Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

The White House is publicly accepting Hamas disinformation and reinforcing it (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

“If Hamas truly believes that the people, the Palestinian people are suffering, then why would they want to take this aid and use it for themselves to support their terrorist organization? One would hope that this aid will get to the people that are most deserving and in need.”
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder when asked how the US was going to ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians and not Hamas.

Did Ryder really acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization and then in the same breath expect that those terrorists would happily share humanitarian aid with the rest of Gaza? We shouldn't be all that surprised. Remember, this is the same administration where Biden himself wholeheartedly accepts -- and repeats -- the Hamas claim that 30,000 Gazans have died so far.

The Biden administration, like most of the West, has fallen for the Hamas propaganda -- hook, line, and sinker. That is the point made in a recent YNet article, The US sees situation in Gaza through Hamas' optics:

Hamas uses the suffering of the people in Gaza for its propaganda purposes and for pressuring Israel. The fact that the U.S. has fallen for this Hamas tactic is no less than shocking. It only reinforces Hamas’ incentive to use the civilian population as a human shield since this strategy works - it is more harmful to Israel than it is to Hamas.

Of course, we can make the argument that the Biden administration is not fooled by Hamas at all -- they are merely undercutting Israel because this is an election year and the powers that be are afraid of losing votes. But that interpretation doesn't make Biden look any better.

Either way, the administration is publicly accepting Hamas disinformation and reinforcing it. That only strengthens the terrorists in their strategy and encourages them to hold out while putting lives and the future of Gaza at stake. Biden says he wants stability, but his actions have the opposite effect.

The destruction of Hamas terrorists is not a stated goal. The foreign policy is even more wishy-washy.

For that matter, in the recent UN Security Council Resolution 2728, there is no linkage between a cease-fire and the release of the hostages. Hamas wins again.

The resolution fails to explicitly tie humanitarian aid to the release of hostages. The resolution merely puts the two issues side by side.

During Monday's Press Briefing, Matt Lee of the Associated Press pushed State Department Spokesperson, Matthew Miller on this point:

QUESTION: So last week when you guys presented your resolution at the UN, there were complaints from people who said that it delinked the ceasefire from the release of hostages, and U.S. officials were rather vociferous in saying that that is not the case. However, what you guys abstained on today does appear to delink them. Is that your understanding of —

MR MILLER: So we don’t believe it delinks them. You see in the same paragraph it – the resolution calling for both a ceasefire and the release of hostages. It’s not the exact language that we would have put forward, obviously, because the language that we would put forward is the language that we did put forward last week, but it is language that is consistent with our policy to call for both a ceasefire and the release of hostages, and that’s why we did not exercise a veto today.

As I said, we did have concerns about the lack of other provisions in the resolution, but as it pertains to a ceasefire and the release of hostages, both the things that we called for were there in the resolution.

A few moments later, Miller admits this resolution is toothless since it is non-binding. Matt Lee asks the obvious question:

QUESTION: So what’s the point?

MR MILLER: Well —

QUESTION: Why did you —

MR MILLER: — you could ask that —

QUESTION: Why did you abstain? Why didn’t you veto?

MR MILLER: We didn’t veto because we thought the language in it was consistent with something that – the language as it relates to the ceasefire and release of hostages was consistent with the longstanding United States position.

QUESTION: So you don’t believe anything is going to happen as a result of the passage of this resolution.

MR MILLER: So I think that separate and apart from this resolution, we have active, ongoing negotiations to try to achieve what this resolution calls for, which is the – an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages. I don’t – I can’t say that this – this resolution is going to have any impact on those negotiations.

Matt Lee

This whole drama leading up to passing a resolution for a cease-fire has all been for nothing. That fact leads to Lee's obvious question:

If that’s the case, what the hell is the point of the UN or the UN Security Council?

Miller admits the US is not looking to the UN to get things done. It is looking to negotiate in Qatar. That would be the same Qatar that supports Hamas and plays host to Hamas leaders. This is not exactly neutral territory.

Is it any wonder that Hamas has shown no inclination to surrender and is willing -- and confident -- in its strategy to sit and wait?

I recall that during the Iranian hostage crisis during the Carter administration, some suggested that the Iranians would not have dared to try taking Russians hostage -- such was the fear that the Soviet Union inspired.

That was then.

The ISIS massacre at the concert hall shows that those days are over. Ukraine's ability to hold out against Putin has seen to that.

The West will blame Israel for the Hamas massacre and for unrest in the Middle East. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the weakness and indecision of the once powerful "superpowers" is seen as an invitation to Islamists to renew and expand their jihad.

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03/26 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Israel alone Weep for America; Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It?

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Israel alone Weep for America

America is punishing Israel for a catastrophe that the Biden administration itself facilitated. The atrocities of October 7 that started the war took place because Hamas’s patron, Iran, correctly perceived that America would ultimately abandon Israel rather than itself get stuck in. If the Biden administration hadn’t shown such weakness in defending the interests of the free world from Afghanistan to Yemen and Iraq and Ukraine, Hamas would not have been unleashed on October 7.

After the war started, despite the two aircraft carriers the US dispatched to the region, the Biden administration responded to continued attacks by Iranian proxies — even against its own interests — with a mere limp wrist. It has done nothing to deter Iran’s proxy army Hezbollah from bombarding northern Israel from Lebanon with hundreds of rockets and anti-tank missiles.

It could have stopped the war in its tracks by telling Hamas’s protector Qatar that, unless it instructed Hamas to release the hostages and surrender, the US would end their profitable relationship and treat Qatar instead as a global pariah. Instead, the US is not only feeding Israel to its mortal enemies; by failing to use its muscle to end this war, it is also facilitating Hamas’s war crimes against the civilians of Gaza by using snuff movies of their distress to incite hysterical hatred of Israel in the west.

Biden and Cameron fail to acknowledge that Israel is fighting in this manner because it has no choice. With Hamas almost entirely underground, Israel cannot get at it in any other way. If it doesn’t defeat Hamas, Israel will continue to face genocidal attack. Only by defeating Hamas and killing or capturing its Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, does Israel have any chance of getting any of the hostages back. Only by defeating Hamas does Israel have any chance of avoiding an infinitely more terrible all-out war with Hezbollah.

This is the rupture with America that some of us have seen coming for a very long time. But the US and UK don’t realise what they have now done. This isn’t just about Israel. It’s also about them.

The October 7 pogrom was a clear inflection point for the west. Would it support Israel in the battle for civilisation against barbarism? Now we have the answer.

But there’s a deeper question. The UK is busily destroying itself by making a bonfire of its historic culture and values. Its public administration has all but collapsed, its indigenous people are dying out and it has lost control of its borders.

In the US vicious culture wars are raging, there are unbridgeable political and social divisions, its elites have torn up its historic global mission of exceptionalism — and it has also lost control of its border.

Do the US and UK actually want to survive, or are they now in a death spiral?

Throughout centuries of persecution, the Jewish people have survived against impossible odds — while every civilisation that has tried to destroy them has disappeared. Whatever horrors lie ahead, Israel will survive. The same certainty cannot apply to Britain and America. Today has demonstrated that they don’t even know how to do so.

Richard Goldberg: Bring them home . . . or not — Biden just sold out Israeli hostages at the United Nations

Against the backdrop of a hostage negotiation in which Hamas remains maximalist in demands and the arrival of Israel’s defense minister in Washington to meet with senior White House officials, the United States needed to veto any Security Council resolution that could further embolden the terrorist group.

Biden chose a different path: abstaining on a resolution that decoupled a demand for a cease-fire from a demand for the release of hostages, thus severely undercutting Israel at the hostage-negotiating table.

The resolution had other severe flaws that demanded a US veto.

It made no mention of Oct. 7 or Hamas, let alone note Hamas is a terrorist organization, as if the world woke up one day in a vacuum outraged to find Israel at war in Gaza and Palestinian civilians in distress.

Why Israel is at war, who Israel is targeting and who is to blame for civilian suffering are unimportant questions for a resolution that simply says Israel must lay down its arms and hope a terrorist group that savaged 1,200 people and took 250 hostages will care what the Security Council demands.

These outrageous omissions, however, were no longer automatic triggers for a US veto.

During his recent State of the Union address, the president pledged to the families of Hamas-held hostages, which include American citizens, that “we will not rest until we bring their loved ones home.”

Apparently that vow did not include vetoing resolutions that disconnect demands for hostage releases from any potential cease-fire — reducing the odds of bringing them home.

The State Department claimed Monday the resolution reflected the administration’s “principled position that any ceasefire text must be paired with text on the release of the hostages.”

But that explanation itself reflects how far Biden policy has shifted. No longer must a cease-fire be conditioned on the release of hostages; the two demands must only appear next to each other for optics.

On a policy level, the two demands now exist independently — meaning America supports a cease-fire even without the release of hostages.

Israeli strength backed by American political support is needed to bring hostages home, defeat Hamas in Gaza and deter Iranian threats throughout the Middle East.

To counter the perception of an Israel crumbling under American pressure, Jerusalem must respond with reaffirmed determination to destroy Hamas on the battlefield.

And members of Congress should reaffirm their support for that objective, including a potential operation in Rafah.

Hamas scored a political victory with Biden’s help.

Israel must now fight that much harder to reverse the damage — with or without Biden’s approval.

John Spencer: Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It?

In its operation at Shifa hospital in Gaza to root out Hamas terrorists, the Israel Defense Forces took unique precautions to protect the innocent. Doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed. The IDF also brought in food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside.

I've never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy's civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history - above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The international community, and increasingly the U.S., barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians - even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage.

The predominant Western theory of executing wars seeks to shatter an enemy with surprising, overwhelming force and speed. No warnings to the civilian population or time to evacuate cities is given. Yet Israel has abandoned this established playbook in order to prevent civilian harm.

The Hamas-supplied estimate of over 31,000 deaths in Gaza does not acknowledge a single combatant death (nor any deaths due to the misfiring of its own rockets or other friendly fire). The IDF estimates it has killed about 13,000 Hamas operatives, a number I believe credible because I believe the armed forces of a democratic American ally over a terrorist regime. That means 18,000 civilians have died in Gaza, a ratio of 1 combatant to 1.5 civilians - a number that would be historically low for modern urban warfare.

The Israeli stock market has gained 9% since October 7, although it has not done as well as the US markets

The Tel Aviv stock market plummeted immediately after October 7, but it has recovered since then, posting a respectable 9% gain since its close on October 5.

The gains are not as impressive as those of the Dow Jones Industrial Average or Nasdaq, which have gone up 17.6% and 22% since October 6 respectively.

But it appears that investors are not betting against Israel's economic recovery in the face of a war that has taken many critical people away from their jobs for months at a time.

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Arabic-language media reports that seven Palestinians drowned while trying to access humanitarian aid that was dropped into the Mediterranean Sea.

Video from Al Jazeera shows Palestinians rushing to an airdrop in northern Gaza and then fighting each other to retrieve the food.

Later on we see aid that dropped into the sea, while scores of Gazans wade into the waves to retrieve the waterlogged cardboard boxes. One of the drowning victims is seen.

One of the people interviewed complains that the airdrops are barbaric as the strong people grab all the aid from the weak. He says this while holding US-made MREs. It is unclear whether they came from the sea or the boxes that landed on dry land.

Also, at least one person was crushed to death in a stampede to retrieve the airdropped aid.

Yesterday's airdrops came from planes from Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Germany, Singapore, the United States and Britain, Which air force dropped aid into the sea leading to the drownings? No one seems to care too much.

At least 13 Gazans have died so far while trying to retrieve aid from airdrops.

The whole airdrop idea is a debacle. It is meant to make the world feel good that they are doing something, and if some Gazans die while the world is trying to engage in virtue signaling, well, those are the breaks.

No one in the world seems to even question whether the costs in lives of dropping aid are too high a price to pay for sending small amounts of food that will be stolen by the strong and then sold at astronomical prices, or taken by Hamas members. Unlike the five reportedly killed earlier this month when the parachutes didn't open properly, these deaths have not even been reported in Western media.There is no apology for these deaths. There are no calls for investigations as to which air force is responsible for dropping aid into the sea - which has happened multiple times. No one is following up to figure out who is responsible for the previous parachute mishap.

No one wants to know why Gazans are being killed while trying to get international aid and to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Similarly, no one is talking about how aid can be distributed to those who need it rather than those with guns and bigger muscles. The Gaza black market, the thieves and bandits, the Hamas thugs who shoot anyone trying to get aid, the "official" distribution of aid stolen by Hamas while people wait on line only to be told there is none left - all of these issues are swept under the rug.

The world claims to care about Gazan lives, but that concern ends when Israel cannot be blamed.

And the scores or even hundreds of people killed while trying to get aid are, in the end, added to the Gaza death toll as if Israel killed them.

UPDATE: Reports from Gaza say 12 drowned and 8 died in stampedes.

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The abject hypocrisy of UN Secretary General @AntonioGuterres

On Saturday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the line of trucks that have not been able to enter Gaza is a "moral outrage."

Israel is not blocking the trucks. Logistics is. Bad road conditions, Hamas and bandits stealing aid at gunpoint, still dangerous conditions all contribute. But the trucks at the Rafah crossing have already been inspected by Israel; the IDF is not the holdup.

Guterres' hypocrisy can be seen in this cartoon I made:

He is standing on the very spot where Egypt built a huge wall specifically to block Gazans from fleeing to safety.

And he doesn't say a word about Egypt's immorality in refusing to help any of them

We know that thousands of Gazans want to go to Egypt - because thousands of them are trying to raise the money to bribe Egyptian officials in GoFundMe to allow them to cross "legally."

Then Guterres went to Jordan and tweeted this piece of pure hypocrisy:

Let us remind you of what King Abdullah said on October 17: “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.”

Jordan has taken in over 700,000 refugees in recent years, mostly from Syria, with large contingents from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia.

But they don't want anyone from Gaza. And Guterres is praising him for his "compassion" for those "fleeing upheaval!"

Guterres knows that Egypt and Jordan and other Arab countries could save lots of lives. He prefer that they stay in danger and blame Israel for its "immoral" stance in wanting to rid the world of a terror group that not only attacks Jews but even its own people.

The leaders of countries who explicitly do not want to save Palestinian lives are praised as being in the forefront of helping the Palestinians by sending them trucks filled with food that promptly gets stolen and then sold at a high profit by Hamas and other criminals.

Instead of acting as a moral voice urging them to allow the thousands of Gazans who are desperate to leave to take refuge in their countries - and the world would help support their housing, food and medical needs - Guterres is giving cover to their refusal to help. And complimenting them for it!

The only party he called immoral is the one trying to rid the world of Hamas. The ones who raped girls, who kidnapped children, who burned families alive, and who have promised to keep doing it again and again as long as they exist.

When thousands of Gazans who are begging to leave are shut out of every country, he is supporting their continued imprisonment. It isn't an "open air prison" built by Israel, but one built by supposed "friends" of Palestinians. In Egypt's case, it is a literal wall built just for Gazans in recent months, just to keep them out.

How much more evidence do you need that the world hates Israel more than it supports Palestinians?

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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03/25 Links Pt2: The UN sows the seeds of its own demise; The Red-Right-Hand Apologists; US: Israel using weapons legally, not blocking Gaza aid

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Loser of the UN Resolution: Biden

The pauper’s diplomacy of the Biden administration was on display today as it facilitated the passing of a UN Security Council resolution heavily weighted against Israel.

Every minor concession to moral decency was rejected in favor of “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan.” Beggars can’t be choosers, explained Biden’s ambassador to the UN after abstaining from the vote, thus allowing the resolution to pass: “We did not agree with everything in the resolution. For that reason we were unfortunately not able to vote yes. However, as I’ve said before, we fully support some of the critical objectives in this non-binding resolution.”

Let’s be crystal clear about why this was a bad resolution.

Last week the U.S. put forth a version of the resolution that was vetoed by Russia and China. That version asked for Security Council backing for “diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.” [emphasis added]

If you don’t connect a long-lasting ceasefire to the release of the hostages, you are telling Hamas to walk away from the negotiations led by the U.S. to secure those two aims. After all, that same UN ambassador fumed at the time, “we should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardizes the ongoing negotiations.”

Russia’s deputy UN envoy disagreed, insisting that everyone should be comfortable with telling the hostages to rot: “At the coordination stage, almost all Security Council members expressed the view that the demand for an immediate ceasefire should not be conditional on the release of hostages or the condemnation of Hamas.”

Today, the Biden administration declared Russia to be correct. Let the hostages rot or else Joe Biden may lose a few thousand votes in Michigan.

As for the cynical use of “Ramadan” in the ceasefire, the Biden administration should be ashamed of itself for enabling it. The language implicitly portrays Israel’s counteroffensive as a war of religious persecution, or at the very least contempt. That alone will inflame the violent resistance to the mere survival of the Jewish nation. Was there a Hanukkah resolution passed by the UNSC that demanded the release of hostages? Yesterday was Purim; the holiday came and went without a UNSC demand for Hamas to at least return the children it is holding. Next month is the holiday of Passover, in which we recount our ancestors’ prolonged suffering while they were held against their will. How does the godforsaken nest of cretinous trolls at Turtle Bay plan to honor that one?

Intl. law expert: Biden team's moral backbone collapsed

Prof. Anne Bayefsky, president of the Human Rights Voices NGO and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights, spoke to Israel National News - Arutz Sheva Monday about the US government's decision to abstain rather than use its veto against a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan.

"The failure of the Biden administration to veto this resolution is a shocking redefinition of American priorities: mollifying Iran and its terrorist partners is on the ascent while supporting Israel in its existential battle against terror is plummeting," Prof. Bayefsky said.

She noted, "Last week the United States "demanded" the UN Security Council finally condemn Hamas for the October 7th atrocities - which the Council has never done. The Arab group of states, the Russians and Chinese said no. Just forty-eight hours later, the moral backbone of the Biden team collapsed. The United States allowed the adoption of the third Council resolution since October 7th that fails to condemn its perpetrators."

"Moreover, in her statement before the Council American Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said Hamas should achieve a ceasefire - in effect saving the terror organization and its plans for more October 7's - with the release of one hostage! In her words: “A ceasefire can begin immediately with the release of the first hostage.” American hostages have been abandoned in Hamas hell holes, by their own government. And U.S. credibility and honor has taken a tremendous hit - to the detriment of Israel, the Jewish people and America," Prof. Bayefsky concluded.

David Singer: The UN sows the seeds of its own demise

Guterres has been responsible for filing only documents from 1947 – not from 1917 - with the International Court of Justice in relation to the UN General Assembly seeking the Court’s advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The Court’s opinion will be based only on those documents lodged by Guterres– which will exclude the Court considering the 1922 Mandate for Palestine and the 1936 Peel Commission.

Guterres has been the UN front man – supported by UNESCO head Tor Wennesland - pushing for the creation of an independent Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan as called for in Security Council Resolution 2334 adopted on 23 December 2016 – when Obama refrained from vetoing it - that misleadingly claims Jews have no legal right to live anywhere west of the Jordan River. Rescinding Resolution 2334 remains an imperative to rectifying this anti-Jewish canard.

Guterres and Wennesland have refused for the last 18 months to bring before the Security Council for its consideration an alternative solution emanating from Saudi Arabia - authored by an advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published in Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022. Their extraordinary decision ensures the 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict will continue – not end.

Emboldened by these clearly anti-Israel UN decisions – increasingly strident Moslems have caused Jewish communities worldwide to become greatly concerned for their own safety as they foment demonstrations around the globe calling for Palestine from the River to the Sea to be free of Jews – supported by lawyers from Australia to artists in the USA signing letters calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza War.

Under Guterres’s leadership the UN has become the epicentre for fostering anti-Israel hatred and Jew-hatred.

The UN has lost its moral compass and is sowing the seeds for its own demise.

Not only civilians: Taking soldiers hostage is also a war crime

Today, the US did not veto a resolution in the UN Security Council that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The text says,

1. Demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain;

Israel's UN ambassador Gilad Erda reacted:

Gilad Erdan, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel, questioned why the Security Council “discriminates” among victims, recalling that it condemned the deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow on Friday, but failed to condemn the Nova music festival massacre of 7 October.

“Civilians, no matter where they live, deserve to enjoy music in safety and security, and the Security Council should have the moral clarity to condemn such acts of terror equally, without discrimination,” he said.

“Sadly, today as well, this Council refused to condemn the 7 October massacre; this is a disgrace,” he added.

Mr. Erdan further noted that for the past 18 years, Hamas initiated ceaseless attacks against Israelis, launching "thousands and thousands of indiscriminate rockets and missiles against civilians”.

He added that while the resolution failed to condemn Hamas, it did “state something that should have been the driving moral force”.

“This resolution denounces the taking of hostages, recalling that it is in violation of international law,” he said, underscoring that taking innocent civilians hostage is a war crime.

“When it comes to bringing the hostages home, the Security Council must not settle for words alone, but take action, real action,” he said.

He's right about the UN refusal to condemn Hamas, which is has never done since October 7.

Although I don't have his exact words, when he says that taking innocent civilians hostage is a war crime he is only saying part of the story. Any hostage taking, inclusing soldiers, is a war crime.

From the ICRC International Humanitarian Law Database:

Rule 96. The taking of hostages is prohibited.

Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits the taking of hostages. It is also prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and is considered a grave breach thereof.

...
The International Convention against the Taking of Hostages defines the offence as the seizure or detention of a person (the hostage), combined with threatening to kill, to injure or to continue to detain the hostage, in order to compel a third party to do or to abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage. The Elements of Crimes for the International Criminal Court uses the same definition but adds that the required behaviour of the third party could be a condition not only for the release of the hostage but also for the safety of the hostage. It is the specific intent that characterizes hostage-taking and distinguishes it from the deprivation of someone’s liberty as an administrative or judicial measure.

Although the prohibition of hostage-taking is specified in the Fourth Geneva Convention and is typically associated with the holding of civilians as hostages, there is no indication that the offence is limited to taking civilians hostage. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages do not limit the offence to the taking of civilians, but apply it to the taking of any person. Indeed, in the Elements of Crimes for the International Criminal Court, the definition applies to the taking of any person protected by the Geneva Conventions.

This is not a prisoner of war situation. This is hostage taking, specifically and explicitly done to compel Israel to act in certain ways - releasing prisoners and stopping military action.

That is a war crime, and appears to be a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Obviously, everyone wants to see the civilian hostages released, but the forcible taking of soldiers hostage is no less heinous. Israel's public position should not distinguish between the two.

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Who desecrated this Islamic shrine? Muslims, of course!

Palestine Today reports:

This Sunday morning, Zionist settlers stormed Islamic shrines in the town of Kafl Haris, north of the city of Salfit, in the north of the occupied West Bank, under the protection of the " Israeli " occupation forces.

Local sources reported that dozens of settlers stormed the Islamic shrines in the center of Kifl Haris, and desecrated them, by performing Talmudic rituals, under heavy guard by the occupation army .

The "Islamic shrines" the "settlers desecrated" are the tombs of Joshua and Caleb. The Muslims admit one of the tombs is that of Joshua, as it is "known to Muslims as the Maqam of Yusha' ibn Nun (مقام يوشع بن نون; Shrine of Joshua, son of Nun)."

The Jews who visit only...visit. But who desecrates it?

In December, Muslims painted graffiti on their supposedly holy site, including "Death to the Jews" (in Hebrew), names of terrorists, support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other phrases.

Jews restored the tombs.

Apparently, scrawling "Death to the Jews" isn't desecration of a Muslim holy place. It is consecration.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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03/25 Links Pt1: What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself?; UNSC res. demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza; Hamas, AJ admit: Story of IDF rapes in Gaza hospital fabricated

From Ian:

David Brooks: What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself?

If the current Israeli military approach is inhumane, what's the alternative? Is there a better military strategy Israel can use to defeat Hamas without a civilian blood bath? In recent weeks, I've been talking with security and urban warfare experts in search of such ideas.

This war is like few others because the crucial theater is underground. The tunnel network is where Hamas lives, holds hostages, stores weapons, builds missiles and moves from place to place. Building these tunnels cost the Gazan people about a billion dollars. Hamas built many of its most important military and strategic facilities under hospitals and schools. Its server farm was built under the offices of the UN relief agency in Gaza City.

As Barry Posen, professor at the security studies program at MIT, has written, Hamas' strategy is to maximize the number of Palestinians who die and in that way build international pressure until Israel is forced to end the war before Hamas is wiped out. Hamas' survival depends on support in the court of international opinion and on making this war as bloody as possible for civilians, until Israel relents.

John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, told me that Israel has done far more to protect civilians than the U.S. did in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel's measures to warn civilians when and where it is about to begin operations "have prolonged the war, to be honest."

As the leaders of Hamas watch Washington grow more critical of Jerusalem, they must know their strategy is working. Yet if this war ends with a large chunk of Hamas in place, it would be a long-term disaster for the region. Victorious, Hamas would dominate whatever government was formed to govern Gaza. Hamas would rebuild its military to continue its efforts to exterminate the Jewish state, delivering on its promise to launch more and more attacks like that of Oct. 7.

Moreover, if Hamas survives this war intact, it would be harder for the global community to invest in rebuilding Gaza. It would be impossible to begin a peace process. So I'm left with the tragic conclusion that there is no magical alternative military strategy.

The lack of viable alternatives leaves me to conclude that Israel must ultimately confront Hamas leaders and forces in Rafah rather than leave it as a Hamas beachhead. Absent some new alternative strategy, Biden is wrong to stop Israel from confronting the Hamas threat in southern Gaza.

Biden and Harris throw Israel under the Gaza bus

President Joe Biden has prioritised a ceasefire over and above the safe return of the 134 hostages — including five Americans — held by Hamas.

The implication of this is that the Israeli military should lay down their guns and let Hamas continue torturing and raping the hostages who will be left with no hope of rescue.

Of course, he didn’t announce this shift in policy from the Oval Office. It was slipped out in the text of last week’s US resolution at the UN that was designed to fail, but also to telegraph his callous change in position.

A month ago the US floated a draft resolution that gave equal importance to a ceasefire and release of hostages, tying the two together tightly.

Biden dropped that direct link in the final resolution last week. It stated that a ceasefire is imperative for the protection of civilians. But merely expressed support for diplomacy “to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.”

There we have it. Biden has again, as in Afghanistan, given up on Americans and America’s allies.

The resolution was vetoed by Russia and China, as the US knew it would be, but its insidious message was received loud and clear.

By forcing a ceasefire, Biden will allow Hamas to claim victory and force Israel to remove its boot from the neck of the terror group, the only thing pressuring them to release the hostages. Without it, all hope for their safe return is surely lost.

Even talk of a ceasefire may embolden Hamas to hang on and reject a hostage deal, anticipating that the US will eventually force Israel to stop its military campaign.

Jake Wallis Simons: Feeble Britain is now letting Hamas win the propaganda war

We have entered a topsy-turvy universe. International institutions are used as weapons of Hamas, while those fighting for freedom and democracy are smeared as the agents of genocide.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has vowed to halt arms sales if Israel attacked Rafah. Given their small amount, it is hard to see what this is supposed to achieve.

But showing that you care about the Palestinians is apparently more important than destroying jihadism.

While Israel has achieved a civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio that is likely lower than in any comparable theater of war, Hamas has convinced the world that it is acting out of wanton bloodlust.

In the broadcast media, footage of suffering civilians is ubiquitous, but have you ever seen a picture of the thousands of dead or wounded terrorists?

Hamas censors this material. No Western media outlet makes this clear to its viewers.

This is a deceit that turns public opinion against Israel, furthering the aims of Hamas.

In a sane universe, the democratic world would pull behind Israel until the war is won. It would express its differences behind closed doors, working together to limit civilian casualties while freeing the hostages and beating the jihadis.

This would reassure Saudi Arabia that the West stands by its friends, encouraging it to normalize relations with Israel.

Instead, the international community is mobilizing to block an Israeli victory, and at the same time it is blocking peace.

Deep underground, the leaders of Hamas must be licking their lips.

In a New York Times article about injured children in Gaza, photojournalist Nariman El-Mofty writes, "Health officials in the territory say that more than 31,000 Gazans have been killed since the war began on Oct. 7, in response to the attack that Hamas led against Israel. "

The war didn't begin with the Hamas attack, according to the New York Times reporters and editors It began when Israel decided to respond to the murder of 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Hamas doesn't say this. They call the entire war Al Aqsa Flood. Al Qassam Brigades head Mohammed Deif announced the war at 8:00 AM on October 7, calling on all Palestinians to grab weapons and shoot at Israelis.

Hamas gladly admits they started the war.

But to the West, wars begin only when Israel responds. Israel is not expected to respond to being attacked; when they do, they started it.

This also happened in 2008, when Hamas announced Operation Oil Slick (or "Oil Stain") and shot hundreds of rockets into Israel. Israel only responded days later, with Operation Cast Lead, although Hamas still called the war "Operation Oil Slick" for a bit more time afterwards.

Using this terminology creates a false framework, that Israel is always the aggressor and Palestinians are always victims. Palestinian attacks are regarded as low-level noise that should be ignored by Israel, and Israel's responses are considered brand new aggression with little relationship to the events that preceded it.

It is only a "cycle of violence" when Arabs attack Jews, because there is always a valid grievance to justify Arabs murdering Jews. Israeli responses aren't part of a cycle but a new Israeli attack for no valid reason.

(h/t Irene)

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David Brooks in the New York Times looks at the real military situation in Gaza, asking, "What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself?"

He calls out what every military expert knows: Israel is doing the best job possible.

Brooks writes basic truths that are rarely seen in the media: "Hamas’s goal is to maximize the number of Palestinians who die and in that way build international pressure until Israel is forced to end the war before Hamas is wiped out. Hamas’s survival depends on support in the court of international opinion and on making this war as bloody as possible for civilians, until Israel relents."

He doesn't say this, but this is part of Hamas' strategy of lying - claiming that Israel is sexually abusing patients in Shifa Hospital, for example. Since so few reporters call them out on their lies, they can make up more lurid ones.

So what alternatives does Israel have to an invasion of Rafah? Brooks lists several, and none of them can work. Limiting engagement is more likely to leave power vacuums; assassinations of Hamas leaders are difficult and when done on foreign territory like Turkey they have serious political risks, a counterinsurgency strategy only works then there is an alternative government and infrastructure Israel can work with, and the fourth is absurd:

A fourth alternative is that Israel should just stop. It should settle for what it has achieved and not finish the job by invading Rafah and the southern areas of Gaza, or it should send in just small strike teams.

This is now the official Biden position. The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has argued that Israel can destroy Hamas in Gaza without a large invasion but “by other means” (which he did not elaborate on). ...The I.D.F. estimates that there are 5,000 to 8,000 Hamas fighters in Rafah. Defeating an army that size would take thousands of airstrikes and raids. If you try to shrink the incursion, the math just doesn’t add up. As an Israeli war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, reportedly told U.S. officials, “Finishing the war without demilitarizing Rafah is like sending in firefighters to put out 80 percent of a fire.”

Hamas' defeat is not negotiable, and Brooks goes into detail why. Hamas' survival would be a worldwide disaster.

Brooks does discuss the humanitarian side of the equation:

Israel is failing to lay the groundwork for some sort of better Palestinian future — to its own detriment. The security experts I spoke with acknowledge that providing humanitarian aid will be hard. As Cohen told me: “If the Israeli military takes over distributing humanitarian aid to Gaza, they will likely lose soldiers in the process. And so Israelis are asking why should their boys die providing aid to someone who wants to kill them. "

This is true. Whatever Israel proposes, though, will be regarded as a step in a new "occupation" of Gaza or as putting Palestinians in detention camps.

Brooks' article, as good as it is, does not mention two important options.

One is that Egypt needs to be a partner in allowing Gazans to go there temporarily while Israel cleans out Rafah. Egypt's response to this humanitarian crisis by building higher walls is fully accepted by the international community and this is hypocrisy of the highest order. Aid can get to the Sinai easily. Countless lives can be saved.

And the other point is my plan to turn Gaza into a new emirate of the UAE. Professor Andrew Pessin recently summarized my plan. It solves every problem Brooks and others postulate. It would also mean that any potential future Palestinian state would only be on the West Bank, but that is a feature, not a bug: any alternative cuts Israel in half. Gazans can decide whether they prefer to live under corrupt Palestinian rule or as full citizens of the UAE.

Would the UAE sign on? They are the only Arab nation showing genuine concern for Gaza civilians. They can gain a great deal by having a presence on the Mediterranean and access to gas fields there. And they can really turn Gaza into the Singapore people rhapsodized about in the 2000s.

This way there is no "occupation" - Arabs live under Arab rule, as they did under Jordanian and Egyptian rule without much complaint between 1948-1967. And in this case their rulers would actually care about them.

It would be difficult, but less difficult than any alternative day-after scenario anyone has come up with. So isn't it worth putting effort in now, rather than waiting for further disasters?

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Saudi writer M . Talal Al-Qashqari has been writing insane Jew-hatred in Al Madinah, a Saudi newspaper.

Last week he wrote:

If you see Israelis wearing black pants, a white shirt without a tie, and a black hat, combing their beards in a disgusting way, and braiding part of their hair into two long side braids, know that you are in the presence of the Haredi Jews, who are the ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Imagine...they consider themselves pious despite all the actions that the Israelis have done that lack piety towards the Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and even humanity as a whole!

They consider themselves spiritual guides to the Israelis, and in this they are similar to the banned Brotherhood groups. They devote themselves to learning and teaching the ancient Torah, distorted of course, and are not good at anything else except spitting on every Muslim or Christian living in occupied Palestine while they meet them in the street, while they respect the extremist evangelical Christians. Those who live in the West for fear of losing Western support for Israel!

They represent 13% of the population of Israel, which is a large percentage, and they can be classified as ISIS Jews.

Someone might think that the Haredim are not dangerous, as the opposite is true. Their leaders state without hint or ambiguity that killing Palestinian mothers and their children is a sacred duty because they are the breeding ground for children who will turn into fighters when they grow up, and whoever kills a Palestinian or Muslim woman with her child, even if it is a fetus in her womb, or an infant, so they have no doubt that he served and upheld the religion of Moses, peace be upon him, as they claim!

These are the pious people of Israel, so what about the common people?!

This week:

[The Talmud teaches] that God created the Gentiles to serve the Jews who are the masters and the others are slaves...Before the war, Israel employed thousands of Palestinians from Gaza in menial and hard work, on the condition that they do not spend the night in its cities and settlements, and that they come there every morning and leave in the evening!

Also from this heritage is the permissibility of Jews killing Gentiles, including children, even if they were fetuses in their mothers’ wombs or breastfed infants, raping their women, burning their crops, destroying their homes, and depriving them of water and food. This is exactly what they did to the people of Gaza without mercy. They believe that they will be rewarded!

And last but not least, every land that the Jews have stepped on was gifted to them by God, and if they needed human organs for their patients, such as livers or kidneys, and then they found them in the bodies of Gentiles, there is no blame on them for transferring the organs to them by force or euthanasia, and how safe the Gentiles are from the racism and brutality of these occupiers, the expanders, and the greedy!

I might have missed it, but usually this level of Jew-hatred is seen in Egyptian, Jordanian, Yemeni and Algerian news sites. I don't recall seeing this type of thing in Saudi Arabian sites.

If a right-wing Christian would say this, it would be major news. But when Arabs say it, it is ignored - the world doesn't even know that this kind of hate exists in the Arab world.

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Mega Purim Cartoon and Meme Dump (15 of them!)

Purim is definitely the time to catch up on all the cartoons and memes that I have posted on Twitter in recent weeks.

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03/24 Links: Why antisemitism and anti-Zionism are so deeply intertwined; The Emirate of Palestine?; Schumer’s Folly; Elon Gold on the Power of Humor

From Ian:

Why antisemitism and anti-Zionism are so deeply intertwined

Statehood is built into Jewish consciousness. Israel is more than just a place where Jews can be free and safe. As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazic chief rabbi of pre-state Israel said: Israel is not external to Judaism but inherently part of Jewish consciousness. To wit: Jews across the religious denominations pray for the return to Zion in their daily liturgy. And religious or not, the vast majority of Jews feel inextricably, soulfully bound to Israel and describe themselves as Zionists.

So while anti-Zionists defend themselves by claiming they are not anti-Semites, when anti-Zionists declare “no Zionists allowed,” they are actually saying, “No Jews allowed.” The fact that so many anti-Israel demonstrations are targeting Jewish rather than Israeli institutions underscores this dynamic.

The interfacing of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism was never more apparent than on October 7. The goal of Hamas, like their antecedent Haman, goes beyond destroying Israel; its mission – as articulated in the founding Hamas charter – is to kill as many Jews as possible. Jews worldwide felt personally attacked that day, understanding that if Hamas could, each and every Jew would have been murdered.

This doesn’t mean that every anti-Zionist is an anti-Semite. There are always exceptions to a rule. But the exception doesn’t void the rule. It’s one thing to disagree, even vehemently, with some core Israeli policies. But anti-Zionism goes well beyond that to object to the very notion of Jewish self-determination, and thereby target 7 million Jews, half of the world’s Jewish population who are now living in Zion, and many thousands more who yearn to make “aliya,” or move home to Israel.

Indeed, Zionism is a play on the Hebrew word “tziun-metzuyan,” meaning a stamp of excellence. It is there in Israel that all Israelis living in a sovereign nation have the potential to do their humble share to make this world a better place.

Purim is the story of a vulnerable, powerless Jewish people living in the diaspora threatened with physical and spiritual annihilation. Its unwritten message is the necessity for Jews to be Zionist, to live in Zion, to have a homeland wherein it is in their power to protect themselves with strength, and what Israel’s army calls the “purity of arms.”

According to the Book of Esther, the Jews in ancient Persia were ultimately saved by the grace of the king. But the State of Israel allows Jews to save themselves.

Andrew Pessin: The Emirate of Palestine?

There are many competing ideas about “the day after” the Israel-Hamas war, about how to fill the dangerous vacuum left in Gaza should Israel succeed in destroying Hamas. Overlooked, however, is a particularly intriguing suggestion by the anonymous blogger Elder of Ziyon that deserves wider attention.

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What are the main possibilities?

Israel doesn't want Gaza back. It doesn't want to govern two million hostile Palestinians, nor take over day-to-day governance. Imagine the suicide bombings at every governmental office. And, of course, it would be "occupation."

Israel has tried empowering local clans as alternate rulers for years and it has never worked out: they fight amongst themselves, there are too many threats from armed Islamists, and no one wants to look like a puppet of Israel.

Some (such as the U.S.) have pushed for a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority (P.A.) to reassert control, but the P.A. is corrupt and weak, despised by its own citizens, in fact complicit in terror against Israelis, and “revitalization” is a farce. The P.A. lost Gaza to Hamas once and would likely lose it again, either by election or by force.

Others have proposed a multinational force or rule that would include Arab states, a kind of “Arab mandate.” Though there are advantages, it means that Gaza would become a hot spot for geopolitical rivalries between at least Qatar and Saudi Arabia. But Qatari influence would be disastrous. Qatar supports Hamas both directly and through Al Jazeera, the most influential source of “news” in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia might want more influence, but without peace with Israel, it is limited in what it can do. Egypt doesn't want Gaza. Egyptians hate everything about it. After all, it was Egypt that turned it into a virtual prison for Palestinian refugees after the 1948 war and to this day.

So who should run Gaza the day after Hamas is eradicated?

When Israel left Gaza in 2005, optimists thought it could become a new Singapore. Palestinian incompetence and Hamas ended that fantasy. Hate for Israel was more important than helping Palestinians thrive.

But, as Elder of Ziyon points out, there is one country that could turn Gaza into that wonderful place: the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). Gaza should become the eighth United Arab Emirate.

Ruthie Blum: The Russian dictator’s double terrorism standards

This is rich, coming from a leader who has been cementing relations with Iran, the globe’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism, and its proxies. One of these is Hamas, whose foot soldiers invaded Israel on Oct. 7, raping, torturing, beheading, burning alive and abducting men, women and babies.

Less than three weeks later, Russia hosted a delegation of their honchos in Moscow. The purpose of the chummy get-together, also attended by Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy foreign minister of the ayatollah-led regime in Tehran, was to come up with ways to stop the “Zionist crimes supported by the United States and the West.”

In other words, the aim of the meeting was to devise a plan to prevent Israel from defending itself and retaliating against the perpetrators of the worst pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust. Oh, and to plot the demise of America and Europe.

More recently, Putin went a step further in his pursuit of terrorism ties. Russia’s envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, mediated talks in Moscow on Feb. 29 between Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian organizations operating in the region, primarily in Syria and Lebanon.

The goal of the three-day event, which concluded on March 2, was to unify the disparate factions towards the creation of a Palestinian government—for a future state—whose members cease infighting and invest all their energy in the shared objective of annihilating Jews.

So, Putin is pre-disposed to Islamist terrorists, as long as he and Mother Russia are not their target. Meanwhile, the ease with which he slaughters those who get on his bad side doesn’t put a dent in his passing of moral judgment on Jerusalem and Washington. His disdain for the latter, by the way, caused him to pooh-poohed its warning this month about an imminent attack in Moscow.

His hypocrisy pales in comparison, however, to that of Hamas, which on Saturday “condemn[ed] in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that targeted civilians in Moscow, killing and wounding dozens of people.”

Putin’s response to the carnage at Crocus City Hall, like the reaction on the part of the genocidal butchers with whom he sided after Oct. 7, gives the term “double standards” a whole new meaning.