Sunday, October 04, 2026

10/04 Links: Douglas Murray: Israel Is Winning; The Green Party is now an openly anti-Jewish party; ‘Evil incarnate’: Israel’s top forensic pathologist reveals unseen Oct. 7 evidence; IDF Dismantles Claims in "NAZA" Documentary

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Israel Is Winning
The attempted hijacking of a Flydubai plane en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv is a reminder that Israel and the West remain at war with Islamic radicals, and that it is a war we are winning. The online world is filled with shrill declarations that Israel has lost this war. But on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel and its allies have been winning the war on the ground even as they have lost the PR war around the world.

The PR war matters. But it matters less than the war itself. Better to win the ground war and lose the PR war than the other way around.

Piece by piece, the Israeli government took apart the Iranian axis. First, they took apart Hamas in Gaza, despite constant attempts to make them stop, which came not just from Europe but from President Joe Biden's White House. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran in July 2024. Then, while Netanyahu was in New York speaking at the UN, Israel bombed the compound where the head of Hizbullah, Hassan Nasrallah, and almost all his remaining senior colleagues were gathered.

Two years into the war that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar started, the Israeli air force took out the majority of the Iranian regime's air defenses, then came back and struck thousands of regime targets, opening the route for American B-2 bombers to attack the main Iranian nuclear sites. Then the Americans and the Israelis returned. They not only targeted the Iranian nuclear program again but also killed the supreme leader.

Everybody alongside and above Sinwar in the chain of command is now dead. Neither Hamas, Hizbullah, nor the Iranian regime has a noose ready to pull around Israel's neck anymore. A large share of the Israeli hostages were eventually returned alive. Three years ago, this set of victories would have seemed unthinkable.

What happened in the skies above Saudi Arabia on Wednesday stands as a metaphor for three years of war. The Israelis saw an existential threat, took matters into their own hands, and decided their own course. The rest of the West will have to decide whether it will follow the Israeli model or let its own future be dictated by terror and the hijacking of its entire society.
Israel’s Growing Allies on the Ground—and in the Sky
Israel is no stranger to diplomatic isolation, but the widespread condemnation it has received after Hamas's October 7 atrocities has been unusually strong and meritless. Last week, the dozens of delegates walking out on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations seemed to dramatize Israel's diplomatic plight. Bibi defied the well-heeled "moral cowards" of Turtle Bay and defended his policies against Iran and its terrorist minions. But even as many of Israel's friends applauded him at the rostrum, their eyes darted nervously to the swelling exodus in the aisles.

A different set of images portrayed a more important reality this week. When an Omani terrorist attempted to hijack an airplane bound for Israel from Dubai, an improvised multinational coalition sprang into action. This was largely the work of brave individuals, but it illustrates the larger forces affecting Israel's foreign policy. The Jewish state faces many enemies, but a growing number of countries are attracted to it because of Israel's battlefield prowess, technological skill, and shared values.

The terrorist aimed to kill Jews, but his first target was an Indian. The pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar, fought off his treacherous copilot long enough to open the cockpit door. Israeli passengers then rushed their would-be murderer, subdued him, pulled the Boeing 737 out of its fatal dive, and stabilized the stricken aviator. The plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia, where medics tended to the injured civilians until another plane brought them to Tel Aviv.

Much like Captain Machchhar and his passengers, Israel and India are becoming a dynamic duo. Although India still expresses plenty of sympathy for the residents of the West Bank and Gaza, the Jewish state's value is too obvious to miss for a country with hostile neighbors and severe terrorist threats. India is Israel's top destination for defense exports, and it has reciprocated with nearly 3,000 shipments of defense equipment and components since October 7. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit in February, he and Netanyahu announced a bevy of agreements on technological cooperation and that a free trade agreement is in the works. Together, they form one half of the I2U2, a quadrilateral that includes the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Of course, the flight only occurred because of Israel's relationship with the UAE, which has deepened because of the immense damage Iran is inflicting across the Middle East. In fact, as the pinstriped diplomats stormed down the aisle at the U.N., the Emirati delegation remained.

Less symbolically but perhaps more importantly, the military leaders of several Arab countries reportedly met with U.S. and Israeli generals in Germany a few days before the walkout. No countries have formally joined the Abraham Accords this year, but the Saudis and even the Qataris attended this meeting. Iran's belligerence across the wider Middle East is forcing previously implacable foes to coordinate militarily with the Jewish state.

Like-minded friends in the Global South are rallying to Israel too. Argentina's Javier Milei excoriated "the alleged defenders of human rights" at the U.N. who "have systematically voted against Israel while remaining silent in the face of Islamic terrorism and the genocide of Christians in Africa."
Brendan O'Neill: The Green Party is now an openly anti-Jewish party
‘Tell me what you accuse the Jews of [and] I’ll tell you what you are guilty of’, said the great Soviet writer Vasily Grossman. Today, that grim, eternal truth was starkly illustrated by the Green Party’s passing of a motion saying ‘Zionism is Racism’. To throw around the word ‘racism’ even as you single out Jewish sovereignty as uniquely demonic, to pose as an enemy of bigotry even as you dream of the erasure of the world’s only Jewish state, takes moral duplicity to sickening new heights. In their snivelling whisperings about ‘racism’, these scumbags reveal their own.

It was at their conference in Brighton that the Green Party of England and Wales voted in favour of the ‘Zionism is Racism’ screed. The motion expressly defines the Greens as an ‘anti-Zionist party’. It says Zionism is a species of racial hatred, and will henceforth be ‘treated as any other form of racism’. Most obnoxiously of all, it commits the Greens to campaigning for the scrubbing of the Jewish nation from the face of the Earth. It calls for ‘the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital’. So no more Jewish homeland. No more tiny patch of land, a poxy 263 by 71 miles, for the Jews to call their own. All of it would disappear. Imagine accusing others of being ‘genocidal’ even as you agitate for the total dismantling of the ancestral kingdom of the Jews.

Anyone who thinks this is ‘just about Israel’, that the Islamo-left’s demented hatred for the Jewish nation has no impact on the Jews of the West, needs to pay closer attention. One of the most chilling events in Brighton today was the enthusiastic voting down of an amendment that would have offered protection to Jewish Greens who attend Zionist synagogues. Designed to ‘safeguard Jewish membership’, the amendment warned against ‘indirect discrimination’ against ‘practising Jews’ on the basis of the ‘synagogues, community centres or denominational groups’ they are aligned with. It was smashed, defeated by 1,026 to 648 votes.

Think about this. Really think about it. A mainstream party, and a supposedly progressive one, has just voted against an amendment that would protect its own Jewish members from discrimination on the grounds of the religious institutions they attend. I cannot remember anything like this in my lifetime: a party effectively greenlighting the harassment of Jews who commit the ‘sin’ of attending synagogues that believe in the right of Jews to nationhood. It is stunning. It’s a moral crisis. Not since the BNP has a party so openly committed itself to hostility towards certain Jews.

The historic gravity of today’s events cannot be overstated. We now have a party in Britain wholly devoted to the moral annihilation of Jewish sovereignty. A party committed to the abolition of Israel. A party content to hang a target sign around the necks of its own Jewish members who continue to patronise institutions that believe in the continued existence of a Jewish State. If the Tories overnight devoted themselves to the removal from the Earth of the state of Pakistan, and the moral isolation of every pesky Pakistani in Britain who likes that nation, it would be leading the news. Every progressive would cry ‘racism’, and rightly so. Will they do likewise here? Don’t hold your breath – you’ll die.

I’ll say it, though. I’ll say that if Jewish nationhood makes you vomit, if the right to self-determination of the Jews keeps you awake at night, then you are a bigot. You might consider yourself woke and good, but your frothing animus for Jewish nationhood betrays the blackness of your soul. For that’s all Zionism is: the belief that the Jews, like every other people, have an inalienable right to build and flourish in the land of their forebears. That the same people who tilt their heads in bourgeois indulgence of every native claim to territory then puke into their matcha when the Jews say ‘What about us?’ tells you everything you need to know. It is impossible to explain these double standards without using the word ‘anti-Semitism’. Go on, try.


‘Evil incarnate’: Israel’s top forensic pathologist reveals unseen Oct. 7 evidence
“Here we see the body of a person who was burned,” he says, pausing over one of the photographs. “We know he was burned alive: When we open his airway, we can see soot inside. That means he inhaled smoke while he was being burned.”

Prof. Chen Kugel, director of the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, shows us a presentation containing hundreds of photographs from the autopsy rooms. Three years after the Oct. 7 massacre, he shows us some of them, including images that have never before been published. They document the horrific brutality of the Hamas terrorists, to the point of obliterating all trace of those they murdered. These sights exacted a heavy price from him: Months after the main work of identifying the victims was completed, he sought psychological treatment and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Three years after the October 7 massacre: The evidence of atrocities that remains
“While I’m working, I’m on autopilot, focused. I examine, investigate the cause of death in order to reach an identification. I don’t involve emotions. But there were cases that affected me personally, like the case of a young woman.”

She had attended the Nova music festival and was shot in the legs as she ran to take shelter in an ambulance parked nearby. There, she was murdered along with 18 other people who had crowded inside, when terrorists fired an RPG at it. The crescent-shaped necklace she was wearing was found at the funeral home and mistakenly attributed to another body, until her DNA was extracted from it.

Her body was transferred to the Shura military base. Because no CT scan had been performed there, Kugel and his team assumed that her body had fused with another body in the fire that broke out in the ambulance and that the two had been buried together. To identify her, the bodies were exhumed. The young woman was identified through DNA extracted from the necklace and brought to burial.

“It was very difficult for me,” he says of the moment she was identified.

A week after the deadliest attack in Israel’s history began, large numbers of bodies started arriving at the center, reaching a peak when trucks stood in line and refrigerated containers had to be urgently brought in because there was simply no room left. According to Kugel, the smell of the horror spread throughout the surrounding neighborhood in south Tel Aviv.

“We received about 3,000 bags, most of which contained body parts and burned bones. The more bags we opened, the more we found parts of the same person scattered among different bags. Ultimately, we handled more than 900 bodies at the institute from the events of Oct. 7 and the Swords of Iron war.

“That does not include hundreds of bodies of terrorists and Gaza residents that were removed from hospitals and cemeteries to check whether any of them were the bodies of hostages. Examining those bodies cost us precious time and an enormous amount of work for nothing.”

The moment he broke down in tears
The identification work continued from morning until night, including on weekends. The goal was to remove the uncertainty for the families and allow them to bring their loved ones to burial in Israel.

Kugel’s breaking point came on one Friday, another busy and frantic day at the center. It was approaching evening, and the teams and volunteers had their hands full. Laboratory directors arrived to help collect DNA from the victims’ bodies, some bringing their laboratory technicians with them. Alongside them worked anthropologists who helped interpret findings from bone fragments, as well as other professionals.

Prof. Chen Kugel: “There were also people whose faces had been deliberately mutilated, or whose remains had been obliterated and virtually erased, or whose bodies had been gnawed by animals. We also saw bodies of people who had been abused before they were murdered, and sometimes afterward as well. In one place, people were tied up and shot, including in their genitals. We saw decapitated bodies, including the heads of children.”

In all, about 100 people crowded into the center’s small spaces. Shortly before Shabbat began, civilians arrived at the institute carrying trays filled with food for Friday-night dinner. “I gathered everyone together and stood up to say a blessing, and I couldn’t. I broke down crying in the face of all that goodness. After seeing the cruelty, what moved me most was the kindness, the way the civilians mobilized and the reality that showed me there are good people and not everything is shit.”


Baby who became symbol of Oct. 7 terror returns home to Israeli kibbutz
Ten-day-old Kai Labban was the newest and tiniest star of Kibbutz Nirim, an idyllic cooperative oasis one mile from the Gaza border, when a nightmare shattered their world on Oct. 7, 2023.

New parents Aimee and Uriel Labban were blissfully doting on their newborn baby boy when Hamas terrorists stormed their home and set it ablaze, trying to smoke out everyone inside.

The Labbans’ sole focus was to save their precious, eight-pound, black-haired newborn, so they scrambled to their bedroom’s safe room and placed the tyke in the crevice of a windowsill.

“I took the photo. I thought that if we don’t survive, at least the world will know we did our best to try,” recalled Aimee, who shared the image in real time with family abroad — who then sent it to the media.

Outside, Hamas’ elite Nukhba unit stormed the kibbutz on motorcycles and pickup trucks, armed with automatic weapons and grenades, and set fire to civilian homes and cars and shot at them. At least one terrorist stood outside the family home with an RPG slung over his shoulder. Uriel held the door shut as the terrorists tried to yank the knob from the other side. Aimee said she doesn’t know why they never fired the RPG.

For nine hours, the family fought for survival after the terrorists moved on to other victims.

The family was rescued by Israel Defense Forces troops, taken to an underground bunker and later to a hospital, where they were treated for severe smoke inhalation. Kai also developed blood poisoning and needed an oxygen tank for three days.

“Even at 10 days old, he was a fighter,” his mom said.

Meanwhile, Kai’s windowsill picture was already circulating around the world after extended family posted the heartbreaking image — which would go on to become an international symbol of hope as Kai became known as the youngest survivor of the Oct. 7 attacks.

“We just tried to keep him alive,” Aimee, 33, told The Post on the near three-year anniversary of the savage attack that murdered 1,200.
Parents of Israeli hostage slain by Hamas welcome baby boy born from egg frozen 25 years ago
These parents were delivered a miracle scripted in heaven.

Nearly three years after Hamas terrorists abducted their son Almog on Oct. 7 and killed him in captivity 11 months later, Nira and Yigal Sarusi have welcomed a baby boy — thanks to a medical procedure made possible by eggs frozen a quarter-century ago, and what the grieving parents call divine intervention.

Little Lavi was born on Yom Kippur, just two weeks before the third anniversary of Israel’s darkest day, when Hamas terrorists kidnapped his brother, then 26, from the Nova music festival.

Despite his own gunshot wounds, the civil engineering student stayed behind to help his injured girlfriend Shahar, who was later killed.

He planned to propose the following year.

“It’s a true miracle,” Yigal told The Post, adding that as life was cruelly stolen, new life can miraculously emerge – a testament that evil will not win.

“It’s all from God,” the 60-year-old said.

The hope the Sarusis held for 331 agonizing days that their “hero” son would return home alive was dashed when Hamas executed Almog and five other hostages.

He, Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg Polin and four others were slain deep inside the bowels of Gaza in a Rafah tunnel in August 2024 just moments before the IDF was closing in on their rescue. They would become known as “The Beautiful Six.”

Haunting images of the inconsolable parents at Almog’s funeral were seared into the soul of the country.

While mourning their son — the oldest of four children — the Sarusis remembered eggs frozen some 25 years earlier as part of a medical procedure and, with the blessing of their remaining children, decided to pursue surrogacy.
Former hostage shares photos from captivity, as Hamas doctor operates on her injured hand
Former hostage Emily Damari shared pictures of herself from Gaza on Saturday that she said were taken immediately after she was abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists to the coastal enclave during the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel.

She did so on the three-year anniversary of the Hebrew date of the October 7, 2023, attack — during the holiday of Simhat Torah.

Damari, now 30, was taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas terrorists who attacked Kibbutz Kfar Aza, killing, assaulting and abducting dozens to Gaza.

In the images posted to Instagram, Damari can be seen lying on a hospital bed at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, her body covered by a blood-stained piece of clothing and her head concealed beneath a covering that the terrorists apparently made her wear. The disguise appears intended to make her look like a local Muslim woman, a tactic Hamas is known to have used to covertly move hostages between locations.

A man can be seen operating on Damari’s hand, which was hit by gunfire during the abduction.

“I was kidnapped together with the best friend I could ask for, Gali Berman, who was with me during the most frightening moments of my life. In these moments I rediscovered the term ‘mortal fear,'” she wrote.

When the photos were taken, “I’m in a disgusting room filled with blood, a corpse is on the ground near me. A ‘doctor’ approaches and presents himself as ‘Dr. Hamas,’ while near him are another 10 monsters with AK-47s [pointed] at my head and I am just praying to God that he will protect me in this situation,” Damari recalled.


US Senate unanimously passes bipartisan resolution honoring American October 7 victims
The United States Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution honoring the American citizens killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, on Wednesday.

The resolution, S.Res.938, lists out 40 of the 46 Americans killed on October 7, as well as the seven hostages who were successfully freed alive from Hamas captivity.

In passing the resolution, the Senate resolved to honor and mourn the victims; express condolences to the victims' families; condemn Hamas and its affiliates; commend the US government for its role in freeing some of the hostages; urge the government to continue working to free US citizens held hostage across the world; and supports continued engagement by the US government with October 7 victims and their families.

The resolution also directs the Senate to dispatch a copy of the resolution to the families of American October 7 victims.

US has duty to secure justice for its people, senator says
Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who cosponsored the resolution along with Jewish Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, celebrated its passing in the Senate.

“Three years ago, the world watched in horror as Hamas terrorists massacred innocent civilians, including American citizens," the Republican senator said. "Families were torn apart, communities were decimated, and innocents, including babies and young children, were barbarically murdered. Americans were among the victims. There is no moral gray area here; Hamas is evil. Our country must protect our people and has a duty to secure justice for them. I was proud to work with Senator Rosen to honor the Americans whose lives were unjustly taken from them and the hostages who will spend the rest of their lives scarred by that tragic day.”
IDF Dismantles Claims in "NAZA" Documentary
The IDF Spokesperson on Thursday published a rebuttal to the allegations presented in the documentary film "NAZA." The film presents a "distorted, misleading and disingenuous picture" of the military's target-planning and strike process, and its narrative is based on "substantial factual errors" stemming from a distorted and manipulative portrayal of reality.

Binding directives explicitly distinguish between terrorists and uninvolved civilians, and the targeting process requires steps to minimize civilian harm to the greatest extent feasible. The IDF said it "has never planned, approved or carried out a strike in Gaza in which 500 civilians or anything close to that number were expected to be killed" or anything close to it.

Artificial intelligence has never independently selected targets for IDF strikes. Targets are identified by qualified intelligence officers, strikes are planned by professional personnel, and the ultimate decision on whether to attack a target is made by operational commanders.

Some of the people interviewed in the film, who are presented as having served in IDF Intelligence, describe only limited and preliminary stages of intelligence work and do not portray the broader process through which strikes are planned and approved.

The film omits context essential to understanding the war in Gaza, including the Oct. 7 massacre, Hamas operations from within the civilian population, and the measures the IDF takes to minimize civilian harm. "The film deepens its distortion of reality through manipulative editing of interviews and allusions to historical atrocities, while falsely and baselessly attributing malicious intentions to the IDF."
IDF Response to the Film "NAZA"
"NAZA" is the acronym of the Hebrew term "Nezek Agavi" - "collateral damage" in English. This is a professional term commonly used by every law-abiding military worldwide. While the film presents the exceptional effort and detail the IDF devotes to estimating such harm in strikes as evidence of indifference to civilian lives, in reality, assessing expected civilian harm in strikes is a requirement under international law.

The anonymous interviewees addressed matters beyond their knowledge and competence, resulting in substantial errors and misrepresentations of IDF targeting policy. The tragic consequences of war do not justify distorting the facts. Serious discussion of civilian harm requires a serious account of how decisions were actually made. That is precisely what the film fails to provide.
Naza: The Real Story
The war in Gaza, told through the testimonies of IDF officers who took part. Through firsthand accounts, this documentary examines combat in civilian areas, the challenges of identifying threats, and the decisions made on the battlefield. Their testimonies offer a closer look at the conditions they faced, the dilemmas they encountered, and how they describe the conduct of the war. Watch the film online. Available with English subtitles.


Naza: The Real Story. Full Official Movie Filmed at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, this Israeli documentary presents interviews about the Gaza war. Hebrew with English subtitles.


Call me Back: Inside the Hostage Negotiations - with Brett McGurk
What really happened inside the negotiations to free the October 7th hostages?

For 15 months, the Biden administration, Israel, Qatar, Egypt, and Hamas negotiated over one impossible question: how do you bring the hostages home while also fighting a war? Brett McGurk, who was at the center of those talks, joins Dan Senor to take listeners inside the negotiating rooms—from the first backchannel with Qatar to the deals that repeatedly came within reach and fell apart. He explains what he believes Washington got wrong, why public pressure sometimes made negotiations harder, and how an unlikely Biden-Trump transition partnership helped finally get a deal over the line.

In this episode:
What Washington knew in the first hours after October 7th
How Qatar became the critical channel to Hamas
Why the first hostage deal nearly collapsed over the younger women
The impossible tradeoff between freeing hostages and maintaining military pressure
Did public U.S. pressure on Israel make a hostage deal harder to reach?
Why the deaths of six hostages changed McGurk’s view of the negotiations
How the Biden and Trump teams worked together to close the final deal
What the hostage crisis revealed about divisions inside Israeli society




Nicole Lampert: Ninety years on from Cable Street, Jews aren’t welcome in the East End
Cable Street has long been romanticised by the Left – a good way to erase the Soviet Union’s pact with the Nazis three years later and communism’s own long history of anti-Semitism.

Astonishingly, Jeremy Corbyn always used to insist on his mother being at Cable Street as proof of his anti-racist credentials. Yet the same man, under whose stewardship the Labour Party was accused of being institutionally anti-Semitic, also questioned the removal of an anti-Semitic mural just a few streets away in the East End.

For the past few years, a version of the hard-Left, often the same ones who obsessively demonise Israel, have marked the Battle with a small demonstration as they pat themselves on the back. The only Jews invited were explicitly anti-Zionist.

The Jewish element, as the primary targets of the fascists, as with many commemorations about the Holocaust, was often – perversely – omitted. It clearly confuses the far-Left that the people they paint as aggressors can also be victims. So instead they ignore facts and rewrite history.

But this year, the 90th anniversary of Cable Street, will be different.

After the union Unite earlier this year failed to mention Jews in a page promoting its demonstration on Cable Street on Sunday (which it later said was a mistake), Eve Kay decided that there would be a Jewish bloc there – whether the Left liked it or not.

“I saw that they were trying to rewrite us out of our own history and thought, ‘we can’t let this go’,” she told me. The bloc made up of Jews and allies will brandish placards showing the names of some of the Jews who fought at the Battle. Some of their descendants will be there, too. The placards will also say: “We fight on.”

For the self-professed anti-fascists, the existence of actual Jews, not idealised victims who have to be saved, appears to be problematic. Reminding them that the Battle was led by Jews, that at first the communists didn’t want to get involved, is evidently inconvenient.

Even more problematic for them is the fact that many of the Jews then (and almost all of the Jews now) were Zionists. And the hard-Left hates Zionists as much as the BUF hated Jews. These are the people who march against Jews, sometimes choosing Jewish areas or outside synagogues in which to stage their demonstrations calling for the eradication of Israel.

Reality has conflicted with their inverted history and sense of themselves. After getting wind of the Jewish bloc over the last 24 hours, the so-called anti racists have become enraged. One group has called the Jews the real fascists because one of the sponsors once had Reform’s Richard Tice at their event. “Just to be clear, fascists aren’t welcome at the anti-fascist march,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, a social media message has gone out from pro-Palestine groups in the area.

Their call to arms says: “Join the march on Sunday 4th October with Palestine flags and keffiyehs to show Zionists that anti-fascism means anti-Zionism! … We MUST resist the attempt by Zionists to co-opt our movement and our history! Zionists are NOT welcome in Whitechapel.”
Brendan O'Neill: How the left betrayed the spirit of Cable Street
It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? And it goes for virtually the entire left. For three years, leftists have talked about nothing else but the supposedly demonic nature of the Jewish nation. They’ve rallied for the erasure of Israel all the way ‘from the river to the sea’. They’ve called supporters of Israel ‘Zios’ – the n-word of anti-Semitic discourse – and dreamt of their death. Zionists ‘don’t deserve to live’, they’ve said. Put them ‘in the ground’, they’ve cried. Liberals have forsworn brunch to spend their Saturdays marching with Islamists who called Hamas’s orgy of anti-Semitic violence a ‘moment of unparalleled joy and celebration’. They even hit the streets to chant for intifada on the very day two Jews were killed in an Islamist atrocity at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. Two dead Jews weren’t enough for them. They wanted more.

What an insult to history, not to mention the intelligence of Britons, that such people now think they can weep and cheer over the Battle of Cable Street. I’m here to tell them they can’t. The shamelessness is too great, the hubris too toxic.

Imagine if a clash like that at Cable Street were to occur today. Might Zack Polanski wonder out loud if the Jews of the East End are really unsafe or merely suffering from a ‘perception of unsafety’? Might they be accused of ‘weaponising anti-Semitism’ for political gain? Might they be instructed to stem their annoying ‘white tears’? Might the threatened invasion of their streets by fascist scum even be hailed as a ‘day of celebration’ or ‘a moment of unparalleled joy’? If the intruders in this imaginary 21st-century Cable Street were not white fascists like Mosley but brown-skinned haters of Israel with a keffiyeh covering their mugs, it’s likely that would indeed happen; it’s likely the left would not ‘stand against’ this taunting of British Jews but gush over it, cheer it, call it ‘resistance’.

What am I talking about – there have been 21st-century Cable Streets. We don’t need to hypothesise. In Amsterdam in 2024, Jewish fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv fought as hard as they could against Arab mobs who called them ‘cancer Jews’ and threw them into rivers and mocked them with jokes about Hitler’s gas. In London, Jews marched in their thousands against anti-Semitism and said the disproportionate, libel-fuelled hatred for the Jewish State is endangering Jewish people. In the US, Jews gathered to plead for an end to Hamas’s anti-Semitic violence, only to find themselves subjected to anti-Semitic violence. One elderly lady was doused with accelerant by a man hollering ‘Free Palestine’ and then set on fire. She died a few days later. They’re burning Jews to death again.

Which side did the left take in all this barbarism? It sided with the Islamofascist mob in Amsterdam. It damned the British marchers against anti-Semitism as ‘far right’. It turned a blind eye to the setting alight of American Jews, and the shooting to death of American Jews, and the mass murder of Australian Jews, and the slaughter of Mancunian Jews. If Mosley was non-white and wore a keffiyeh, they’d be falling at his rancid feet. Few stances illustrate the left’s moral demise as much as its unhinged loathing for the Jewish State and its stark failure of solidarity for the Jews of the West. The descent into anti-Semitism is always indicative of a deeper moral rot, a sign society is rejecting reason and fawning instead over superstition and tyranny. The journey from Cable Street to ‘globalise the intifada’ is proof of the left’s intoxication by this ancient cosmic bigotry.

I cycled down Cable Street a few days after the pogrom of 7 October in 2023. And from virtually every lamppost there fluttered the Palestine flag. Imagine that – the street where Britain’s Jews held back fascism was festooned with the flag under which more than a thousand Jews had just been slain by Islamofascism. Nothing has convinced me more that Britain is in deep moral trouble. Anti-fascism is a wondrous tradition, and one we need now more than ever. Those of us who have not abandoned our Jewish compatriots, and who do not dream of Israel’s apocalyptic erasure, should resuscitate it for the coming battle with the armies of Islamism and their left-wing simps.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: The truth about Gazan ‘journalists’
What he said confirms almost everything Israel has been accused of inventing. He described how Gaza’s journalists would lower their cameras whenever a resident cursed Hamas. He said he had never seen a Gaza journalist publish such criticism. He described a WhatsApp group called ‘Smart’, run by a Hamas media official, which he said contained all of Gaza’s journalists. Sure, as a journalist, one might join all sorts of WhatsApp groups organised by terrorists, political actors, or other unsavoury figures with whom one completely disagrees. They are useful places to glean information. I regularly read through dozens of Hamas and other terrorist Telegram and WhatsApp groups every day, as part of my own work. But the members of ‘Smart’ did not behave as neutral recipients of information. They organised campaigns against anyone judged insufficiently loyal, Azaiza included. He described how stories were chosen and framed for maximum impact. Every Christmas, he said, journalists would photograph Santa Claus among the rubble or in refugee camps, because it would ‘attract attention’. He spoke of friends inside Hamas whom he could call to arrange drone flights or access to locations. And he admitted that on 7 October he filmed Israeli hostages being beaten by a crowd and chose not to publish the footage. He also said he got goosebumps that morning listening to Mohammed Deif announce the assault. Once the interview was translated and circulated, Azaiza moved quickly to explain himself on Instagram. Ms Rachel’s video with him has disappeared. The regret, such as it is, seems to concern the audience rather than the substance.

This is the context missing from almost every demand that Israel ‘let the journalists in’. Piers Morgan has made the demand something of a signature. ‘Don’t treat us like idiots,’ he told Israel’s ambassador. On another occasion he dismissed Israel’s stated safety concerns with ‘please, we’re not stupid’. He has put the same question to ambassadors, ministers, rabbis and Israel’s president. The trouble is not that he asks it. It is that he never seems to hear the answer. Each guest explains the operational risks, the danger to reporters, and the ease with which Hamas stages and steers coverage. Then the next guest arrives and the identical question is put again, as if nobody had ever answered it. It looks less like a search for understanding than the recitation of a mantra.

So here, once more, is the answer. We already know what happens when western reporters operate inside territory controlled by a terrorist group. When Israel identified a Beirut hospital it said concealed Hezbollah assets, the BBC’s Orla Guerin toured the building, presumably under Hezbollah’s supervision. She filmed ordinary wards and relayed the hospital’s denials but was not able to see the precise location Israel had identified. So her reporting, however well intentioned, might as well have been a guided tour presented as verification. Gaza under Hamas would offer the same thing on a vaster scale: minders, selective translators, permitted locations, forbidden subjects, and local fixers who, as Azaiza’s account makes plain, answer to the regime in Gaza, not the one in New Broadcasting House.

Then there is the physical danger. Hamas and other Palestinian groups have a long history of using journalists and foreigners as leverage. In 2006, Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were kidnapped in Gaza and held for nearly two weeks. They were released only after being forced to make videotaped declarations of conversion to Islam. In 2007, the BBC’s Alan Johnston was held by the Army of Islam for 114 days, at one point paraded on video wearing an explosive belt. On 7 October, foreign nationals, including more than 30 Thai farm workers and a Nepalese agriculture student, were dragged into Gaza as hostages. A western correspondent in a tunnel-riddled city is a hostage waiting to happen. Their movements and broadcasts would reveal military positions in real time. Their presence would become something else for the IDF to protect, and something else for Hamas to exploit. I have written before that restricting access is a difficult strategic choice, less than ideal but explicable by entirely non-sinister considerations. Nothing since has changed that view. If anything, the Press Files and Azaiza’s own words make it stronger.

The more pressing question was never what Israel is ‘hiding’ in Gaza. It is what Hamas has been hiding behind the word ‘journalist’, and why so many in our own media were so incurious about the answer. Many of these men were mourned on air, dozens were cited in UN statements, and all were counted in the tallies that western news sources read out as proof of Israeli criminality. Very few of the outlets that employed them, or the presenters who invoked them, have yet asked how they came to be carrying press cards and Hamas service numbers at the same time. Until they do, their outrage at being kept out of Gaza rings hollow. The lesson of the Press Files is not that Israel should be trusted blindly – it should not. It is that in Gaza, the line between reporter and terrorist was deliberately blurred. Those in the western media who were content neither to question nor to look deeper are hardly likely to be the answer in a place where only scepticism and professional rigour could even start to cut through. And even that is no match for the most ruthless terrorists willing to weaponise everything at any cost, including the press.
Iranian duo charged with preparing terrorist acts ‘identified Heaton Park Synagogue as bomb plot target’
Two Iranian men who arrived in the UK on small boats identified both Manchester’s Jewish Museum and Heaton Park Synagogue as targets for an alleged bomb plot, a court has heard.

Salam Ahmadyan, 36, of Liverpool, and Rahman Salehi, 34, of Salford, were arrested in Manchester on September 20 and charged on Friday with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) said.

Both men appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday morning where Salehi, through a Kurdish interpreter, and Ahmadyan, through a Farsi interpreter, spoke to confirm their names, dates of birth, and addresses.

District Judge Nina Tempia remanded both men into custody to next appear at the Old Bailey for a hearing on October 23.

Prosecutor Mark Luckett told the court: “Both defendants are accused of preparing acts of terrorism targeting the Jewish community in Manchester through the use of a homemade explosive device.

“The defendants were observed carrying out, what the prosecution say, is a hostile reconnaissance within Manchester’s Jewish community, identifying attempted targets such as the Jewish Museum and Heaton Park Synagogue.”

Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, were killed when Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, drove into the gates of Heaton Park Hebrew Synagogue in Manchester on October 2 last year, and began attacking with a knife while wearing a fake suicide belt.

Both Salehi and Ahmadyan were arrested on September 20 2026, ahead of the festival of Yom Kippur, widely regarded as the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Mr Luckett told the court.

“They were in contact with a third party who is alleged to have directed and coordinated the planned attack and provided instructions on how to assemble a home-made explosive device,” he said.

“It is assessed this individual is also an Iranian national and most likely operating from within Iran.”
Amb. Michael Oren: The Flydubai Flight and the Indomitability of the Jews
The saving of Flydubai Flight 1073 from fiery destruction and 174 passengers, most of them Israelis, from certain death, stands as a metaphor for the past three years of war.

After Oct. 7, hundreds of thousands of Israelis rallied to their nation's defense, put on uniforms, picked up guns, and risked their lives, often in hundreds of days of relentless urban combat.

Others volunteered to support the soldiers, the wounded, bereaved, and the displaced, or worked the fields of abandoned farms.

They performed all this while the country was under massive international pressure to cease defending itself. They persevered in the face of near-global condemnations and false accusations.

Some 924 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the war and thousands physically and emotionally wounded. Yet, we keep fighting.

We defend ourselves in the court of international law; we stand up for truth in the media. We will battle Hamas and Hizbullah again as the need arises.

The world will continue condemning us for doing what so much of it no longer has the will to do - defending our homes and families.

We will do all of this not because we have nowhere else to go, but because of who we are. We, the Jewish people, are indomitable.

When their airliner plunged nearly 20,000 feet in under two minutes, ordinary Israelis rushed to the front of the plane.

There, regular citizens with their bare hands disarmed and subdued the co-pilot who tried to kill everyone on board precisely because most of them were Israelis. And once the danger passed, the Jews broke into song.

The Flydubai flight stands as an example of what a proud, strong, and self-respecting people can still accomplish. It reminds us of who we are, what we stand for, and what we are willing to do to remain Israelis.

The sheer heroism displayed by the Israeli passengers shows why nothing can ever defeat us.
Israelis Take Pride in Bravery of Passengers Who Saved Flydubai Flight
Israelis were buoyed on Thursday by the brave actions of several Israeli passengers who, along with crew members, averted a midair disaster aboard a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

The dramatic events evoked for some Israelis the days in the 1960s and 1970s when Israel was widely considered to be a small, plucky country that had survived against the odds and took on hijackers.

The Israeli commando raid in 1976 that rescued more than 100 hostages from Entebbe, Uganda, became legendary and spawned several movies.

After the Flydubai episode, Israeli social media was flooded with memes offering advice to air travelers: In case of emergency, locate the nearest Israeli.


'I gave everything that I had': Flydubai captain tells Netanyahu about co-pilot's hijacking attempt
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with flydubai Capt. Smit Machchhar on Saturday.

The Indian national told Netanyahu that he "gave everything that I had" to open the cockpit door once his Omani co-pilot began attacking him in an attempt to hijack the aircraft. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with flydubai Capt. Smit Machchhar on October 3, 2026. (credit: Prime Minister's Office)

"I had that one last fight left in me," Machchhar told the prime minister. "If I don't do it, I'm going to die... and just went for the door and opened the door."

Machchhar said the ordeal began when his co-pilot said he wanted to pray, which the captain noted was "not out of the ordinary."

The captain said he looked away "out of respect" when he suddenly felt a "big blow to the back of my head."

"My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft," he said. "But then, after that, the blows kept coming, one after the other, and that's when I realized that it's not the aircraft; it's the other guy who was in the cockpit with me."

Machchhar: Co-pilot attempted to keep cockpit door shut during attack
Despite Machchhar's attempts to stop him, he said the aircraft pitched sharply downward as his vision rapidly faded, noting that he managed to open the cockpit door several times even though his co-pilot kept closing it.

"My colleagues from outside were trying to pitch in the code (to open the door), but the guy was not allowing them to open the code," the captain explained. "Once I had my hand on the knob, I guess I twisted it, and I opened it."

"I remember I was lying down on the cockpit floor, and I felt the aircraft and the whooshing sound and people screaming," he recalled. "Thankfully, people were waiting to pounce back, took over the controls, and the rest is what you know, sir."


Flydubai terrorist said to tell investigators he intended to crash plane into Ben Gurion Airport
The copilot who attempted to carry out a terror attack on a flydubai flight on Wednesday intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport, according to reports on Sunday.

Hamam al-Hammami, who is under arrest and being interrogated in the United Arab Emirates, told investigators that he intended to continue flydubai Flight 1073 as normal after disposing of the captain, to receive all necessary landing clearances, and to then crash into a building or jet at the airport, Hebrew media outlets reported.

By waiting until the last moment, he would have prevented anyone from realizing what was happening, raising the alert and stopping him from carrying out his plan.

According to the reports, that was why al-Hammami waited until the aircraft was over Jordan to seize control of the cockpit. He was foiled because Captain Smit Machchhar, despite having been attacked and stabbed by al-Hammami, managed to open the cockpit door, enabling a handful of Israelis to tackle and immobilize al-Hammami, with one of them stabilizing the plane before two off-duty pilots on board took over the controls.

Reports said al-Hammami had been at Ben Gurion Airport several times in recent months after flying in with flydubai. He told investigators that when he came in June, he devoted his entire focus to collecting intelligence and planning his attack.

He then plotted to carry out the attack in July, but ended up canceling his plan at the last moment as he was friends with one of the crew members.
Flydubai aircraft reached near-supersonic speeds, extreme airframe stress levels
Damage to flydubai flight FZ1073’s rudder likely resulted from the extreme speeds, angles, and G-forces (gravitational acceleration) the aircraft reached during its dive and subsequent recovery amid its attempted hijacking, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

According to the report, the Boeing 737 MAX reached an estimated speed of Mach 0.96, with Mach 1.0 being the speed of sound. For comparison, such commercial aircraft cruise below the “high altitude never exceed speed (MMO)” of Mach 0.82. Speeds beyond MMO can damage the aircraft, while speeds slightly below can still cause damage if flight conditions are not smooth.

The report noted that the estimated speed and other flight parameters, sourced from Flightradar24 satellite tracking data, are less accurate than the data in the aircraft’s flight data recorder, also known as the “black box,” which investigators will rely on.

In addition, the estimations do not take into account variables, such as wind speed and direction, air temperature, and pressure levels, all of which contribute to what is known to pilots as True Airspeed (TAS), the most accurate representation of an aircraft’s speed concerning its performance and the forces acting upon it.

With this in mind, the aircraft may have reached a TAS higher than estimated, though investigators will need more time to confirm.

Aircraft fell over 17,000 feet in 92 seconds, satellite tracking data shows
What is known is that the stresses suffered by the aircraft caused a large portion of the rudder, which controls a plane’s yaw (side-to-side) movement, to break off.

The tracking data also showed that the aircraft fell about 17,400 feet over 92 seconds at a 39° nose-down attitude, far steeper than the standard descent angle of 3°.

As the aircraft was brought back under control, it sustained further stress through the return to straight-and-level flight, with the WSJ putting an emphasis on the estimated three G’s of force, three times the force of gravity.

A 737 MAX is only rated to sustain 2.5 positive G’s, according to its official limitations, which is unlikely to ever be reached in the course of a commercial flight.

The aircraft is also rated for a maximum maneuvering speed (VA) of between 210 and 230 knots, depending on configuration, meaning that beyond that speed, any abrupt or full-control movements can damage the aircraft. Mach 0.96 is well beyond that range.

Regardless of the cause, the damage to the rudder suggests a departure from the aircraft’s limitations in at least one of the areas discussed in the report.


FlyDubai co-pilot who ‘nearly crashed jet’ studied at UK university
The co-pilot named as the attacker who tried to take control of an Israel-bound FlyDubai flight studied at a UK university, the institution has said.

Omani national Hamam al Hammami has been named as the co-pilot who attacked the flight’s captain with the cockpit’s crash axe, according to the Associated Press (AP).

It has now been confirmed that al Hammami completed a distance-learning course in aviation management at Buckinghamshire New University.

In a statement to the Press Association, a spokesman for the university said: “Our thoughts are with the injured pilot, crew and passengers involved in this incident.

“Hamam al Hammami previously completed a distance-learning course in aviation management.

“He did not undertake any pilot training at the University.”

According to the university’s website, its aviation management courses “look into the background operations, logistics, security and management of the aviation industry”.
Australia probing flydubai copilot, who studied at a Melbourne university
Australian police said on Sunday that authorities there were investigating the “links to Australia” of the Omani flydubai copilot who attacked the captain on a flight full of Israelis to Tel Aviv.

Hamam al-Hammami, 29, the copilot of flydubai flight 1073, which took off from Dubai on Wednesday, attacked the pilot with an emergency crash axe and, according to witnesses, tried to crash the plane in an attempted terror attack.

Omani authorities have not commented. Flydubai has said a full investigation is under way.

Two sources briefed on the investigation said the copilot studied at a university in Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria. Local media reports said he studied at RMIT University, which told Reuters it had no comment.

“The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team (VIC JCTT), comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO, can confirm it is investigating the man’s links to Australia. An update will be provided at an appropriate time,” an Australian Federal Police (AFP) spokesperson said, referring to the Australian Security Intelligence Organization.

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that al-Hammami had allegedly visited radical mosques and extremist websites while in Australia, citing two people familiar with the investigation. Hamam al-Hammami, the copilot who tried to bring down a flydubai flight to Israel in a terrorist attack on September 30, 2026, in an undated image from his deleted LinkedIn profile.

Australian intelligence services held a file on the individual, according to the FT.
Only conspiracists gain from Indy’s spin on FlyDubai hijack attempt
A senior UAE official on Friday described the attempted crashing of a flydubai flight in Tel Aviv earlier in the week as an “act of terrorism”.

The suspect, who was the co-pilot of the FZ1073 flight, is Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, who attacked the pilot with an axe in an attempt to crash the plane. Previously, he had been banned from flying in Oman over his radical Islamist views – possibly formed while living in Syria – and was also reportedly found to be in possession of extremist materials while a co-pilot trainee.

If not for the heroic actions of the pilot, Indian national Smit Machchhar, and several Israeli passengers, all 170 passengers on board the plane, including 162 Israelis, would have been killed. Reports suggest that al-Hammami’s aim was to fly the plane into a Tel Aviv high-rise, similar to the 9/11 attack on the twin towers in Manhattan.

While the initial fact pattern was intuitively interpreted by many as the attempted mass murder of Israelis, influential MSM outlets evidently didn’t find the fact that the blood-soaked pilot issued a hijacking distress signal as the plane dove between 14,000 and 20,000 feet in the span of two minutes, as enough information to frame it as such.

As CAMERA reported, on Sept. 30, many outlets insisted on calling the stabbing of a copilot and the dangerous nosedive thereafter a “clash”, “altercation”, “cockpit incident”, “brawl”, or “fight” between the pilots in their headlines. In addition, many outlets omitted the stabbing altogether, leaving the reason for the diverted flight a mystery.

Then, of course there were the inevitable conspiracy theories. As ADL documented, notable influencers and activists spread “false flag” conspiracy theory narratives. Such figures included Ana Kasparian, host at the progressive outlet The Young Turks, former British MP George Galloway, Egyptian comedian Bassem Youseff, Iran’s PressTV and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

The antisemitic, pro-terror, popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker called the timing of the incident “unbelievably beneficial, unbelievably fortuitous for Benjamin Netanyahu”, while adding that “the idea that [the plane descended] 14,000 feet in altitude in a matter of like 30 seconds…and then the dude just grabbed the yoke and cranked it.l.able to successfully bring the plane back up…sorry there’s a lot of red flags”.

This brings us to the Independent, which published this original headline – accompanying an Oct. 1 analysis by their world affairs editor Sam Kiley – evincing the “false flag” conspiracy.

After a flurry of criticism on social media, the headline was changed to “How the FlyDubai hijacking could help Netanyahu stay in power“.

Kiley – who revealed his clear biases two months ago by penning a piece at the Indy calling for sanctions against Israel – vehemently denied that he was conjuring an Israeli conspiracy theory.


In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis
Elliot Kaufman and Yonah Jeremy Bob are the co-authors of the new book, "In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis" – an inside account of the decisions, debates, and personalities that shaped Israel’s multi-front war, from October 7 to Hezbollah and ultimately Iran.

Elliot Kaufman is an editorial writer and member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, where he focuses on Israel and Iran and has covered the war since October 7.

Yonah Jeremy Bob is the senior military analyst at The Jerusalem Post and the author of several books, including "Target Tehran."

Their reporting draws on extensive access to senior military, intelligence, and political officials.


US removes all bombers from British air base targeted by a suspected terror attack
The US Air Force has brought home its bombers stationed at a US run military air base in England used to strike Iran following an investigation into a planned terror attack at the RAF Fairford base.

The bombers were redeployed back to their home bases in the United States, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorized to discuss sensitive military movements and spoke today on condition of anonymity.

Aviation watchers such as the Military Air Tracking Alliance have observed dozens of B-52 and B-1 bombers operating out of RAF Fairford since the opening days of the Iran war. Observers noticed a host of B-1 bombers fly out of the base today.
CAM welcomes Treasury Department action against Hamas fundraising network
The United States has imposed sanctions on a Hamas military operative and a France-based fundraising network that Treasury says used purported humanitarian charities and cryptocurrency to channel more than $2 million to the terrorist organization.

Announced on October 2, the measures target Gaza-based Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, French fundraisers Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid, and their respective organizations, Association Baraka and Ensemble C Mieux. Treasury said $1.5 million was collected after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

According to Treasury, the fundraisers solicited donations ostensibly for Gazan civilians but transferred money to al-Zaq, a battalion deputy in Hamas’s military wing, who funneled funds to the organization. Hundreds of thousands of dollars allegedly moved through cryptocurrency.

The sanctions form part of a broader FBI-led operation targeting Hamas fundraising, including ventures operating inside the United States, with participation from the New York Police Department. They block designated parties’ assets under US jurisdiction and generally prohibit US persons from transacting with them.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged to pursue those providing Hamas with “the financial lifelines it needs to survive.”

The Combat Antisemitism Movement welcomed the action, linking the disruption of Hamas’s financial networks to the protection of Americans and Jewish communities as the third anniversary of October 7 approaches.

CAM President of US Affairs Alyza D. Lewin called the sanctions a meaningful counterterrorism measure and urged sustained American pressure to prevent Hamas from threatening Americans and undermining Middle East stability.

Lewin said Hamas had murdered dozens of American citizens, including 46 on October 7. She also warned that the celebration and promotion of Hamas violence on American college campuses endangered Jewish safety and undermined the country’s foundational freedoms.
IDF chief honors officer whose Hamas invasion warnings were ignored by her superiors
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir convened senior officers on Sunday for a conference on the lessons learned from the October 7 attack, three years on.

During the conference, Zamir presented a certificate of appreciation to Chief Warrant Officer “Vav,” a member of the signals intelligence Unit 8200 — identified only by her first initial in Hebrew — who warned before October 7, 2023, that Hamas had a clear plan in place to attack Israel. Senior intelligence officers had dismissed and ignored her warnings.

“Vav” warned in an email sent to a number of IDF officers in the days leading up to the deadly Hamas terror assault that “the sword is coming,” and urged them to “warn the people” while there was still time.

The urgent warning followed the issuance of a dossier put together by Unit 8200 on September 19 — less than three weeks before October 7 — that warned Hamas was training for a large-scale invasion of Israel.

In an attempt to convey the severity of the situation, “Vav” ended her email by paraphrasing a line from Ezekiel 33:6, writing “This email constitutes a blowing of the ‘shofar,’ because the sword is coming — the hour is ripe to warn the nation.”

The verse is a well-known one for those working in intelligence, as it says that “if the watchman sees the sword is coming” and fails to sound the ram-horn bugle, he will pay with blood for the bloodshed he has failed to avert.

The email was dismissed by the Gaza Division’s top intelligence officers, and the so-called Jericho Wall plan was actualized on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst through the Gaza border and carried out a deadly assault in southern Israel, slaughtering some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.

At Sunday’s conference, Zamir said that the army was concluding its investigations into October 7, “out of an understanding of the magnitude of the disaster, alongside the understanding that we must not become mired in them, but rather learn, draw lessons, implement them, and move forward.”

“One of our greatest lessons from October 7 is the need to expand the security margin. We need to build the IDF’s force structure to meet challenges and threats across multiple arenas. The size of the IDF is our strategic depth,” he said, according to a readout of his remarks published by the IDF.
IDF slays two commanders of Islamic Jihad’s rocket array in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces killed two operatives of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, the military said on Saturday.

They were targeted in separate strikes in Gaza City, the IDF said.

The first was Ahmed Mahmoud Harb Ramlawi, a commander in the rocket array of the Shejaiya Battalion in the “military” wing of PIJ, according to the army.

The second was Munir Ibrahim Masr, head of an anti-tank missile cell in PIJ’s “military” wing.

The two men have been involved of late in restoring the PIJ’s capabilities, in systematic violation of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF said.

On Thursday night, the Israeli Air Force and the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) killed a Hamas sniper in a strike in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza, the security forces said.

The terrorist, identified as Tamer Hamaida, had advanced plans to carry out shooting and other attacks against Israeli troops and civilians throughout the war, according to the joint statement.

Israeli forces remain deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and “will continue to act to eliminate any immediate threat,” the statement said.

Earlier in the week, the IDF and Shin Bet killed in Gaza a top Hamas terrorist who commanded the captivity of numerous Israeli hostages during the war, the security bodies said following an extensive intelligence investigation.

Izz al-Din Bikh, commander of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade, oversaw the captivity of hostages including Hisham al-Sayed and Mia Schem, as well as Amit Buskila, Shani Louk, Tamir Nimrodi, Michel Nisenbaum and others who were killed in captivity or whose bodies were held in Gaza, according to the Israeli security forces.
IDF targets Yahya Sinwar's successor, Hamas Gaza leader Ali al-Amoudi, in strike
The IDF attempted to kill Ali al-Amoudi, Yahya Sinwar’s successor as Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, during an operation on Saturday morning that included attacks by helicopters and tanks.

According to security sources cited by Kan News, Almoudi was in the apartment complex targeted by the IDF, with the chances of him surviving the strike being “very slim.”

At around 8 a.m., reports said that the IDF had opened fire with an attack helicopter and tanks at suspicious targets that approached the Yellow Line. It later emerged that the target of the operation was Hamas’s current leader in Gaza.

Later on Saturday, the IDF released a statement confirming that it had targeted Almoudi in Gaza, saying that the results of the strike are "under review."

The military described Almoudi as "the most senior Hamas figure in the Gaza Strip," attributing several terrorist attacks to his involvement, including the October 7 massacre.

Amoudi was released from an Israeli prison in the 2011 Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange after serving nearly 20 years.

Following his release, he was elected to Hamas’s political bureau and served as the head of Yahya Sinwar’s office – with whom he had been imprisoned and who was also released in the Schalit deal.

Amoudi subsequently became one of Sinwar’s closest associates.

Before he was appointed Sinwar’s successor, Amoudi had been responsible for leading the Palestinian propaganda apparatus during the war. His campaign, as previously noted, achieved considerable success in Europe and the United States.


Quillette: Former Human Rights Watch Editor on Ideology, Israel and NGO Accountability
Who checks the watchdogs? Danielle Haas spent 14 years as a senior editor at Human Rights Watch before leaving in 2023 with an exit email to more than 500 colleagues. She now runs EiGHT, a Geneva-based initiative founded by former and current NGO staff to press for accountability in the human rights and humanitarian sector.

Zoe Sankey asks her how a report actually gets made inside an organisation like Human Rights Watch, who reviews it before it goes out, and what happens when staff raise concerns. Haas describes what she saw from the editor’s desk: last-minute review, spot checks for lack of time, and positions she says were pushed for years before they were adopted. She explains why she believes NGO output, unlike NGO finances, faces no external scrutiny at all, and what she thinks should change: independent reporting channels for staff, an external review board, and measurable standards on every published claim.

They also discuss Amnesty’s clash with J.K. Rowling, the Antoinette Lattouf case, why Haas avoids arguing over whether a given report is right or wrong, and whether young people who want to do good should still work for these organisations.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and guest background
02:30 Why Danielle wrote her exit letter from Human Rights Watch
03:34 The internal ecosystem and silence in the human rights sector
04:02 Generational shifts and ideological influences in NGOs
08:02 Case studies: Antoinette Lattouf, J.K. Rowling and accountability
14:04 The lack of external regulation and oversight
16:32 Social media's role and unreviewed claims in human rights work
18:38 The process of report creation and internal review failures
21:10 The importance of external review and standards
23:23 Accountability gaps and the impact of scandals
26:01 The internal culture of silence and suppression of dissent
31:21 The flow of money and donor influence
33:37 Potential reforms: external oversight and accountability mechanisms
38:54 The role of ideology and dogmas in shaping NGO work
41:56 The influence of internal politics and narrative change
51:48 The future of human rights organisations and public trust




Time Warp: The New York Times Unlearns Its Own History
What happens when the “paper of record” disavows its own record? The New York Times admitted it made an error in 2012. Nearly 14 years later, it refuses to correct the same one.

On Dec. 2, 2012, The New York Times’ Jodi Rudoren reported on a “contentious 4.6-square-mile area, known as E1, where there are many more goats than people” adjacent to Jerusalem, and Israel’s announcement that it planned to move ahead with preparations for development. In the initial report, Rudoren falsely wrote that the construction plans would effectively cut the West Bank in two.

The article also stated that E1 would threaten contiguity of a possible future Palestinian state.

At the time, The Times issued two CAMERA-prompted corrections for the same story. The second correction acknowledged that E1 development would not divide the West Bank in two and “would not technically make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.”

More than 13 years and 9 months later, Isabel Kershner’s Sept. 17, 2026, article “What Is E1, Where Israel is Pushing a Disputed Settlement Plan?” repeats the same errors Rudoren first made. The article falsely states that construction in E1 “would largely sever the northern half of the West Bank from the southern half, complicating the prospect of a viable, contiguous Palestinian heartland.”

Once again, CAMERA contacted The Times, reminding editors of the earlier corrections and requesting clarification again that E1 does not prevent Palestinian contiguity nor does it cut the West Bank in half. CAMERA advised The Times that the northern and southern parts of the West Bank (still) remain connected by a land corridor east of Ma’ale Adumim that is approximately 15 km wide at its narrowest point. E1 does not physically sever north-south territorial contiguity – and the use of the qualifier “largely” before “sever” does not make the claim true. Even the map accompanying the article makes clear that the planned construction in no way severs north from south. (CAMERA annotated The Times’ map, with the yellow highlighted portion being the narrowest point and the red arrow showing contiguity.)


At rally, Trump mocks ‘Gays for Palestine’ over abuses in ‘that part of the world’
US President Donald Trump mocked LGBTQ activists in the pro-Palestinian movement on Saturday over rights abuses against members of the community in “that part of the world.”

In remarks at a midterm campaign rally in Mobile, Alabama, Trump said that he had recently heard of what he called the “Gays for Palestine” movement. (Activists usually refer to themselves as “Queers for Palestine.”)

“Gays for Palestine, how about that,” Trump said. “I saw it today, and I said, ‘Wait a minute.'”

“Do you know what they do to gay people in that part of the world? Let’s send them over someday to negotiate. You’ll never see them again. I don’t want to tell you, but they do things you wouldn’t believe.”

Although LGBTQ Palestinians have become more outspoken in recent years, gay rights remain highly controversial in Palestinian society. Palestinians who come out face societal rejection, abuse, and threats to their lives.

Earlier this year, an Israeli aid group that assists Palestinian LGBTQ asylum seekers published a study that found discrimination against gays is both institutionalized and deeply ingrained in Palestinian society.

While there are no Palestinian Authority laws on the books that ban homosexual acts, and although the PA has largely remained silent on the issue in recent years, the study argued that severe persecution of LGBTQ Palestinians — both within their families and by public institutions — has continued, in some cases escalating to attempted murder.


Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitism plan is political warfare, not protection of Jews
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded three times after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him “the antisemitic mayor of New York” from the podium of the UN General Assembly on September 24.

First came the planting of olive trees for Gaza. Then came a statement dismissing the prime minister’s speech as baseless lies meant to sanitize a “genocide.” Then came money: a plan to raise the budget of the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes from $3 million to $29 million a year.

The sequence matters. The plan is more than a budget line. It is a political-warfare maneuver, and Jews on both sides of the Atlantic should read it that way. The money is real. So is the maneuver.

Let us be fair. Security for synagogues, Holocaust education, and support for victims of hate crimes are worth funding. Jews comprise roughly 10% of New York’s population, yet according to New York City Police Department data, they were the target of 57% of reported hate crimes in 2025. Any mayor who ignored that would deserve condemnation.

But note what the plan leaves out. It fails to adopt a working definition of antisemitism. On taking office in January, Mamdani revoked the prior Adams administration’s order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism along with its restrictions on New York City boycotts of Israel. The new plan does not mention Israel at all.

The Anti-Defamation League emphasized the point in its harsh criticism of Mamdani, noting:

“He [Mamdani] turned a blind eye when flags glorifying terrorist organizations were flown outside synagogues – a deliberate act intended to intimidate families walking inside to pray – and when crowds gathered outside houses of worship and expressed support for those same organizations.

“At the same time, he continues to prioritize his anti-Israel agenda over the basic promises he made to Jewish New Yorkers.”

That omission of Israel is the point. The plan protects Jews as a religious minority while sidelining the Jewish people’s connection to the Jewish state, leaving it outside the definition of what counts as hatred and antisemitism.


Abdual El-Sayed’s ‘genocide’ charge revives the oldest antisemitic libel
On the Raging Moderates podcast, Scott Galloway laid out the case for Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee.

The Holocaust murdered two-thirds of European Jewry, including more than 90% of Poland’s Jewish population. Rwanda’s genocide killed about 70% of the Tutsis; the Khmer Rouge slaughtered about a quarter of Cambodia’s population.

Galloway then listed what Israel did in Gaza that no genocidal regime ever has done: distributed polio vaccinations, food aid, evacuation corridors, leaflets, and phone calls warning civilians out of buildings Hamas had made military targets.

El-Sayed’s response amounted to a confession: the point of the word “genocide” is not to wait “until the crime is that big again.” Its “power is in naming a thing before it gets that big.”

Translation: the charge need not be accurate, only useful. El-Sayed conflates when genocide must be stopped with what must be proven before it is alleged. That is a theory of libel, not genocide.

Clips spread on the far-left and anti-Israel woke right with a familiar argument since October 2023: Why quibble over the word? More than 70,000 are dead. Call it whatever you want. Just stop the killing.

This poses as rising above semantics. It is the opposite. First, that death toll comes from Hamas’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t separate combatants from civilians, and whose own statistics chief admitted that natural deaths were being counted as war deaths.

Second, most of those who recite it never demanded what would have ended the war on October 8: Hamas’s surrender and the hostages’ return. Third, if the word “genocide” didn’t matter, nobody would fight so hard to keep it.


Nicole Lampert: The Greens are now the most openly racist mainstream party in British history
I’m glad that the pretence that the Left aren’t Jew-haters is over. They can no longer bother with the crying that it was just Netanyahu they despised. Or just “the genocide” they abhorred.

The full-throated support for the Green Party’s motion that “Zionism is Racism” is them showing how much they hate Jews with their chests out.

They are proud of it. Yes, they are proud of their nasty anti-Semitism. So sickening. But at least there is now sunlight on their obsession. No two-state solution for this lot: nothing less than the eradication of Israel “by any means necessary”. Self determination for the Palestinians but not for the Jews.

The Green Party’s leaders and MPs have belatedly wrung their hands about what has happened to their party.

“I am deeply saddened the ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion has passed,” their MP Adrian Ramsay meekly bleated. “It doesn’t reflect Green principles or my own view.” Weak. Useless.

Even Mothin Ali, the Green deputy leader who openly pushed the motion, signed his name to a statement which said: “We will never tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment.”

Lies.

The Greens can now take the mantle of being the most openly racist mainstream British political party in history. They are calling for the destruction of the Jewish state while calling themselves anti-racists. What other state would they ever demand had to be dismantled?


Greens plunged into antisemitism crisis after members resoundingly back ‘Zionism is racism’ motion
Green Party members have passed a hardline version of the controversial “Zionism is racism” motion at their conference in Brighton, after resoundingly rejecting an amendment aimed at safeguarding Jewish supporters.

A hardline version of the overall Zionism is racism passed by 1,022 votes to 813.

Green Party member Greg Hadfield told journalists the result was greeted with “tears of joy” by supporters.

In a significant setback for leader Zack Polanski’s efforts to soften the party’s anti-Zionist stance, delegates voted down an amendment designed to protect Jewish members from being targeted.

That amendment, No.3. was defeated by 684 to 1,026 votes at the party’s conference on Sunday.

Amendment three was intended to shield Jewish members attending self-declared “Zionist” organisations—including synagogues and prayer groups—from accusations of racism.

Its defeat has raised concerns among Jewish Greens about potential internal disciplinary action for those participating in such religious activities. Anti-Zionist Green who supported racism motion

By endorsing the overall motion, the Green Party becomes one of the only Western political parties to officially adopt an anti-Zionist position.

The motion defines Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethno nationalist Jewish state” and shifts the party’s platform to advocate for a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.”

This marks a sharp departure from previous Green Party policy, which suggested that the ultimate decision on a peaceful solution in the region rests with both Israelis and Palestinians.
Zack Polanski barred from Israel after ‘Zionism is racism’ made party policy
Mr Polanski did not take part in the vote on the motion, having left the party conference after his speech on Friday to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

Israel accused the Green Party of legitimising “the destruction of the State of Israel” with a “clear antisemitic text”.

In an update on Sunday evening, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Greens’ resolution “constitutes a clear antisemitic text according to the IHRA definition, as it denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination”.

“Therefore, as a first step, foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has decided this evening to declare Green Party leader Zack Polanski barred from entering Israel,” a statement said.

“Today, the Green Party in Britain adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism, legitimising armed struggle against Israel, and calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” – meaning the destruction of the State of Israel,” it added.

In a statement with Green MPs and his deputies, Mr Polanski said there is “no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people”.


Green Party forced to open ‘safe room’ to protect Jewish members at Brighton conference
Tensions within Zack Polanski’s Green Party over its stance on Israel intensified last night, as it emerged the party had been compelled to organise a “safe room” for Jewish members at its annual conference.

On the eve of a controversial vote to equate Zionism with racism, rival pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators were kept apart by police outside the Brighton conference centre.

Inside, party members revealed that a room had been set aside exclusively for Jewish members who felt threatened.

“We have been given a ‘safe room’ for Jewish members to use in an emergency,” one member told the Mail on Sunday.

“It was used on the first day of the conference to host a meeting between a rabbi and some Jewish members. It’s a deeply upsetting situation, but that’s the reality.”

A Green Party source confirmed: “We have a phone number for a small number of people if they are worried, and a room if they would like to use it. They come in through a different entrance to avoid any protests at the front.”

A sign reading ‘No Access To Press’ was affixed to the outside door.

The Mail on Sunday and Jewish News have both agreed not to identify the room.

Senior Greens have criticised the motion, with former leaders Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay labelling it ‘divisive’ or ‘not helpful’.

Should it pass, the Greens would become the only mainstream party in Europe to declare itself openly anti-Zionist.
Polanski: Israel has definitely run ‘false flag’ operations
Zack Polanski has accused the Israeli military of staging “false flag” attacks.

The Green Party leader claimed that there were “definitely examples” of incidents staged by Israel.

The remarks, unearthed by The Telegraph, come amid the row over anti-Semitism that has engulfed the Greens during Mr Polanski’s first year as leader.

In a summer episode of his podcast, called Bold Politics, Mr Polanski said: “What I find really difficult to navigate is anti-Semitism on the Left. Because, again, I want to be really clear: there are definitely examples of where the Israeli government [has] used false flags.

“In fact, I think there’s a Hannibal Directive, which basically demonstrates within the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) that if an Israeli soldier is captured, they would rather kill that Israeli soldier than allow them to be captured. All of that is evidenced and true, and I don’t think it’s anti-Semitic at all to name any of that.”

The Hannibal Directive was officially revoked in 2016, and was put in place to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces who might use them as bargaining chips. It allowed troops to open fire even if it caused the death of a comrade.

In 2024, a United Nations investigation – strongly rejected by Israel – alleged that the Israeli military had probably killed more than a dozen of its own citizens during the Oct 7, 2023 attacks.

A 2024 report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank combating misinformation, found that the Hannibal Directive had been central to false claims and false conspiracy theories that Israeli forces had killed as many or more civilians than Hamas on Oct 7.

‘I can understand why people are angry’
Mr Polanski went on to admit that some on the Left can “get distracted” or “see false flags or conspiracy theories in places where we don’t have evidence for it”.

“I think it undermines the real fight against anti-Semitism that we have in this country, which as a Left-wing movement we stand against all forms of racism,” he said.

“So that has to be part of it too. I can understand why people are angry. I really understand why people are angry. I can understand why people want to hold people to account as soon as possible.

“How do you harness that true motivation and at the same time encourage people to take a breath and say when we make accusations or when we put things out there, it has to be based [on] evidence – otherwise, we’re undermining our own movement.”

In May, he was forced to apologise for criticising police officers over their response to the Golders Green terror attacks.

Mr Polanski had shared a post on X that attacked officers for kicking the suspected knifeman after he had been Tasered.


Israel-Ireland soccer match ends with 1-1 draw, Israeli team wears black armbands in Oct. 7 tribute
The soccer match between the Israeli and Irish national teams ended in a 1-1 tie on Sunday evening, following a tense lead-up.

The Union of European Football Associations approved the Israel Football Association’s request for the national team to wear black armbands in Sunday's match against Ireland in memory of those murdered in the October 7 massacre, the Israel Football Association announced on X/Twitter.

The decision came amid immense friction between the two associations, as Ireland's football association, its players, and more than 160 Irish sportspeople urged a boycott of the both games over the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza.

According to UEFA rules, black armbands are reserved for universally recognized tragedies, periods of national mourning, or the passing of prominent football figures, and require prior approval from the soccer association.

The Irish national soccer team wore black armbands and declined to shake hands with Israeli players during their first match on September 27 in Debrecen, Hungary.

The Irish players also avoided the traditional post-match handshakes and pleasantries, leaving the pitch immediately after the final whistle in what appeared to be a protest against playing the Israeli team.


Ireland press conference cuts short after official says Israeli reporter ‘walked past the line’
Ireland’s press conference on Saturday ahead of the UEFA Nations League soccer match to be held on Oct. 4 against Israel came to an abrupt end after an Israeli reporter probed head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson about Irish players who allegedly called Israeli players “monkeys” during the previous game between the two nations.

“That is completely untrue,” a Football Association of Ireland official retorted.

The microphone was reportedly taken away from the reporter as the Irish official kept repeating, “We’re finishing the press conference there,” adding, “You’ve just walked past the line.”

The official then tapped Hallgrímsson on the shoulder and instructed him to leave.

Before the question that led to the unusual scene, another Israeli journalist posed a question to Ireland’s coach about the terrorist attack that took place earlier in the week on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

The Irish press officer cut off the reporter, saying that the coach will answer only soccer-related questions.

Beforehand, Hallgrímsson said that “just surviving as a group” the upcoming game would be a “big win for me and for this group ... if we go through this undamaged.”

Israel and Ireland were drawn in the same group for UEFA’s Nations League competition.

Hallgrímsson came under fire from the Israel Football Association after saying, during a press conference at the Football Association of Ireland headquarters in Dublin on Sept. 17, that his team would be “playing against genocide” in upcoming matches against Israel.

“We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way,” the Israel Football Association wrote on X on Sept. 21, before the first match was played the following week.

“Unfortunately, we have not yet found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy” such as that displayed by Hallgrímsson, the association said.


When Krishnan met Mehdi – Channel 4 Platforms Mehdi Hassan’s Views on Antisemitism
On September 14, Channel 4 News published a video interview with Medhi Hassan, in which he defended the UK’s announced sanctions on Israeli settlement trade, repeated libels du jour against Israel, and downplayed the British Jewish community’s enduring fears of antisemitic hostility and violence, which the pro-Palestine movement has compounded.

In a country whose government resisted proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) until only two months ago, granted citizenship and anonymity to a former Hamas bodyguard and where 96% of British Jews report feeling less safe in Britain compared to before 2023, British broadcasters have a duty not to platform anti-Israel commentators uncritically.

From the outset, Hassan states that [10:15]:
These are illegal settlements; this is stolen land.

This is not an independently adjudicated fact. Although the International Court of Justice (ICJ) expressed the view in its 2024 Advisory Opinion that Israel’s settlement policy is unlawful, the opinion is non-binding, and the current US administration maintains that Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law. Hassan also ignores the historical record: on at least three occasions Israel offered Palestinian statehood, and each time the Palestinian leadership, supported by its people, refused.

Later, he states that [10:33]:
I think the pro-Israel folks are really mad about this, not because of the policy itself, but because of what it opens the door to down the line. Because what’s next? There will be more stuff coming.

Ironically, Hassan advances the very same proposition as UK Jewish and Israel advocacy groups have made themselves: what comes next for British Jews when the world’s only Jewish state becomes the subject of disproportionate cultural, economic, and judicial targeting by their own government?

The answer already lies, in part, with the Community Security Trust (CST). In January, the CST recorded 1,926 antisemitic incidents over a six-month period, a marked 21% increase compared to the same period in 2025. Viewed thus, it is neither alarmist nor fatalistic to suggest that once the UK government deems an economic boycott of Israeli settlement trade permissible, it risks emboldening pre-existing anti-Jewish animus.


The brave Gazans daring to condemn Palestinian schools that teach their children to 'slit the throats of Israelis'... even in so-called grammar lessons
Even amid the atrocities of October 7 it stood out as a fleeting moment of chilling horror: A child revelling in the kidnapping and murder of a young woman.

The boy in a red and white T-shirt was among the ordinary crowds in Gaza gleefully celebrating as her lifeless, half-naked, bloodied body was paraded on the back of a pick-up truck.

This was 22-year-old Shani Louk, who was one of hundreds of men and women murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Nova music festival.

Her family were able to recognise her mangled body from the distinctive tattoos on her legs and her long braids.

The crowd gathered around the truck, beating with their fists on the bodies of this young woman and those of other victims, jeering.

Then the boy in the red and white T-shirt, who looked barely into his teenage years, leaned into the truck and spat on Shani's corpse.

Anyone watching could not help but ask: how could a child come to act with such inhumane cruelty?

It is the question on which the future of Gaza and any hope of peace in the region turns.

There is all too much evidence of how the extremism of Hamas – the proscribed terror group that has been in power for almost 20 years – has captured entire generations, brainwashing them into an extremist ideology that metes out violence, hatred and death.

Worse still, it has done this on the back of British taxpayers' generosity, as over the past two decades hundreds of millions of pounds have flowed from UK governments to the UN body running many of Hamas's schools.

Now an investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed how Hamas, since it gained control of Gaza in 2007, has devoted its education system to indoctrinating children into its jihadist creed.

Ordinary Gazans have bravely told of the capture of schools, culture and family entertainment venues by Hamas, and how the 'culture of death' has damaged Palestinian society, with children the biggest victims.

Some are now speaking out, at huge personal risk, warning that the space for independent education is disappearing and appealing for help before it is too late for another generation of children.

Ever since it took power, Hamas has sought to brainwash the minds of the young, through military summer camps, schools and mosques, and its pernicious grip over life in the territory.


Jerusalem Biennale turns trauma into art, healing, and hope
As the offspring of a Holocaust survivor, I try to stay clear of comparisons between the most cataclysmic chapter in Jewish history and any of the – sadly, all too many – other disasters that have befallen us right through our timeline.

But it must be said that Oct. 7 comes close, and has left deep scar tissue and open emotional wounds that may never fully heal.

That is where art can come in and lend a recuperative or, at the very least, soothing hand.

There are historical, corporeal facts on the ground that support that supposition in the form, for example, of the astoundingly rich cultural life Jews led when incarcerated behind forbidding walls in the Warsaw Ghetto. Despite the desperate existential plight in which the inmates found themselves, they defiantly clung to a spiritually enriched way of life, and maintained their humanity for as long as they possibly could, engaging in theatrical and musical entertainment for fearful people starved of physical sustenance.

These days Israel finds itself largely politically-culturally incarcerated by members of the global political arena who impose and promote boycotts of anything that smacks of Israeli content. That strays far beyond political and military parameters and affects our artists, who simply want to keep creating and spread their rich expressive word as far and as wide as they can.

But while the number of foreign artists and institutions, across all areas of cultural endeavor, willing to come over here or even collaborate with their Israeli counterparts elsewhere continues to be depressingly negligible, our own homegrown artists maintain the good fight, keeping tabs on their muses and producing the quality, inspiring, heartwarming, spiritually uplifting goods time and time again.

That much is clear from the rollout of the current Jerusalem Biennale, which opened for business last week – postponed from May due to Iranian-Israeli shenanigans – and is due to run at all manner of museum, gallery, and ad hoc display spaces across the city through to mid-November. The breadth of styles, chromatic presentations, ideas, viewpoints and emotional undercurrents is mightily impressive.





 




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