Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 02, 2025

Report: Jordan asks Sbarro terrorist Ahlam Tamimi to leave the country immediately or else they would extradite her to the US

The Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet corroborates an earlier report from Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV channel that Jordan is seeking to deport Sbarro pizzeria bomber Ahlam Tamimi.

According to the outlet, Jordanian intelligence authorities informed Hamas earlier today that the terror group must either find a country willing to take in Tamimi by the end of the day, or she will be extradited to the United States, where she is wanted by the FBI for the murder of two US civilians in the 2001 Jerusalem pizzeria bombing.

Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life sentences by Israel for orchestrating the August 9, 2001, Sbarro pizzeria bombing, but was released in 2011 as part of a deal with Hamas for the release of captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

The family of Israeli-American victim Malki Roth has been battling ever since, seeking Tamimi’s extradition to the US.

During US President Donald Trump’s first term in office, his administration said it was considering withholding aid to Jordan until it agreed to extradite Tamimi, but ultimately no action was taken.

It is unclear what triggered Jordan’s reported ultimatum to Hamas, but it comes on the heels of an invitation for King Abdullah II to visit Trump in the White House later this month.

This is huge news if true.

The US asked Jordan to extradite Tamimi in 2017 but Jordan's court ruled that they cannot, even though Jordan has an extradition agreement with the US and has extradited other terrorists.

In 2020, I interviewed Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered by Tamimi along with 15 others in the pizza shop. He has spent the past 14 years seeking justice since Tamimi was released in the Shalit deal.

As of this writing, when it is Monday in Jordan, I cannot find any updates of any country willing to take Tamimi. However, In October 2020, Jordan deported her husband, also a murderer of Jews, to Qatar. If she goes anywhere, that is probably where she would end up. But let's hope she gets extradited to the US to stand trial and get put behind bars for life.

It seems likely that this sudden about face by Jordan after years of protecting the proud terrorist is due to US pressure under the new administration. Trump has shown an eagerness to have a more muscular foreign policy and a threat to withhold US aid to Jordan is almost certainly what would prompt this change in policy, if true.

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02/02 Links: Trump’s Second Shot at Peace in the Middle East; BHL: The Imperative Remains: Destroy Hamas; Jordan seeking to deport 2001 Sbarro bomber

From Ian:

Jonathan Schanzer: Trump’s Second Shot at Peace in the Middle East

With Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Washington is bracing for a reprise of the president’s now-famous unpredictable and mercurial approach to governance. But if there was one area of Trump’s presidency that was more-or-less consistent last time around, it was the Middle East.

Trump’s support for Israel was unwavering. His "Peace Through Prosperity" plan promoted a performance-based path to statehood for the Palestinians. The Abraham Accords cemented normalization between Israel and several Arab states. The maximum pressure sanctions policy on the Islamic Republic of Iran squeezed the regime financially. Trump’s hard-nosed approach to the regime in Tehran was punctuated by the January 3, 2020, killing of IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani.

Just before Trump’s return to Washington, two of his top Middle East foreign policy advisers released new books. And they may provide a hint of the president’s policies on Israel.

David Friedman, the president’s former attorney who then became America’s ambassador to Israel, encourages Israelis to "begin a national conversation regarding the future of Judea and Samaria"—the disputed territory also known as "the West Bank" inhabited by both Jews and Arabs who lay claim to it. In his book, One Jewish State, Friedman describes this sought-after real estate as "Israel’s biblical heartland," which must be preserved by Jews and Christians, alike. He asserts that "Palestinians would be receptive to life under Israeli sovereignty if accompanied by the opportunity for better health, education, and prosperity and the assurance of human dignity."

Friedman throws shade upon the "peace process" that has consistently failed to serve American interests for more than three decades. He notes that consecutive presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, have failed to achieve the two-state solution, primarily because of Palestinian rejectionism. Friedman believes that the Palestinians are simply not willing to make the compromises necessary for such a diplomatic outcome. And it is for this reason that he proposes a completely different paradigm—one that will be viewed by traditional Palestinian nationalists with disdain.

Friedman writes that the United States should embrace the Puerto Rico model for Middle East peace. He notes that Puerto Rico (Spanish for "wealthy port") is an alternative standard for Palestinian autonomy. He notes, "the residents of Puerto Rico do not vote in U.S. national elections. They do, however, benefit from well-recognized human rights and elect their civilian leaders. While not a perfect analogy to Israel, Puerto Rico ensures the human dignity of its citizens while forgoing collective national rights." Under Friedman’s vision, "Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents, as long as they are not inconsistent with those of Israel."

Friedman’s book suggests a wholesale change in the diplomatic paradigm that would certainly provoke controversy. By contrast, Victoria Coates proposes a series of more modest steps that would merely mark a return to sensible previous Trump policies. The final chapter of The Battle for the Jewish State enumerates these policies, most of which were conceived when Coates was deputy national security adviser for the Middle East and North Africa on the Trump National Security Council.

JPost Editorial: Israel must seize the momentum to prevent Hamas's return

Objectively, it is a bad deal – Israel is releasing prisoners who rightfully earned their cell spot, some with blood on their hands. But it is a deal that must continue to the end because we don’t leave our people behind.

Since taking office, as well as for some time before, Trump’s messaging was loud and clear: These images of war, this active conflict, must end. He has, so far, held up that pressure.

The problem is the conflict between the goals of the two sides in this war – Israel and Hamas. Israel would be willing to end the war if Hamas ceased to exist as a military, civilian, and political power – effectively volunteering to cease to exist.

Hamas’s stated goal is exactly the opposite: Israel withdraws from Gaza while Hamas retains control. These conflicting goals are going to bubble up and may challenge the endurance of the deal because the war won’t be over if Hamas is still in charge.

Trump doesn’t want to see Hamas leading Gaza any more than Jerusalem does. Netanyahu must use all the tools at his disposal to convince the president that the conflicting goals of Israel and Hamas can’t coexist. This would mean even more support for Israel should it eventually return to active fighting in the enclave.

As breathtaking and moving as the scenes are of families reunited, we must remember that in the last week of the first phase, Israel is set to receive the bodies of hostages killed on October 7 or in captivity.

This whole process is and will be marred with tragedy, which only adds more layers and nuances.

On Saturday, the Bibas family said, “Yarden is home. There are no words to describe the relief we feel to hold him, hug him, and hear his voice. Yarden is back, but the home is lacking. He is a father who left his safe room to protect his family, bravely survived captivity, and returned to an incomprehensibly difficult reality.” His wife, Shiri, and their two boys, Ariel and Kfir, remain in captivity.

Trump says he wants peace; Israel must leverage that momentum while it is alive and push for the next best stages of the deal it can achieve so that Hamas has no chance, ever again, of posing a terror threat to the Jewish state, like it once did.

Bernard-Henri Levy: The Imperative Remains: Destroy Hamas

The Jewish people respect the imperative to redeem captives. I know no one in Israel who could watch, without immense emotion, the images of the four young IDF women soldiers reuniting with their families.

But there was another image that preceded the magnificent moment of reunion. It was the image of the small stage on which the four were forced to stand, wearing strained smiles, waving at - whom? The Palestinian crowd perched across from them on rubble? Their jailers? Then they were handed over to the Red Cross, the same Red Cross that did not visit one hostage over the past 481 days.

This second image was chilling because of the childlike smiles of the petrified prisoners, knowing that everything could still go wrong. Chilling because of the black-clad, masked men surrounding them - some pressed close. Chilling because of what the scene signified to the crowds who watched it live, from Jabalia to Rafah, from Jericho to Ramallah, from Cairo to Amman. An army of criminals, wounded but not sunk, weakened but not defeated. An army that often returns only the remains of its captives.

It is vital to remember that Israel has always pursued two objectives in this war. The first is the release of the hostages. The second is the total defeat of the last pogromist squads, which would otherwise emerge from this disaster cloaked in a dark aura that would again inspire those tempted, in Israel and elsewhere, by jihad.

Nothing would be more dangerous than leaving behind, as Machiavelli put it, a wounded prince. As long as Hamas retains even a fraction of its capacity to strike - or to govern - Israel can tolerate neither a "durable ceasefire," a "peace of compromise" nor a "political solution." Hamas must be destroyed. Israel didn't seek this war, but it must decisively win.

Hamas forced hostage Keith Siegel to write a letter thanking his terrorist guards

In a cynical move showing its evil, today Hamas released a letter written by released hostage Keith Siegel that supposedly thanks the terrorists.

To Al-Qassam fighters…

My name is Keith Siegel and I am from Kfar Aza. I was a captive in Gaza from 7.10.23 until 1/2025.

The fighters guarding me during this period made sure to meet all my needs, including food, drink, medicine, vitamins, eye drops, blood pressure monitor, and more. They also brought me a doctor when I felt unwell for a long time.

The guards were responsive to my requests regarding food, food problems, etc.

They also made sure to bring food that was suitable for my health condition, vegetarian food and without oil.

The guards treated me well.

I believe that the Israeli government did not do what was required of it to reach a deal to return the prisoners and end the war, which led to many victims and additional damage to both sides.

I hope peace will come soon.

To the fighters who watched me during this period I give thanks.

Keith Siegel

The Siegel family released a statement: “The Hamas terrorists who held Keith forced him to write a detailed letter of thanks. This is just one of many examples of their cruel and cynical tactics.”

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Last week, Israel's Rafael Systems announced that the Iron Beam directed energy system will be deployed this year as an additional tool to combat missiles, rockets and drones aimed at Israel. It will truly be a game changer in countering threats from short range missiles.

National Defense adds details about the system that do not seem to have been previously reported.

Rafael chairman Yuval Steinitz said Iron Beam is a groundbreaking technological achievement, solving a challenge that had long hindered laser weapon development—atmospheric dispersion. Traditional high-energy lasers lose effectiveness as air density scatters their beams, but Iron Beam overcomes this by firing hundreds of small, coin-sized beams instead of a single large one. While individually weak, these beams collectively focus on a target, using a telescopic feedback system to lock onto a vulnerable spot and continuously increase energy until the target is disabled. Integrated with Iron Dome’s advanced algorithms, this system ensures precise targeting at the speed of light. Already tested at ranges of tens of kilometers, Iron Beam is expected to improve further, offering a highly effective defense against missiles and drones.

I haven't seen anyone discuss this, but why not use a similar system to defend against ground-based threats?

If Iron Beam can be programmed to identify and hit missiles flying at 5,000 kilometers an hour, it should be relatively simple to adapt it to stop any Hamas or Hezbollah attempts to infiltrate Israel above ground. Tracking, hitting and disabling people or SUVs is much easier than for a rocket - they are moving far slower. Also, the amount of energy needed to disable people or Jeeps would be much less, which should make it possible to stop threats from longer distances than the 10 or so kilometer range of Iron Beam for rockets. The systems would just need to be deployed on an elevated platform to be able to destroy threats from kilometers away at the speed of light.

The potential uses for a directed energy system don't end at Hamas or Hezbollah Radwan forces style attacks. Iron Beam can be used to disable - and potentially destroy - tanks as well.

Tanks have weak spots. Their optics and sensor systems can be targeted to blind the crew's ability to see where they are going. The tracks could be hit to immobilize the tank. And if the tank's rear is exposed, the ammunition and fuel tanks there are usually lightly protected and a hit can explode it and destroy the tank altogether.

A beam moves at the speed of light and is far more accurate than any projectile could possibly be, so even the smallest weak spot of a tank could be aimed at and hit accurately, even in the better protected front. One obvious target would be the gun barrel itself, which is not as well protected as most of the tank, and it just needs to be heated up enough to be deformed, which would make the tank ineffective as a weapon. (In extreme cases, a tank round that is meant to be fired could explode within the warped barrel itself, which could injure or kill the crew.)

Perhaps Iron Beam could also be modified to add the ability to fire at other light frequencies as well, such as microwaves, which could fry electronics systems and disable any modern threat from miles away.

Other issues would need to be addressed, not least that a ground-to-ground Iron Beam itself would be a target for attacks and need to be defended and deployed appropriately. It would need a reliable and permanent power supply. It has weak spots, too. But I see no reason directed energy weapons cannot be adapted, in a few years time, to defend Israel's borders more effectively and with lower cost that ever before.

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All of Israel and the Jewish world is wrenched with simultaneous grief and elation at the tortuous trickle of release of hostages in this first phase of the hostage deal. We all fervently pray for the safe return of every hostage.

I cannot get past the fact that the price appears to be too high.

The Gilad Shalit deal in 2011 was the release of 1,027 prisoners for the abducted soldier. One of them was Yahya Sinwar, the architect of October 7. In retrospect, was the Shalit deal worth it, knowing that 1,200 Israelis would be killed through the efforts of one of the released terrorists? Not to mention the soldiers who have fallen in the war.

There are lots of halachic opinions on prisoner swaps, and they run the gamut from permissive to very restrictive. When the Air France airliner was hijacked in 1977 to Uganda, the Israeli government asked all of the prominent leading rabbinical figures in Israel (including R' Ovadia Yosef, R' Shlomo Auerbach and R' Elyashiv) and for an opinion on whether they can negotiate with the terrorists and potentially release murderers to save the lives of the passengers. The rabbis answered in the affirmative, telling Yitzchak Rabin: “Although it is clear that releasing terrorists carries with it grave dangers, nonetheless, being that the Jewish hostages are found in a state of immediate danger, according to Jewish law they therefore override the danger of releasing the terrorists and therefore it is obligatory for the government of Israel to enter negotiations with the terrorists and do everything they can to save the captives from the danger that hovers over their lives.”

R' Ovadia Yosef reiterated this opinion in support of the Shalit deal, but we cannot know if the late rabbi would have reconsidered in light of October 7.

IDF soldier Avraham Amram was captured on April 5, 1978, in a clash with Palestinian PFLP-GC forces near Rashidieh camp in South Lebanon. He was exchanged in 1979 for 76 convicted Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. It was the first time Israel negotiated directly with a terrorist organization. The Lubavitcher Rebbe strongly opposed this deal, saying that the price paid should not be higher than what other countries typically use in their prisoner swaps, citing a contemporary swap between the US and Soviet Union of two prisoners for five. But he went beyond that, saying that this crossed the red line of negotiating with terrorists who openly said they would continue their terrorism. Furthermore, said the Rebbe, putting terrorists in prison to begin with, rather than executing them, was a major mistake, since it encourages future kidnappings and invites pressure to release them at some point.

One of the prisoners released in that deal was Hafez Dalkamoni, who was the leader of a PFLP-GC cell in West Germany that was responsible for the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270.

Similarly, the founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, was freed in a 1985 hostage deal. He was responsible for countless murders.

I am in no position to argue with the eminent rabbinical authorities who permit hostage deals. But today we have more information than in the past. One major justification of hostage deals is that definitely saving lives now is a higher priority than being concerned about potential loss of lives in the future. That calculus may have changed.

About 80 percent of those released in the West Bank for Gilad Shalit resumed their terror activities,. This makes it not merely a potential concern about those being released now ending the lives of people in the future but as close to a certainty as is statistically possible.

If we assume each has an 80% chance of staying a terrorist, and each of them has a 1% chance of successfully mounting a fatal attack, that means that for 1,900 released prisoners there is a 96% chance of 10 successful terror attacks from that group and a near certainty of 5 successful terror attacks. This is of course an oversimplification but it shows how definite future terror attacks are from this group.

Actually, this is worse. Looking at the examples of Sinwar, Yassin and Dalkamoni, we can estimate that perhaps 0.1% of released prisoners are uber-terrorists who can be assumed to mastermind attacks that will murder hundreds of people themselves in the future, not just one or two. Israel is releasing about 1,900 terrorists in the first phase but about 4,000 if all the phases are carried out. That means that 3 or 4 of those released will have the ability to mount major attacks with high casualties - much higher than the number of hostages being released.

The question is not if people will be murdered in the future but how many. This may turn it from a question of pidyon shevuyim (ransoming prisoners) to a variant of the trolley problem, where doing an action to save some lives would definitely result in the deaths of others, very probably more, although it is not exactly the same since the deaths will not happen immediately and the action saving the lives is not the action that will kill the others. Rabbis have debated the trolley problem for decades before philosophers first articulated it.

The entire situation is heartbreaking. But Israel should be doing everything possible to ensure that it doesn't happen in the future, and if that means the death penalty for terrorists, so be it. Releasing these terrorists today is a virtual guarantee of many more people being killed tomorrow.

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

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02/01 Links: Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon, Keith Siegel free after 484 days in Gaza; Trump reiterates that Egypt, Jordan will take in Palestinians

From Ian:

Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon, Keith Siegel free after 484 days in Gaza

Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon and Keith Siegel were freed on Saturday after 484 days in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian terrorists handed over Bibas and Kalderon to the Red Cross in Khan Yunis, in the Strip’s south, while Siegel was released in Gaza City.

“The government of Israel is committed to returning all of the hostages and the missing,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

The statement concluded with a quote from the Bible: “I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel” (Jeremiah 15:21).

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum issued a statement saying: “Their release today brings a ray of light in the darkness, offering hope and demonstrating the triumph of the human spirit. Yet their return also reminds us that 79 hostages remain in Gaza, still waiting to be saved. We will not rest until every phase of this deal is completed and every hostage is returned—the living to reunite with their loved ones, and the deceased for proper burial with dignity.”

In exchange, Jerusalem on Saturday was set to free 183 Palestinian terrorists—18 serving life sentence, 54 serving lengthy terms and 111 arrested since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Freed hostage Yarden Bibas meets IDF troops, Feb. 1, 2025. Credit: Israel Defense Forces.

Bibas’s wife, Shiri, 33, and their two sons, Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2, are on the list of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Hamas, however, has claimed that Shiri and the children have been killed.

Kalderon, 54, a dual Israeli-French citizen, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, along with his son Erez, 12, and daughter, Sahar, 16. The children were among the 105 captives freed in November 2023 as part of a ceasefire-for-terrorists agreement.

Siegel, 65, a dual Israeli-American citizen, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the Oct. 7 massacre. His wife, Aviva, was among those who returned as part of the November 2023 swap with Hamas.

Hostages’ stories: Gadi Mozes paced 7km a day in tiny cell, soldiers rationed grains of rice

Gadi Mozes, isolated, paced 7 kilometers a day in his two-square-meter room; female surveillance soldiers counted grains of rice to fairly divide the scant food they had between them; one hostage convinced her captors to film a propaganda video of her, hoping to offer her family a sign of life.

These are some of the stories emerging as newly freed hostages begin to recount to their families the hellish 15 months they spent as captives of Gaza terrorists, stripped of their autonomy, enduring abysmal conditions and uncertain of their fate as hour after hour ticked excruciatingly by, over the course of more than 470 days.

Channel 12 news reported Friday night on some of those harrowing experiences and the hardships, struggles and moments of bravery they entailed.

Mozes, 80, who was freed on Thursday from Hamas captivity, told family members that throughout 15 months he was never with other hostages. The first Israeli he met was 29-year-old Arbel Yehoud, as they were brought together a few days ago ahead of their joint release.

For some 70 days of his captivity, Mozes was in complete isolation, locked alone in a dark room, he said. He was moved between several apartments over the course of the war, and was not held in tunnels.

Mozes knew his longtime partner Efrat Katz had been murdered during the attack, and mourned her. But he did not know what had happened to his daughter Moran until being freed (Moran survived and met him Thursday upon his return).

For much of his time in captivity, the octogenarian was held in a two-square-meter (2.4-square-yard) room, in which he regularly paced some 7 kilometers (over 4 miles) every day, counting the tiles on the room floor and solving math problems to pass the time and keep his mind sharp.

His glasses were broken during the kidnapping, but after two months he managed to get new ones from his captors and was able to read two books.

At a certain point, Mozes said he decided to live one day at a time, and not think of release. Freed hostage Gadi Mozes reunites with his children (from left) Oded, Moran and Yair at an IDF facility near Re’im on January 30, 2025. (IDF)

Once every five days or so Mozes was given a bowl of tepid water to shower with, using a cup to pour the water over his head. He insisted on shaving himself, despite it being a messy and painful affair, as it was important to him not to neglect himself. Mozes lost some 15 kilograms in captivity, according to the network.

At some points, he feared he would be executed. In one instance, he was held in a hot pickup truck for 12 hours under Red Cross offices in the Gaza Strip, he said. Though he hoped he was being released, he was only being moved between hiding spots.

What medical condition are the Thai nationals released from Hamas captivity

Following the arrival of the Thai national hostages from Hamas captivity on Thursday to the Shamir Medical Center, its director, Dr. Osnat Levzion-Korach, disclosed the details of their condition.

Regarding the condition of the released hostages, Dr. Levzion-Korach stated it was surprising to find that while the hostages "endured unimaginable horrors and harsh conditions, it appeared that those who have been released so far were relatively well cared for."

Dr. Levzion-Korach then elaborated on what is now to be expected for the released Thai hostages as they stay in the hospital for their recovery.

"The Thai citizens who arrived at our hospital are currently in good and stable condition, but we will continue to conduct comprehensive medical examinations alongside extensive psychological treatments as needed," she said.

"Over the next week, they [the Thai hosategs] are expected to stay here and recuperate. In addition to medical care, they will have sessions with psychologists and social workers," Dr. Levzion-Korach added.

She also emphasized, "It is important to remember that despite their good physical condition, they survived nearly 500 days of a horrific ordeal and will require long-term rehabilitation. Moving forward, we will assist them according to the guidelines we receive from the Thai embassy and the families of the hostages as they prepare to return to Thailand."

Dr. Levzion-Korach noted while there has been considerably "less focus" on the Thai hostages, the medical team at the Shamir Medical Center did not "neglect them for a moment."

"In the previous hospitalization [of the released hostages in November 2023], we provided dedicated care to 24 foreigners, including 23 Thai hostages and one Filipino. They received a great deal of respect and warmth from us, and we will once again ensure they receive comprehensive care and attention," she explained.

01/31 Links Pt2: Hamas Has Nothing But Contempt For Its Defenders; Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome; I Went to Israel and Witnessed the UNTHINKABLE! | NFL Icon Nick Lowery Speaks Out

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome

The suggestion that Netanyahu has prevented peace with the Palestinian Arabs is risible. As is by now overwhelmingly obvious to all who are not blinded by prejudice, the Palestinian Arabs remain implacably committed to wiping Israel from the map, as they always have been.

In a conspicuous display of amnesia, Davis and Prashker omit the fact—so inconvenient to their Netanyahu-bashing—that the Palestinian Arabs have rejected numerous offers of a state of their own and chosen instead to renew their war of extermination against the Jewish homeland.

David and Prashkar write: “Isolated by war and collective trauma, many Israelis struggle to come to terms with how far we have traveled from our foundational values.”

This bears precious little relation to a country that, devastated by trauma and collective grief, believes in itself because it affirms the enduring values of the Jewish people—a country whose heroic young soldiers have galvanized and inspired it by their blazing love of and admiration for the nation they are defending.

But, of course, the people whose discomfort Davis and Prashkar are really talking about are Jews of the Diaspora who “struggle to process or acknowledge the shifts threatening the Israel they cherish as a source of pride and identity.”

These shifts, they claim, have been such that it was “currently more acceptable in widening circles for a government minister to advocate ‘voluntary emigration’ and the resettlement of Gaza than it is for an opposition leader to assert that secure peace with the Palestinians is in Israel’s strategic interests.”

Since they wrote this, U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that Jordan, Egypt and other countries might be “persuaded” to take in more than 1 million Gazan Arabs who want to leave. The reason for that suggestion is precisely the impossibility of envisaging a “secure peace” ever coming from Gazans who have been brainwashed from birth to slaughter Jews and steal their land.

Having internalized many of the lies told about Israel, far too many Diaspora Jews, unfortunately, “struggle to process or acknowledge” the fact that their assumed British or American identity relegates their Jewish identity to a marginal add-on now being used against them by people they so unwisely assumed regarded them as one of their own.

It’s perfectly possible to dislike Netanyahu and believe he should step down, and yet recognize the realities of Palestinian rejectionism and the enduring attempt to destroy Israel. Blaming the prime minister for this and for resurgent antisemitism is beyond perverse. It resembles the obsessional demonization of the newly installed American president known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Blaming Netanyahu for the Western war against the Jews is a pathological displacement exercise by people who refuse to acknowledge what is in front of their eyes. It’s easier to scapegoat Netanyahu on the assumption that if you get rid of him, then you get rid of the problem.

Of course, it’s entirely legitimate to criticize Netanyahu or his government’s policies. But accusing him of betraying Zionism and Israel’s foundational values is not just criticism. It’s Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome on steroids.

Seth Mandel: Hamas Has Nothing But Contempt For Its Defenders

Let’s be clear, then, on exactly what was happening through the war: Israel was constantly moving large amounts of civilians out of harms way while Hamas was scheming to put those same civilians in grave danger. Hundreds of thousands, we are told, were moved into the humanitarian zone. That is many times the 25,000 or so civilian deaths in Gaza caused by the war. In Mawasi, we now know, Israel was able to save most but not all of the displaced Gazans from Deif’s attempt to get them killed.

Now that hostilities have paused, Hamas is taking stock of what it has and what it has lost. It has lost Deif, but it has gained a bunch of useful idiots for whom it has nothing but contempt. Hamas was very happy to have its advocates repeat its propaganda like caged parrots, of course. And it appreciates the ability to direct foreign media with a wave of its hand. But that very process assures that it will not have much respect for those doing its bidding.

Hamas is much more self-aware than some people seem to think. It knows how evil it is. It knows how unworthy of moral support it is. It knows that it represents man’s inhumanity to man. It knows that every word out of the mouths of its propagandists is a lie. Hamas needs its Western supporters to trust it, but it would never be so foolish as to believe what it says.

For the past 15 months, Hamas has been leading its supporters and its fans and every anti-Zionist with a public profile out on a limb. Now it has sawed off that limb. Watch as all these fools learn absolutely nothing for the next round.

Seth Mandel: Trump’s New Executive Order on Anti-Semitism

Unequal treatment under the law has been at the center of this entire controversy. Jewish students’ civil rights under Title VI have been violated at will on campuses that accept federal funds or are themselves public institutions.

Speaking of Title VI, the executive order begins by referencing an order Trump signed in 2019, the purpose of which was to ensure those civil-rights protections were applied to Jewish students on campus. That’s why there isn’t all that much that’s new about the recent order: The administration is trying to foreclose avenues of noncompliance that schools have been using, with the blessing of the previous administration, to violate Jewish rights.

Institutions seemingly don’t know how to protect Jews’ civil rights, so Trump is spelling it out for them. Elsewhere in the new order, the president suggests the attorney general should make use of a statute known as the “conspiracy against rights” prohibition. This post-Civil War law was designed to address white supremacist groups preventing black Americans from exercising their political rights. (Trump himself was charged under the statute in one of his Jan. 6-related cases.)

In fact, the masked “globalize the intifada” mobs are quite natural heirs to the Ku Klux Klan, and laws enacted to curb their power are a logical source of ideas for those who actually want to crack down on the post-Oct. 7 goon squads using violence or intimidation to negate the constitutional rights of Jewish students.

The Trump administration is making it very simple for those who want to fight anti-Semitism within existing law. We’re about to find out which institutions oppose the very idea of equal enforcement of the law.

01/31 Links Pt1: Gaza must reject terror of Hamas for war to end; Ofer Kalderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas to be released Saturday; GOP Bill Recognizing West Bank as ‘Judea and Samaria’

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Gaza must reject terror of Hamas for war to end

Is there a chance that this population that so enjoys terrorizing Jewish girls could suddenly become a lovely, pluralistic group of people? I’d say not.

The best postwar plans that anyone has been able to come up with seem to include the Palestinians being allowed to start all over again in Gaza. Which means the same thing happening again and again.

It will take many years to rebuild Gaza, whoever is there. It will take years not just because of the devastation — which I have seen with my own eyes — but because to even start to rebuild the Gaza Strip, you would have to fill in the hundreds of miles of tunnels that Hamas used Western taxpayer money to construct all these years. There isn’t an area in Gaza that hasn’t got a tunnel system underneath it, built by Hamas to move around and store weapons in.

How long will it take to remove all the bombs and boobytraps that Hamas has stockpiled in Gaza? How long will it be before anyone could be persuaded to put money into the area?

And in the meantime, where should the population go?

Trump has floated the idea that the Gazans could go to Egypt or Jordan. But I would like to extend that offer. Why not offer them to Ireland, Canada, Pakistan, and all those other countries that profess to care so much for the Palestinians? If they want these terrorist supporters so much, why shouldn’t Dublin, Toronto and Islamabad benefit from their presence? I’m sure the Palestinians will help these countries boom. In their own traditional ways.

Perhaps at some point, they could return to Gaza when they have learned how to govern themselves or be governed by someone else.

But here’s the thing: The citizens of Gaza mainly supported Hamas when Hamas started a war to annihilate Israel. And while Hamas has mostly lost — it has not yet lost completely.

Yet it must lose — completely. And if that means that they are no longer allowed to live in their enclave of terror, then so be it. There is no law of war that says you are allowed to keep waging wars, keep losing them, and then be allowed to do it all over again.

In fact, if you start a war that you then lose, you usually also lose all or most of the territory you started it from. That is not only right, but the only language that these terrorists and their masters understand.

And isn´t it just the best possible rider that all those losers on American college campuses who supported Hamas might now have their student visas withdrawn and so see the consequences of their actions first-hand, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

It’ll be a learning curve and a life lesson.

The lesson being that there are consequences to backing the losers. And for being them.

Danny Cohen: The released Palestinian prisoners are not hostages – they are terrorists

It is impossible to imagine what the Israeli hostages have been through since the October 7 attacks. Yet even on their release their suffering has been cruelly exploited.

The release of the hostages has become a sickening ritual, carefully choreographed by the terrorists of Hamas as a shameless propaganda spectacle.

Last week, when four female hostages were released, Hamas forced the women to wear ill-fitting army uniforms and made them wave and smile from a specially-constructed stage. They were made to thank their captors, terrorists who had taken them from their beds, exploited and imprisoned them. With a final flourish of mocking cruelty, the women were presented with goodie bags of farewell gifts and certificates of captivity. It was simply grotesque.

The hostage exchange that followed a few days later took on a greater edge of menace and danger. 29-year-old Arbel Yehud was forced to make her way through baying Palestinian crowds before reaching safety. Alongside her, 80 year-old Gadi Moses somehow composed himself with unthinkable dignity before the hate mob.

Hamas wants these ugly scenes to be projected around the world, to reach us all via our TV screens and phones. They intend to project power, control and the promise of future terrorist violence. Their masked fighters strut and brandish guns for the cameras to warn they are ready to inflict genocidal terror attacks again if they are given the chance.

You could argue that all media organisations providing live coverage of the hostage releases are giving a platform to terror. Yet this is perhaps unavoidable in our era of rolling news.

What is unforgivable is the false equivalence made by so many news’ organisations – including the BBC – between Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. This has distorted the story in a manner that will have delighted Hamas.

News outlets across the globe have repeatedly referred to the Palestinians to be released as “hostages”. They have equated the victims of a terrorist attack with violent murderers who seek to kill civilians and erase Israel from the map.

Brendan O'Neill: Why are ‘anti-racists’ silent about Arbel Yehud’s terrible ordeal?

Here’s my question, though: why didn’t today’s events shake the Western conscience too? Where’s our wrath at the sight of a Jewish woman being mobbed by Jew-hating men just three days after Holocaust Memorial Day?

The left’s usual craven excuse-making for Hamas’s seizing of hostages – where they point out that some of the hostages are serving members of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) – doesn’t work in this case. Ms Yehud is a civilian. She was kidnapped because she is a Jew. She was jeered at by a crush of irate men today because she is a Jew. And yet you will search in vain for condemnation of this modern-day Jew-shaming from the West’s so-called progressives.

Where are our anti-racists? Where are those people who will brand you an ‘Islamophobe’ if you so much as scuff a page of the Koran or a ‘fascist’ if you criticise mass immigration? We live in an era in which tabloid criticism of Meghan Markle is denounced as lunatic white supremacy while the mobbing of a Jew by members of a terror group founded to kill Jews is shrugged off as normal.

Where are our feminists? Where are those well-paid columnists who write pained screeds about how sexist it is for the waiter to give the bill to their boyfriend rather than to them, yet who seemingly have nothing to say about the public tormenting of a woman whose only ‘crime’ is her Jewishness? Where are those feminist crusaders who spent last year demanding access to the men-only Garrick Club so that they might quaff wine with princes, judges and thespians? They really have nothing to say about a member of their sex who was forced for 16 months to break bread with the men who slaughtered a thousand of her co-religionists?

It isn’t the behaviour of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that is shocking. Of course these armies of anti-Semites and misogynists will gleefully persecute a Jewish woman. What’s shocking is the indifference of the West’s intellectuals. Too many of them failed to make a full-throated condemnation of the atrocities of 7 October, and now too many look the other way as a Jewish woman is made into a spectacle of hate and derision. This should worry us all, for if our cultural elites will turn a blind eye to this, they’ll turn a blind eye to anything.

From Reuters:

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tells Al Jazeera that launching a military attack on Iranian nuclear sites would be “one of the biggest historical mistakes the US could make.”

Araghchi says Tehran will respond “immediately and decisively” if its nuclear sites are attacked, which will lead to “all-out war in the region.”

Remember, Iran warned that it will mount a massive attack on Israel since the end of October.

Also remember that Israel's October attack did indeed destroy an Iranian nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin.

So where's World War III?

About 90% of Iranian air defense systems are warnings of huge consequences for attacking. When you understand that these regular threats are meant to dissuade - which is a lot cheaper than a decent air defense system - you can understand why Iran says this stuff regularly.

Just like they claim that Israel's dismantling of Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria's fall didn't hurt it at all.

One day, reporters will be able to tell the difference between frightened bluster and real threats.

Not that Iran would do nothing. They could attack US facilities in Arab countries; they could enhance the Hothi style blocking of US ships in the area, they can generally make themselves a nuisance. But Iran wants war a lot less than the US does, because they know that a war means the end of the mullah's regime.

Which is as strong a reason to attack as targeting Iran's nuclear weapons program.

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

A writer and author named Mustafa Cemal Tomar just completed a series of four articles describing why Jews are so powerful. It is essentially an update of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, concentrating on economic issues but touching on all aspects of evil Jewish world domination.

Excerpts:

The Jews, whose total number does not even reach 50 million, directly and indirectly rule over approximately 8 billion people in the world other than themselves. In addition to their own companies, they dominate the economy through the families they have chosen and somehow bought in other countries. Since they are an organized minority, they manage to eliminate their other competitors by protecting each other or by promoting the people they choose in the public eye. They do this mostly through the influence of dominating the capital market and the means of production.

Another method used by this evil global mind is to manipulate people and countries easily because they control basic necessities. The vast majority of energy companies operating in the world today belong to Jews. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies and medical companies operating in the health sector are mostly in the hands of these companies or their local subcontractors. The lion's share in the marketing of agricultural and animal products, especially seeds, belongs to these global companies or their local subcontractors. Most of the companies operating in the arms industry and technology fields belong to them.

Another major factor in the Jews' dominance in the world is that they know human nature very well, exploit their weaknesses to corrupt societies, do their own PR due to their dominance in the media, and present themselves as standard-setters. Throughout history, Jews have been exiled from the lands of various countries for centuries because they have betrayed almost all communities. In the Middle Ages, especially in Europe, the professions a Jew could engage in, the amount of property they could own, and even the amount of chickens they could own were limited and limited. Since most states did not trust them, they were not accepted into civil service.

For this reason, Jews mostly lived in large cities with a cosmopolitan structure in order to hide themselves by engaging in trade. Rather than owning land and houses out of fear of being deported, they collected movable, movable capital such as gold and precious metals and became rich in this way, and with the development of capitalism, they dominated the means of production and capital markets. While doing all this, they were always in the back of the stage instead of the front, and although the extras changed, they always wrote the script themselves. The hand that regulates the market, which Adam Smith called the “invisible hand,” is actually the hand of the Jews most of the time.

This evil mind, which monitors countries and continues to make money even from the money supply of countries, does not stop at just monitoring countries. Starting in the 1960s, they also introduced electronic and card payment systems to the market. In this way, those who generally monitor the trade status of states now also manage to see the spending tendencies of individual people and develop policies accordingly. ...In this way, they come one step closer to controlling humanity. Today, 85% of the electronic payment systems such as Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay operating globally in the world are directly in their hands. Jewish capital, primarily Rockefeller, is behind the cashless society movement. In this way, they can see where people are, where they spend their money, the spending trends of societies and individuals, and who they donate to.

Today, 97% of technology companies and mainstream media, and almost all of social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are monopolized by these international companies. Search engines such as Google and video sharing sites such as Youtube are also in their hands. For this reason, all those who speak out, write articles, share videos and visuals contrary to their own projects are censored and either not shown at all or are prevented from becoming popular and relegated to lower ranks and hidden from people's eyes.

The evil mind, which used to control what humanity did through spending and detect their weaknesses in the past, today uses the information system to monitor people 24 hours a day with tools such as mobile phones and social media, and can access even their most private information. Despite being the richest in the world, having the means of production and everything they want, the globalist evil mind, which is insatiable, is not satisfied with what they have today and is trying to take control of people's private lives. They are trying to corrupt humanity and the world with the belief in the chosen people, and they are playing a kind of god (God forbid) in their own way.

Although they have achieved great success for now, there is still hope for humanity. However, it is obvious that we are in a very dangerous environment. Our country and humanity are literally at the last exit before the bridge. Either we will unite against them and disrupt these games or we will completely fall under their domination and perish.

I's be happy if Jews had only one tenth of the unity and power than the antisemites think they do.

We've seen many times how the world ignores Arab antisemitism, assuming that it is normal and therefore not noteworthy. The huge amount of Jew-hatred in mainstream Turkish media shows that this isn't an Arab exception - it is a Muslim exception that even extends to NATO countries.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Egypt creates a staged "popular" demonstration at Rafah border: "We don't want Gazans here!"

Yesterday, hundreds of Egyptians gathered at the Rafah border crossing to protest Donald Trump's plan to allow Gazans to enter Egypt if they want to.

Video and photos from the scene show that this was staged by the Egyptian government, and hardly the spontaneous popular demonstration Arabic media is pretending it was.

But even their chants indicated that their concern wasn't Palestinian steadfastness but the sanctity of Egypt's borders: ""With our bodies standing, we protect our borders from displacement. The Egyptian people are a great people. No, no to displacement."

It is clear that the Egyptian government and other political parties were behind the rallies. First of all, just look at all the professionally printed banners that feature Egypt's president:

Furthermore, they arrived in Rafah on chartered buses. Given Egypt's economy, there is no way the people who attended paid for the privilege to go to Rafah.

The demonstrations are a means to spook Americans that if somehow some Palestinians would enter Egypt it would destabilize the region.

After all, everyone is afraid of the mythical "Arab street." The impression they want to give is that Trump may be able to bully President Sisi but he cannot control the masses!

So they control the masses.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

On Thursday, Hamas admitted Qassam Brigades leader Muhammad Deif had been killed during the war.

This comes after months of denials. When Israel announced that Deif and other Hamas leaders were the target for ran airstrike in July, Hamas called these “false allegations” intended to “cover up the scale of the horrific massacre.” Deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Khalil al-Hayya, told Al Jazeera that Deif had heard Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that he was the target and laughed at it. Even as late as November, Hamas denied a report from Asharq al-Awsat saying Deif had been killed in that airstrike.

Now Hamas admits the truth. Everyone knows Hamas was lying for over six months and the IDF, which only confirmed Deif's death in early August, was telling the truth.

This has happened hundreds of times over the years. But the mainstream media still stubbornly pretends that both Israeli and terrorist claims have equal weight; that a masked Abu Obeida is as credible as an entire professional army that is under constant scrutiny. One which, it should be emphasized, admits mistakes when they happen, which should only add to its credibility when it denies others' accusations.

Knowing that Deif was indeed killed on July 13, and that Hamas lied about it, what does that mean for the coverage of the July airstrike?

Media at the time took the Gaza Health Ministry statement that 90 were killed in the strike as unvarnished truth, as the Washington Post headline shows.

But the only source for this is the Hamas run health ministry. At the time, the Palestinian Red Crescent society said they recovered 23 bodies. The health ministry counts bodies that arrive at hospitals. Perhaps some bodies were transported using other means, but there are no such claims. How could the health ministry have concluded 90 deaths if only 23 bodies were brought to hospitals?

Israel didn't just claim that they killed Deif in the airstrike. They said that they killed a number of senior Hamas officials, including the commander of the Hamas Khan Younis brigade, Rafa Salama, whose death Hamas also now admits.

This means that the IDF was also telling the truth that Hamas was hiding among civilians in the main humanitarian zone of Al Mawasi. Top Hamas commanders used the hundreds of thousands of civilians in the camp as human shields, which Hamas also consistently denies. If Deif and Salama was there, they were using the camp as a Hamas military headquarters. It can be presumed that Deif and Salama were not alone in their meeting in the middle of the camp, and if 23 were killed, a good proportion of them were Hamas members.

The story of an unprovoked massacre at the camp is now debunked. Yet the coverage of Hamas now admitting Deif's death does not mention the obvious: that this proves that the IDF strikes were fully legal under international law and Hamas cynically used its own people as human shields. The media is not admitting that its reporting from the camp did not admit that there were legitimate targets there, and that it skewed journalism to damn Israel.

Hamas just admitted that its senior members use the people it governed as human shields. That is the story that we are not seeing the media mention today.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/30 Links Pt2: The Gaza-Auschwitz Comparison Is a Moral Failure; Hillel Neuer: The Most Hated Man at the UN; Protecting the ICC; Letting Palestinians Leave Gaza

From Ian:

The Gaza-Auschwitz Comparison Is a Moral Failure

The banner proclaiming “Palestine: the victory of the oppressed people over Nazi Zionism,” was prominently displayed behind Hamas terrorists as they forced hostage Naama Levy — whose pants were bloodied at the time of her capture — to smile in an army uniform. The goal of this image is clear: to “Nazify” Israel, whitewash Hamas’ crimes, and invert the roles of victims and oppressors. This is the essence of the Iran-backed terror group’s propaganda.

This is not merely an act of cruelty and humiliation; it is a calculated political message, designed to invert historical roles: Israel as the modern-day Third Reich, and Zionism as its ideology.

But Hamas is not alone in spreading this message. It is part of a long-standing antisemitic propaganda campaign that has gained renewed traction far beyond Gaza.

On American college campuses, in activist circles, and across social media, this rhetoric finds eager amplifiers: “Israelis are Nazis,” “Israel is genocide,” “Hamas is resistance.” Pseudo-human rights organizations, pseudo-anti-racists, and pseudo-feminists echo these slogans. At the same time, these voices remain disturbingly silent about the mass rapes, murders, and kidnappings carried out by Hamas on October 7. Their hypocrisy speaks volumes about their supposed commitment to justice and human rights.

These comparisons are not simply misguided or exaggerated; they have a double-edged effect. On one hand, they trivialize the Nazi atrocities by equating them with a contemporary conflict, tragic as it may be, that differs fundamentally in purpose and scope. On the other, they invert historical roles, casting Jews — victims of an unparalleled genocide — as today’s oppressors. This shift doesn’t necessarily deny the Holocaust outright, but distorts its meaning, drains it of its uniqueness, and repurposes it as a malleable ideological tool. The result is an assault on memory itself — on its ability to prevent the resurgence of hatred and, most urgently, the rising antisemitism witnessed since October 7, 2023.

The accusations of genocide directed at Israel are not new. They trace back to Yasser Arafat and Soviet propaganda in the 1970s, gaining momentum with each flare-up in Gaza. These claims rely on a deliberate distortion of historical facts. The Holocaust was a systematic and industrialized campaign of extermination, carried out in secrecy to annihilate an entire people. Gaza, despite its immense suffering and devastation, is the scene of a conflict between a terrorist group and a sovereign military — not an extermination effort. Comparing Gaza to Auschwitz distorts history and reduces the Holocaust to a vague, manipulable idea, undermining its status as a universal moral anchor.

This confusion does more than undermine the past; it undermines the present. The legal mechanisms designed to prevent genocide lose their potency when misused in this way. Raphaël Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide,” emphasized its specificity: the deliberate, systematic destruction of a group. By conflating the horrors of asymmetrical warfare with organized genocide, we blur the critical distinction between war and extermination. This misapplication of language is not just a semantic issue; it is a moral failure.

The issue doesn’t end with hashtags or protest slogans. It reaches the highest levels of political discourse. In 2014, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Israel of “surpassing the Nazis in its barbarity” during Operation Protective Edge. In 2022, Mahmoud Abbas claimed Israel had committed “fifty holocausts,” and made these remarks in Berlin — the very city where the Holocaust was meticulously planned.

Fifty Years of Using International Law Against Israel: A Social Justice Narrative Takeover

The year 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, which declared that Zionism is a form of racism. Nonbinding UN resolutions fuel international court lawfare against Israel, which has only increased following Hamas's October 7, 2023, massacre. The result has been the endowment of moral and political legitimacy to terrorist aggressors, negating the fundamental values of the international system.

A collection of UN resolutions made Palestinian political violence a legitimate form of political expression. UN resolutions provide justification, reinforcement, and prestige for Palestinian terrorism - including that of Hamas. Both sides now "equal," the UN began using the terminology "a cycle of violence" when referring to IDF clashes with terrorists.

The politicized international courts are conducive to the "narrative" approach that reinterprets history and disregards a legal, adjudicated examination of evidence, favoring social justice. The "critical justice" reinterpretation of law views facts through the lens of corrective narratives. Therefore, terms such as "occupation," "invasion," and "blockade" are not interpreted conventionally, but in a way that will afford "social justice."

Alternatively, direct efforts to remold definitions are employed: on December 11, 2024, Ireland requested that the UN broaden its definition of "genocide," so that Israel would be found guilty in the ICJ case.

Israel has become the "canary in the coal mine" at the UN - an indigenous people in their ancestral homeland uniquely targeted for "colonialism." The democratic majority rule principle has been usurped to compel the now outnumbered West to subvert the UN's original vision.

Behind the Mask of ‘Pro-Peace’ Groups in Israel

Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, the Israeli national directors of the Standing Together movement, were included in the Time 100 Next list for 2024 due to their extensive pacifist activities, such as the national campaign “The North Demands Peace – Deal Now.” As part of this campaign, the organization’s activists hung billboards in northern Israel with the statement “The North Demands Peace” in Arabic and Hebrew. Ironically, or perhaps tragically, one of the billboards placed at the Maxim intersection in Haifa was near a site damaged by a Hezbollah rocket last October. This area also witnessed the horrific terror suicide bombing at Maxim restaurant, co-owned by Arabs and Jews, in 2003, which killed 21 Jews and Arabs and injured 51 others.

The push for a diplomatic solution with Hezbollah for a ceasefire at any cost, without restrictions or the possibility of Israeli action for violations, indicates a lack of security awareness among Standing Together activists. Last November, northern residents, local authorities, and community forums expressed firm opposition to the proposed ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, fearing future violations by Hezbollah and the potential for a terrible massacre. This fear was reinforced when an IDF spokesman revealed Hezbollah’s plans to conquer the Galilee. Although the ceasefire was eventually signed, Hezbollah violated it within five days.

Besides calling for a ceasefire in the north, Standing Together does not address the circumstances that led to the Sword of Iron war. While they importantly call for the return of hostages to Israel, they mislead the public by claiming that “the government and media in Israel are ignoring war crimes in Gaza and claiming everything is fine.” They assert that Israel is waging a war of extermination in Gaza and that “we must not get used to killing and starving innocent Palestinians in Gaza, hundreds of rocket launches daily, or abandoning cities in the north and south.”

At a demonstration, one of the national directors held signs showing Israeli and Palestinian death tolls since the war’s beginning, citing 44,249 Palestinian deaths without specifying how many were Hamas terrorists. This figure, from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, is unsupported. According to UN data from last May, a third of those killed in Gaza were women and children. A University of Pennsylvania expert’s study suggests the ratio of killed militants to civilians is around 1:1, according to the UN’s assessment. The ratio in urban combat zones around the world is 1:9, meaning nine civilians killed for every combatant killed — and that Israel is doing far more than any other military to avoid and reduce civilian deaths.

Regarding claims of starvation in Gaza, COGAT has facilitated the entry of over a million tons of aid on 57,545 trucks since the war began. From January to July 2024, the average daily food consumption in Gaza was about 3,004 calories per person, compared to 3,540 in Europe and North America, and 2,600 in African countries. Standing Together fails to blame Hamas for systematically stealing humanitarian aid from the residents of Gaza.