairman of defense contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, said Tuesday:
"There is no absolute way to prevent surprises. Historically, from the Battle of Salamis in ancient Greece to the present day, it has been proven that over time both sides always manage to surprise each other."

"You have to build yourself in such a way that if you are surprised, you absorb a blow but not a collapse or a disaster."

Referring to the possibility of renewed confrontation with Iran, Steinitz said, "They learned lessons from what happened in the 12-day war and improved. But we also improved greatly and learned many things."

"And this time there is an additional element that did not exist in June: we have the big brother, the United States."

"A nuclear capability will remain [the] No. 1 [threat], even if we have denied the Iranians 90% of that capability. The second threat is ballistic missiles, and it is serious."

"During Operation Rising Lion, their plan was to launch 1,500 to 2,000 missiles at Israel. Because we conducted a hunt on Iranian soil, they managed to launch only 550."

"Of those, unfortunately, 50 struck. War is not a pleasant event even if you win."
The Sheer Scale Of The U.S. Military Presence Building Up Around Iran
The United States is rapidly expanding its military footprint across the Middle East, positioning major naval and air assets across the region as the Trump administration mounts pressure on Iran.

While the second round of nuclear negotiations wrapped this week and were described as “constructive,” the United States has continued to amass over a dozen warships and hundreds of planes throughout the region.

Here are the assets we know are powering America’s surging military presence:


Aircraft Carrier Strike Groups
At the center of the buildup are aircraft carrier strike groups — both equipped with aircraft, warships, and vast amounts of weaponry.

USS Gerald R. Ford strike group
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship and its accompanying strike group, is en route to the Middle East from the Caribbean, according to USNI News. On Wednesday morning, it was spotted off the coast of Morocco, presumably heading to the Strait of Gibraltar. The Ford strike group carries a full combat air wing of F/A-18 Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers for electronic warfare, E-2D Hawkeye airborne command aircraft, and Seahawk helicopters — giving it deep strike, surveillance, and electronic attack capabilities.

USS Gerald R. Ford — nuclear aircraft carrier
USS Bainbridge — Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer
USS Mahan — Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer
USS Winston S. Churchill — Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer

USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group
The USS Abraham Lincoln Strike group arrived in the Arabian Sea last month after traveling from the South China Sea. As of Tuesday, the strike group was in position and reportedly around 700 kilometers away from Iran. The Lincoln strike group fields roughly 90 aircraft, including Marine F-35C stealth fighters, Super Hornets, Growlers, and Hawkeyes — a force capable of sustained combat operations.
USS Abraham Lincoln, aircraft carrier
USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer
USS Spruance, Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer


Visegrad24: “The tolerance of the intolerant.” | Reza Pahlavi
Visegrad24 founder Stefan Tompson meets in Munich with the Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi to ask him what happened after the Islamic Regime in Iran shut down the internet nationwide on January 8th and started the world's largest massacre of protesters in modern times.

Tompson also asks what the Crown Prince wants the West to do after this unprecedented bloodshed on Iran's streets and whether he fears that Europe is in danger of Islamization through demographic replacement.

0:00 - Intro
2:16 - Crackdown on anti-regime protesters
4:11 - Mainstream Media Silence
6:59 - What should the West do for Iran
11:01 - Islamic Regime Spreading the Calipathe
13:08 - The Islamic Regime and Organized Crime
14:14 - Why won't EU Ban the IRGC & Muslim Brotherhood
15:50 - Europe is Turning Islamist
18:32 - Demographic Replacement in Europe
20:52 - Europe Must Be Free from Sharia Law
22:52 - The Iranian Diaspora and Success
25:40 - What a Free Iran Will do for the World




EU designates Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization
The European Council, the European Union’s chief decision-making body, on Thursday formalized its decision to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

Following the Jan. 29 political agreement reached during a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers, “the council formally decided today to add the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran to the E.U. terrorist list,” the body said in a press release on Thursday.

Effective immediately, the elite branch of the Islamic regime’s armed forces “will also be subject to restrictive measures under the E.U. counter-terrorism sanctions regime,” the statement continued.

The listing “includes the freezing of its funds and other financial assets or economic resources in E.U. member states, and the prohibition for E.U. operators to make funds and economic resources available to the group,” Brussels added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar applauded the “historic decision” by the European Union last month to designate the IRGC as a terror group.

“For years, and with even greater intensity in recent weeks, Israel has worked to achieve this outcome,” Sa’ar stated shortly after Euronews reported that Brussels had achieved the required unanimity.

“The No. 1 actor in spreading terror and undermining regional stability has now been called by its name,” Jerusalem’s senior diplomat wrote, noting that listing the corps as a terrorist group “will thwart and criminalize their activities in Europe.”


‘How was she let in?’: Fury over Iranian general’s daughter granted an Australian visa
Former Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee chair Michael Danby questions how the daughter of an Iranian general was admitted to Australia under sanctions laws.

“How can this person be admitted to Australia, the Iranian general’s daughter, under the Magnitsky Act?” Mr Danby told Sky News host Peta Credlin.

“This kind of person should be excluded.”




Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar's remarks at a meeting of the UN Security Council

J7 Task Force Statement on Francesca Albanese’s Latest Antisemitic Remarks and Call for UN Human Rights Council Reforms
Following the latest antisemitic remarks by UN Special Envoy Francesca Albanese, the J7 Large Jewish Communities Task Force on Antisemitism—representing the Jewish communities of Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States— express its support to the call by numerous governments calling on Ms. Albanese to resign, and further urge a comprehensive reform of the special rapporteur structure and oversight by the UN Human Rights Council.

Throughout her tenure, Ms. Albanese has demonstrated a persistent pattern of antisemitic statements and anti-Israel bias, including Holocaust inversion and comparisons, resorting to age-old tropes, denying antisemitic violence and legitimizing terror against Jews and Israelis which renders her fundamentally unfit to represent the United Nations in any capacity.

Most recently, On February 7, 2026, speaking at an Al Jazeera forum in Doha alongside Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Iran’s Foreign Minister, Ms. Albanese stated that “we as a humanity have a common enemy,” remarks widely understood to designate Israel as the enemy of all humanity. While she later claimed to reference “the system,” her words—delivered in that company and forum—were unambiguous in their malign intent and effect.

These statements flagrantly violate the UN Special Procedures Code of Conduct, which requires impartiality, objectivity, and personal discretion. Ms. Albanese has repeatedly failed to meet this standard.

J7 Members:
Argentina: Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA)
Australia: Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ)
Canada: Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)
France: Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF)
Germany: Central Council of Jews in Germany
The United Kingdom: Board of Deputies of British Jews
The United States: ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations


Restricted Video:
The UN considers child sexual abuse, "the cost of doing business."
At the UN, you get promoted for r*ping children, and fired for reporting someone.

Forget about Epstein! This is known BY EVERYONE! They know who these people are inside their own staff!




IDF: West Bank stable heading into Ramadan, but maintaining high op. tempo to prevent incitement
The IDF is heading into Ramadan 2026 with a security assessment of relative stability in the West Bank alongside an operational strategy to respond quickly and forcefully to every violence and terror incident to keep it contained. The aim is to prevent localized incidents from triggering wider copycat violence, mass unrest, or sustained incitement.

A large military presence will remain in place across the West Bank, including 21 battalions, reinforced by commando units and additional companies. The deployment of troops is built to shift rapidly from routine activity to targeted raids, arrests, and intelligence-led interdictions when incidents erupt. The IDF understands that if left unattended for too long, these isolated incidents can lead to widespread unrest in a heartbeat.

Operational planning within the IDF is concentrating on predictable pressure points where crowd density and symbolism can turn a small incident into broader, sustained protests.

Key friction areas include major crossings and religiously sensitive locations, such as Rachel’s Crossing, Kalandiya, and the area around the Cave of the Patriarchs, where significant gatherings are expected during the month.

Alongside ground operations, the campaign is placing heavy emphasis on constraining the drivers of escalation. Enforcement against incitement and the money that fuels terror networks is being treated as central to preventing a single incident from evolving into a wider wave.


The Lancet’s dubious Gaza casualty figures and the BBC’s selective scepticism
Here we go again. In July 2024 the Lancet published a claim by three academics that the death toll in Gaza could be up to 186,000. That figure was, as the academics behind it themselves revealed, was effectively plucked out of thin air. It was reached by taking the 37,396 figure supplied at the time by the Hamas Ministry of Health – itself hardly an impartial source – and concluding that it was “not implausible” to estimate that the figure could end up being 186,000 deaths at some point in the future.

That “not implausible” conclusion was reached by a method that would be amusing, were it not a matter of life and death. The academics took 37,396 and simply multiplied it by five – an entirely arbitrary multiplier. Why five and not four? Why not 6.4? Why not 87.3? Why not 32? The entire calculation was worthless. But the Lancet chose to give it huge publicity, and it took on a life as fact. Zarah Sultana – of course – wrote: “The Lancet – the most prestigious medical journal in the world – conservatively estimates that the death toll in Gaza could be 186,000 or more. That’s 8% of the population”. The “Gaza Genocide” entry on Wikipedia still cites the figure.

That the Lancet chose to publish the claim was no surprise. For a journal of medicine, it has a long history of bias and tendentious smears when it comes to Israel. In July 2014, for example, while Hamas rocket’s rained down on Israel, The Lancet published an “Open letter for the people in Gaza”, in which Israeli academics were labelled “complicit” in “war crimes” because they were academics working in Israel. In response, hundreds of other academics, including many British physicians, signed a letter in response accusing the Lancet of “numerous vicious and deliberately inflammatory falsehoods, omissions and abusive dishonesty, which have no place in any responsible publication.”

Four years later the Lancet ran an article by one of the signatories of the 2014 “open letter”, arguing that Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians was justified: “Palestinians militarily occupied by Israel are enduring chronic exposure to Israeli violence (including threats to their survival) and are rightfully resisting oppression and injustice.”

And so here, indeed, we go again. Yesterday the Lancet reported that the death toll for the first 16 months of the Gaza war was 75,000, over 25,000 more than the figure cited by the Hamas Ministry of Health: “The combined evidence suggests that, as of 5 January 2025, 3-4% of the population of the Gaza Strip had been killed violently and there have been a substantial number of non-violent deaths caused indirectly by the conflict”.

I am not here to impugn the authors of the study. For all I know they may be motivated solely by a desire to seek the truth, and may have no animus at all against Israel. That is, one might say, “not implausible”.


Israel Defense Forces: Nate Buzz: War, Influence, and the Battle for Perception
On this episode of Mission Brief, we sit down with actor and Israel advocate Nate Buzz. From growing up in Sydney among diverse Middle Eastern communities to Hollywood and volunteering in Iraq during the ISIS conflict, Nate shares his journey of faith, resilience, and advocacy. We discuss the role of social media in modern conflicts, narratives surrounding Israel and Gaza, and the courage it takes to speak out amid cancel culture.


The Real Reason Israel Is Targeted - Haviv Rettig Gur
In this episode of The Brink, we are joined by Haviv Rettig Gur for a wide-ranging and deeply probing conversation about why Israel is so disproportionately hated, and what that hostility reveals about the state of the West.

We begin with the disruption of Haviv’s lecture at Haverford College, where keffiyeh-clad activists attempted to shut down a talk on Jewish history and the charge of settler colonialism. Haviv reflects on the ignorance driving campus activism, the collapse of serious historical scholarship, and the failure of elite universities to equip students with intellectual depth or empathy.

Haviv argues that Israel’s strength lies in its synthesis of Western democracy and Middle Eastern solidarity, combining liberal institutions with a deep sense of tribal cohesion and shared destiny. We discuss why that social trust has produced military resilience, demographic growth, technological innovation, and high levels of national happiness, even during wartime.

The conversation also examines the broader crisis facing Western societies, from cultural self-erasure and collapsing social trust to the information warfare being waged by hostile states and ideological movements. We ask whether the West can rediscover the solidarity that once sustained it, and whether Israel’s model offers lessons rather than condemnation.

In the second part of the episode, Andrew joins to discuss his new Henry Jackson Society report, Tactical Lessons from Gaza, and what Western militaries must learn from the war. We examine how Hamas weaponised civilian casualties, how the information battlefield reshaped global opinion, and how Israel adapted its military doctrine in real time to meet the challenge of urban and tunnel warfare.

This is a searching and urgent conversation about identity, democracy, and whether the West still has the confidence to defend the civilisation it built.


Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: NGO admits Hamas controls Gaza's hospitals. Why now?
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, the head of Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse.

We begin the conversation with a bleak update on how Gazans are faring on the ground and hear anecdotes of poor hygiene and price gouging in the Strip. As the festive holy month of Ramadan begins, the lack of basic necessities becomes more stark for those who must fast all day but cannot feast at night.

We then turn to the sudden announcement this week from Doctors Without Borders that it has suspended non-critical medical activities at Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis due to the presence of armed men at the medical facility and “a recent situation of suspicion of movement of weapons.”

Alkhatib brings multiple examples of prior knowledge of the "armed men" in the hospital since Hamas's October 7, 2023, onslaught on southern Israel. He accuses the NGO of looking the other way as the terror organization took over hospital wings and turned them into prisons and torture chambers. So why did the international humanitarian group in Gaza decide to take notice now?






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