Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 16, 2024

06/16 Links: Hamas Terrorists Are Playing the West for Fools; IDF announces the names of 12 fallen soldiers; Crowd applauds Seinfeld as he mocks anti-Israel hecklers

From Ian:

Invidious comparisons are being made between Israel, Hamas's use of violence

IN ITS 1974 plan, a proposed sequence of Palestinian violence is expressed: “First, to establish a combatant national authority over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated” (Art. 2); “second, to use that territory to continue the fight against Israel” (Art. 4); and “third, to start a pan-Arab war to complete the liberation of the all-Palestinian territory” (Art. 8). Ironically, this was and remains the annihilationist plan of a more mainstream Palestinian terror group than Hamas.

For Israel, the existential threat is no longer from a “Pan-Arab War.” At some still-ambiguous point, Hamas (with tangible Iranian support) could prepare to launch mega-terror attacks on Israel. Such potentially unprecedented aggressions could include chemical, biological, or radiological (radiation-dispersal) weapons. Foreseeable perils could also include a non-nuclear terrorist attack on the Israeli reactor at Dimona. There is a documented history of enemy assaults against this Israeli plutonium-production facility, both by a state (Iraq) in 1991 and by a Palestinian terror group (Hamas) in 2014. Though neither attack was successful, various fearful precedents were established.

International law is not a suicide pact. Even amid long-enduring world-system anarchy, it offers a binding body of rules and procedures that permits any beleaguered state to express an “inherent right of self-defense.”

But when Hamas celebrates the explosive “martyrdom” of manipulated Palestinian civilians and when Palestinian leaders seek “redemption” through the mass-murder of “Jews,” the wrongdoers have no supportable legal claims to immunity. Moreover, Hamas celebrations of “martyrdom” underscore the two-sided nature of Palestinian terror/sacrifice – that is, the primal sacrifice of “the Jew” and the reciprocal sacrifice of “the martyr.” Such murderous reasoning is codified within the Hamas charter as a “religious problem.”

Under international law, terrorists are considered hostes humani generis or “common enemies of humankind.” Among other things, this category of criminals invites punishment wherever the wrongdoers can be found. Concerning their required arrest and prosecution, jurisdiction is “universal.” Also relevant is that the Nuremberg Tribunal reaffirmed the ancient legal principle of “Nullum crimen sine poena,” or “No crime without a punishment.”

Generally, Palestinian commanders who control terror-mayhem against Israel cower unheroically in safe towns and cities outside of Gaza. Living in luxury hotels and villas, these commanders are never eager to become “martyrs” themselves. Why? Hamas and wider Palestinian populations believe that because they are fighting a “just war” they are entitled to employ “any means necessary.” Under international law, however, even if a war is determinably “just,” it must still be fought only with “just means.” Here, ends can never justify means.

The PLO, forerunner of Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) and of the Palestinian Authority (PA), was formed in 1964. This formation was three years before there were any Israeli “Occupied Territories.” What were the Palestinians then trying to “liberate?” The answer is incontestable and clarifying: “From the River to the Sea.”

The Palestinian objective has always been the “liberation” of Israel as such. For Hamas, the “solution” for Israel remains unambiguously “final.”

Hamas Terrorists Are Playing the West for Fools

Ending the suffering endured by Palestinian civilians seems to be foremost in the minds of those seeking to implement a ceasefire in Gaza. It is now becoming increasingly evident that it is the fanaticism of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas terrorist mastermind behind the Oct. 7 atrocities, that is thwarting peace efforts. Sinwar once boasted of strangling one suspected Palestinian collaborator to death with his bare hands.

Sinwar's sole ambition has been to ensure that Hamas survives in Gaza once hostilities have ended. This explains why, every time the likes of U.S. Secretary of State Blinken arrive in the region bearing new ceasefire offers, the Hamas leadership immediately resorts to its maximalist demand that Israel agree to a complete military withdrawal from Gaza.

Any ceasefire deal that enables Hamas to maintain any vestige of control in Gaza would be seen as rewarding its leaders for committing gross acts of terrorism. Western policymakers should understand that Hamas, not Israel, is the real obstacle to achieving a lasting peace in Gaza.

Jennifer Rubin: Focus on Hamas War Crimes

The Israel Defense Forces' daring operation that rescued four Israeli hostages held for more than eight months provided new context for the war. Hamas committed war crimes on Oct. 7 by killing, raping and abducting civilians. It has continued to commit war crimes by holding civilians hostage and, again, by treating them inhumanely. And in making military targets of civilian homes by turning them into hostage cells, Hamas has again committed war crimes. Any civilian death is regrettable, but in this scenario, Hamas is solely responsible for the casualties resulting from the rescue mission.

To the extent civilians become participants - including hostage-holding - they lose the protection of international law. Hamas has committed a grave legal and moral wrong in erasing the line between civilians and combatants. Hamas wants more civilians to die. It's incumbent on Israel's harshest critics to dissociate themselves from Hamas enablers and antisemites. If not, they have no claim to the moral high ground.

This video was taken at the Al-Manara roundabout in the center of Ramallah on Saturday.

You who have a rifle, and you hide it for weddings (to shoot in celebration), go and shoot the Jew, or give it to Hamas!

I don't know who the bishop is. The man waving the flag is Mustafa Barghouti, a supposedly moderate Palestinian politician and member of the PLO who says in English language interviews that he is against terror - and happily participates in chants to murder Jews.

Notice also that Ramallah, under "occupation," looks identical to any shopping district of any city in the world.

(h/t Palestinian Violence)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Israeli and Jewish media are reporting that a French court has ruled in favor of several anti-Israel organizations that not only will Israeli arms manufacturers be banned from exhibiting at the Eurosatory arms expo in Paris, but also Israeli nationals will be banned as well from even attending the show.

However, the ban apparently goes even beyond that.

Le Parisien reports:

The magistrates thus considered that, “contrary to what Coges [the company that runs Eurosatory] asserts,” the measures taken by the company did not sufficiently comply with government requirements concerning the reception of Israeli companies. And in such a case, the judges considered that the executive decision in fact included the presence of “any natural or legal person likely” to operate for Israeli companies as a “broker or intermediary.” »

In their decision rendered this Friday at the end of the afternoon, of which Le Parisien obtained a copy, the magistrates thus consider that Coges maintained the possibility of these Israeli arms players to participate in the show, and that this would be “blatantly illegal”. To stop it, access and participation “in any form whatsoever” to the show will thus be “prohibited to Israeli arms manufacturers” and “to any employee or representative of Israeli arms companies”.

The measure also applies “to any person likely to operate as their broker or intermediary." At the same time, other exhibitors are strictly prohibited from welcoming them on their stands, or from promoting them.

That "any person" clause does not only apply to Israelis, but anyone from any country who is "likely to operate" as a broker or intermediary.

Practically speaking, this is banning Jews from attending.

Only Jews would be suspected of being secretly working for the Israeli companies. No one who looks Indian or Chinese would be questioned as to whether they are Israeli arms brokers - only Jews.

Since the ruling was handed down on Friday evening, Coges has no chance to appeal before the show begins Monday morning.

But here is what French Jews (who are not also Israeli citizens) should do. They should register to attend tomorrow - the price is €55 for the day, €100 for the week - and show up.

Some should wear kippot. Some should wear IDF T-shirts. Some should wear Israeli flag pins or outerwear, or even carry tote bags from Israeli arms manufacturers.

They should pose in front of the signs that the court ruled must be placed at the entrance of the show banning "brokers."

And they should see if they are blocked from entering the show based purely on their clothing.

If the ruling bans French Jews from attending just because they are Zionist, or only French Jews are questioned whether they are intermediaries, while allowing pro-terrorist Iranians or Syrians or representatives from countries that engage in major human rights abuses to visit unhindered, it would be blatant discrimination against Jews.

This needs to be on video.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Pro-Hamas @WashingtonPost reporter falsely blames Israel, not Egypt, for Rafah crossing closing

The Washington Post "reports:"

With Rafah crossing closed by Israel, Gazans have no way out
Israel’s offensive in Rafah, aimed at eliminating Hamas’s last battalions, has dashed any hope of escape for ill and injured Palestinian civilians.

Exactly when did Israel close the Rafah crossing?

It didn't. Egypt did.

As The National (UAE) reported May 16:

Egypt has told Israel it will not reopen the Rafah border crossing with Gaza while Israeli troops remain on the Gazan side, sources told The National, as the row between the two countries deepens.

“Egypt will not reopen the crossing and that’s its final position despite significant US pressure on Cairo to do so,” one source said.

This was reported widely - by the BBC, Reuters and others over the past month.

That's only the start of how this article bends over backwards to blame Israel for decisions Egypt has made.

The entire article gives Egypt a pass on not allowing Gazans to take refuge there even though tens of thousands have been trying. It doesn't mention that thousands of patients have been requested to leave Gaza to go abroad, and Egypt has denied them.

So how could the Washington Post get it so wrong?

Because the reporter is an antisemite and a Hamas fan.

One of the authors of the article, Hajar Harb, posted her support for the Hamas massacre of October 7 in a series of posts on her Facebook page, as CAMERA documented. For example, when the death toll of Israelis reached 600, she made a graphic of flowers making the number 600, writing, “Although the flowers are a waste on them [the dead Israelis], just the number [of dead] is sweet.”

Commenting on a photo of 85-year old Yafa Arad being kidnapped into Gaza, Harb wrote: “See this place ma’am? Allah willing, you’ll remain inside with us for a while.”

A photo of Shir, Ariel and Kfir Bibas being taken by terrorists into Gaza prompted Harb to celebrate: : “[this is] your home and your spot, you and your children.”

For a picture of Hamas terrorists storming an Israeli home, Ms. Harb wrote: “And this is how we say good morning, seriously.”

The Washington Post knows about Harb's support for Hamas. The Washington Times and the Telegraph (UK) wrote about her in April.

It is almost unbelievable that the Washington Post would continue to use Hajar Harb as a reporter after these pro-Hamas posts were publicized.

Almost, but not completely. Because this is the state of the formerly respectable mainstream media nowadays.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

06/15 Links: Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism; Biden’s foolish plan for post-war Gaza; Gaza; 8 troops killed in Rafah explosion; Noa Argamani's rescue video

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Ghosted By Hamas

The conflict is stuck in a loop so long as Hamas refuses to give back the ball. Hamas welcomes the deaths of Palestinians as well as Israelis, and Israel’s continuing operation in Rafah arguably doesn’t pose an existential threat to Hamas unless the Biden administration shifts its stance. Until then, Israel is forced to move too slowly to finish the job.

The U.S. is the one party to these cease-fire negotiations that can change the calculus overnight. That’s one of the benefits of being a superpower. But Biden isn’t even threatening to do so; why would Hamas make any sudden moves?

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar didn’t invent this time-freezing trick. He inherited it. When Yasser Arafat rejected the full offer of statehood presented by Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak, Arafat did not make a counteroffer. He simply walked away. And what did it cost him? Nothing. Less than a decade later, Ehud Olmert was back in front of Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, with another offer. Abbas simply ghosted him.

Of course, a half-century before Arafat’s rejection of statehood, the Arabs with whom the Jews were to divide the land did the same. Rather than negotiate over lines on a map, the decision was made to attempt to kill all the Jews and take all the land. Here we are, all these years later, and no Palestinian response has differed substantively from that basic formula.

The difference is that Arafat and Abbas learned their lines and played their parts in the theater of international diplomacy, at least to some extent. Abbas was genuinely opposed—on practical grounds—to Arafat’s launching of the second intifada. An insincere renunciation of violence is good enough to get American military figures to come to the West Bank and try to train the Palestinian security forces.

But Hamas beat Abbas’s Palestinian Authority on the battlefield. And Hamas beat Abbas’s Fatah party at the ballot box, too. What is the PA’s international legitimacy worth? Bupkis, as far as Sinwar is concerned. He’s holding American hostages and the Americans won’t even let Israel destroy Hamas once and for all.

After this, why would anyone abide by the norms of international diplomacy ever again? Why go through the motions? And why even respond definitively to the deal on the table?

After all, what are Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, and Jake Sullivan going to do about it?

Seth Mandel: The Boats of Cherbourg, the Rockets of Lebanon, and the Value of Every Second

The grave situation in Israel’s north gives the lie to a fantasy underpinning the West’s desperate push for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza—that there is such a thing as the “day after” for Israel. Rather than a permanent peace being on the table, Israel’s enemies—and America’s, since they are all working on behalf of Iran—merely shift their forever war to a new front each time Israel temporarily pacifies one of the conflict zones on its border.

Israel will not get a reprieve. There may be a “day after” the Gaza conflict for Western states thousands of miles away, but there will be none for the Jewish state.

The whole situation, including a recent diplomatic tiff with France, serves as a reminder of wars past. And the most important lesson to derive from those reminders is that every second counts.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the famous story of the boats of Cherbourg. Israel’s magnificent victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 changed the understanding of the power dynamic across the Middle East. The European powers saw Israel as needing to “take the win,” much as the international community urged Israel to do after it came out unscathed from Iran’s unprecedented missile attack in April.

But in fact the aftermath of the 1967 conflict had exposed weaknesses in Israel’s defenses that could have proved fatal. Its navy was, in effect, not a real navy at all but a glorified coast guard. It was easy to imagine Israel getting cut off from the seaways around it.

Israel needed boats with speed, maneuverability, offensive weapons, and basic defensive capabilities—at a price it could afford. The breakthrough came when Israeli engineers began studying how to make the country’s Gabriel missiles compatible for naval use. The boats themselves would be modeled on a German craft and built in France, in Cherbourg.

What happened next is famous. What happened after that is less so.

Charles de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel, halting the transfer of the last five boats despite Israel having paid for them in full. De Gaulle’s successor, Georges Pompidou, upheld the embargo.

The Israeli government accepted the French slight; the Defense Ministry’s procurement team did not. They kept up the production and testing of the boats in Cherbourg while manufacturing a misleading sale to a Norwegian front company to get around the French embargo. On Christmas eve 1969, amid stormy waters and brutal winds, and with ghost crews brought in over time under France’s nose, the boats sailed home to Israel.

But, as Abraham Rabinovich, who wrote the definitive book on the mission, explains, during that same time the Russians began supplying Israel’s Arab neighbors with naval missiles even more capable than the ones Israel was developing. Israeli engineers had to develop some kind of radar-scrambling system to effectively reduce the Soviet missiles’ range.

Rabinovich describes the nailbiting timeline before the Yom Kippur War: “The Navy now began the arduous process of fitting out the 12 vessels as missile boats and devising an operational system and tactics for a totally new kind of naval warfare — as innovative as the first use of ironclads or the first modern naval guns. Full scale maneuvers of the missile boat flotilla were held for the first time at the beginning of October, 1973. The vessels returned to Haifa on the eve of Yom Kippur. The next day war broke out.”

Why Does the World Hate Israel, and Not Hamas?

For Israel, the choice is stark: act decisively to save innocent lives or risk brutal violence against their citizens now and in the future. To criticize harm caused by Israel to enemy civilians without considering the context is self-serving virtue signaling, and offers little practical guidance for states forced to navigate the treacherous waters of modern conflict.

Rav Shaul Yisraeli (1909-1995), one of 20th-century Israel’s most prominent rabbinic leaders and an esteemed authority in Jewish law, discusses the concept of milchemet mitzvah (obligatory war) in his seminal work Amud HaYemini. This concept encompasses the defense of Israel and its people. A milchemet mitzvah is not only permissible but necessary, says Rav Yisraeli, even if it entails significant risks to the lives of non-combatants and involves difficult military decisions. And according to Rav Yisraeli, “war with any nation threatening Israel is a milchemet mitzvah.”

The ongoing conflict with Hamas, and particularly the rescue of hostages, undoubtedly constitutes a milchemet mitzvah, as it represents an existential struggle for Israel’s survival that is being keenly observed by all of Israel’s adversaries. This is why the cost of kidnapping Israelis must be high to deter such atrocities in the future. The misfortune of civilian deaths, as in any just war, is the tragic consequence of such a mission, undertaken to prevent far worse outcomes in the future.

In a perfect world, Hamas would not have kidnapped any Israelis, and having done so, would not have embedded them in the heart of a residential neighborhood. But we don’t live in a perfect world, where swords can be beaten into plowshares, and dealing with heartless enemies is unnecessary. This is the real world, where rescuing innocent civilian hostages from the clutches of evil terrorists is an inescapable reality.

Meanwhile, the hypocrisy of the media and international actors who criticize Israel is glaring. They refuse to acknowledge that the hostages were all innocent civilians held by Hamas collaborators in residential neighborhoods, where the likelihood of an Israeli rescue raid was, thus high making civilian casualties inevitable.

Which country wouldn’t want to rescue their citizens? Had these hostages been handed back months ago, this entire war might have long been over. Instead, Israel is blamed for fulfilling its obligation to protect its citizens and doing everything possible to save them from terrorist murderers and rapists. The criticism of Israel not only ignores the realities of the conflict but also unfairly vilifies a nation for its honorable commitment to the safety and security of its people.

Rather than hauling Israel over the coals, isn’t it time for the media and international organizations to start hounding Hamas and their lackeys for generating suffering on a scale for Palestinians not seen since 1948? That’s not on Israel. It’s on Hamas. And until Hamas is gone, the suffering will continue — and likely get worse.

06/14 Links Pt2: The looming choice for diaspora Jews; How António Guterres betrayed the Jews; The chilling rise of the Hamas red triangle

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The looming choice for diaspora Jews

Diaspora Jews tend to hold their noses at anything on “the right” because they associate “the right” with antisemitism. They need to wake up fast. While there are certainly troubling increases in neo-fascist groups, the main threat to the Jews today is posed overwhelmingly by left-wingers and Muslims.

Some European “populist” parties are indeed unsavoury. Others are merely authentically conservative. Most support Israel, although some have troubling antisemitic roots.

In other words, this is a mixed picture. And as a result, the pushback against those determined to destroy the west is likely to be messy and complicated.

Whether or not it’s time to uproot is necessarily a personal decision. However, Jews remaining in the diaspora will find themselves having to choose between the devil and the deep-blue sea. Quite apart from any dangers, the political choices they face are likely to make for an uncomfortable ride.

This alarming situation didn’t suddenly burst out of nowhere on October 7. The writing has been on this particular wall for decades. But most diaspora Jews refused to see it.

In America, the majority of Jews have actually signed up for the liberal ideas that are driving anti-Israel hysteria and Jew-hatred. In Britain, most Jews have been too frightened, too craven or too muddled to talk publicly about the threat from Muslim antisemitism and mass immigration.

Of course, diaspora Jews can reasonably point out that, at present, Israel is hardly a safe haven. And unfortunately, there may well be yet more horrors for that beleaguered little country to endure.

But Israel is where everyone knows what they’re fighting for. It’s where there is zero ambiguity about their enemy or its genocidal intention. It’s where the overwhelming majority understand that they are living through another seismic moment in the sacred history of their people. It’s why they know they have no alternative but to win.

That’s why Israel will survive. The same cannot be said for the west.

The chilling rise of the Hamas red triangle

The use of the inverted red triangle to target Pasternak’s home is particularly chilling. This symbol is directed at anyone deemed to be pro-Israel or who does not explicitly condemn the Jewish State.

When used by Hamas, the red triangle essentially denotes that someone is being targeted for execution. It first started using this symbol last November in propaganda videos produced in Gaza. In these, the red triangle was marked on Israeli soldiers or armoured vehicles about to be attacked. Since Hamas started promoting the symbol, it quickly began appearing throughout the Arab world, on everything from children’s comic strips to social-media memes. In the latter, it often appears over images of Israeli soldiers or the Star of David.

Now this repulsive glorification of violence against Israeli targets has been adopted by anti-Israel protesters in the West. As the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil-rights group, has noted, students at the New School, Emerson College and New York University ‘have all advertised their [Gaza solidarity] encampments using inverted red-triangle imagery’.

Its use by protesters isn’t confined to America, either. In the German capital, Berlin, it has been seen at both Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin, and it was also daubed on an Apple Store and other shops. In Britain, the red triangle sign can sometimes be seen on anti-Israel protests and it’s now available to buy as a t-shirt design.

Some will no doubt try to downplay the significance of this red-triangle symbol. They will point to its similarity to the red triangle on the Palestinian flag, in order to suggest it has another, simpler pro-Palestine meaning. But that is disingenuous. Any correspondence between the inverted red triangle of Hamas propaganda videos and the sideways triangle on the Palestine flag is coincidental.

Anyone doubting the threatening intent behind this symbol should see how it is used by anti-Israel protesters whenever they come across peaceful and relatively small pro-Israel counter protests. They will form their fingers into a triangle shape as if they are aiming a weapon at the pro-Israel protesters. This is little more than a coded version of drawing a finger across the throat. It is a threat.

The fact that this sinister symbol is being daubed on Jewish people’s homes ought to be a serious wake-up call.

WOL of sound: Following the money and activism behind anti-Israel ‘days of rage’

WOL and its members
Kiswani originally founded WOL as the New York City branch of the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine. Renamed in 2018, WOL maintains connections with many SJP groups and, according to Canary Mission, is “a pivotal bridge between campus and community.”

Both SJP and WOL receive funding from the Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation, according to the New York Post. The WESPAC Foundation receives funds from billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros and Felice Gelman, a retired investment banker who contributes to pro-Palestinian causes.

Like National SJP and individual SJP chapters, WOL is not registered as a 501(c)(3) organization. As such, its donors are not publicly known unless, as in the case of the WESPAC Foundation, it chooses to identify funding recipients themselves.

WOL has organized numerous protests throughout the city since Oct. 7, including supporting efforts to shut down Terminal 4 within John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jan. 1 and again on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Canary Mission cites WOL’s other targets as the New York City Marathon, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, the New York Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Grand Central, Penn Station, and the Manhattan Bridge.

Canary Mission’s dossier on Kiswani is extensive and includes multiple instances of her calling for the abolition, annihilation, and defeat of Israel. Her arrest on May 31 was not her first in 2024. Kiswani was arrested on Jan. 26 for using sound amplification without a permit at a rally against Israeli corporations and entities. She was handcuffed during WOL’s participation in April 15 Tax Day protests, which were organized across the country to “block … the arteries of capitalism and jam … the wheels of production.”

Mohammed, WOL member, has shared frightening antisemitic language online, according to a Canary Mission dossier. “May every Zionist burn in the hottest pit of hell,” she posted on May 8, 2021. “I pray upon the death of the USA,” she wrote on X the following day. On Nov. 21, 2023, she posted, “Nothing but the complete dismantling of zionism will suffice.”

Video Mohammed shared on Instagram on May 7 is said to show protesters at Hunter College burning an American flag. She shared a post of the burning Israeli flag on April 14 and has shared multiple posts showing the badges of NYPD personnel with Arab last names whom she says “hammer a baton on the backs of their people.”

Akl has used social media to stoke hate. In an Instagram video shared on Nov. 26, 2023, Akl led protesters in chants on a crowded subway car to “globalize the intifada.” According to Canary Mission’s dossier on Akl, he led chants in Arabic on March 30, directing Hamas’s armed wing to strike Tel Aviv. Video on X from March 19 shows Akl being arrested at a protest.

Louder than hate
WOL is one of the numerous entities propelling hatred and decreasing public safety in an effort to promote a one-sided interpretation of peace in the Middle East, where Israel would be denied existence. As tensions mount amid continued conflict in Israel and Gaza, antisemitic actors inflict unending pain on Jewish communities worldwide.

In the face of fringe activists dominating media coverage, this hate speech and destructive rhetoric require a firm response from people of goodwill. Malign influences will not promote a future of peace and stability where Israelis and Palestinians can coexist without fear of terrorism.

06/14 Links Pt1: When it comes to Israel, brains go out the window; Hamas: Nobody has any clue how many hostages still alive; They Criticized the Entebbe Rescue, Too

From Ian:

No Haven for Hamas

Hamas isn't a state worthy of recognition. It's a terrorist entity governing a population through fear, terror, and zealotry. Which is why Americans deal not with Hamas but with Hamas's intermediaries in Egypt and Qatar. We still have some scruples, after all. And if a terror organization does not deserve our direct contact, then it does not deserve our rescue.

Nor is Hamas interested in bringing the Gaza war to a close. As the secretary of state was engaged in another round of shuffle diplomacy, desultorily flying from capital to capital with nothing to show for it, the Wall Street Journal published a blockbuster story confirming what some of us already knew: Hamas's psychopathic terror leader, Yahya Sinwar, follows Vladimir Lenin's dictum of "the worse, the better." The greater the number of Palestinian casualties, the greater the devastation to Gaza's infrastructure, the further isolated the Jewish state becomes, and the more anti-Semitism intensifies around the globe.

Most people are horrified at what Hamas unleashed on October 7. Not Sinwar. He thinks he's winning. No surprise, then, that Hamas responded to the Biden ceasefire proposal with what Blinken described as "numerous changes." Revisions, it should be said, that are too much even for Blinken. Thus Hamas gives every indication of rejecting this latest ceasefire plan—just as it rejected the four previous ceasefire plans that have been floated since November 2023.

Yet the Biden administration continues to act as if Hamas's mass murderer in chief has a conscience. In a June 13 interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC's Today Show, Blinken said that while Sinwar hides underground, "the people that he purports to represent, they're suffering every day. So if he has their interests at heart, he will come to a conclusion to bring this to a conclusion."

Represent? This isn't the Grand Forks City Council we're talking about. It's Hamas. And Yahya Sinwar isn't James Madison. He's a little Hitler. He doesn't give a whit about suffering. Nor does he have anyone's "interests at heart." He has no heart! He's a kidnapper and a torturer and a killer. How on earth can Blinken say these words with a straight face?

Something has gone wrong when a senior U.S. official persists in the delusion that a terrorist shares his sense of morality, sympathy, and personal responsibility. Something has gone wrong when an administration that responded admirably to the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust now tries to tie Israel's hands, slow Israel down, undermine Israel's elected leadership, and freeze the current multifront war against Israel in place in a misguided and counterproductive effort to quiet the gross pro-Hamas anti-Semites within the Democratic Party. And something has gone wrong, terribly wrong, when the administration's response to the heroic and triumphal rescue of four Israeli hostages from Hamas and their civilian accomplices is to double down on a plan that increases Hamas's leverage.

"I don't think the deal is blown up," Secretary Blinken told Guthrie. "I think it's still—it's still possible. But at the end of the day, this has to come to a point where it's either yes or no." That came long ago—on October 7, in fact.

The war in Gaza won't end with another ceasefire or food package or humanitarian pier. The war will end when Israel completes its task of destroying Hamas as a military force and rescues the surviving men, women, and children, including five Americans, who were taken from their homes and spirited away to Palestinian captivity. America's role in this task is to help our ally Israel by supplying military aid and assistance, by providing diplomatic cover in a world where Hamas sympathizers have captured the institutions of global governance, and by enforcing the rule of law against the Hamas supporters on our college campuses, in our city streets, and in our public squares. The closer America is with Israel, the stronger our support, and the better we articulate Israel's right to exist and right to self-defense, the faster Israel will achieve her military aims.

Enough with the ceasefires. Put the plans back in the briefcase, Mr. Secretary. Let Israel win.

When it comes to Israel, brains go out the window

THIS HAS long been Hamas’s strategy: civilians are killed in Gaza, and the terrorist organization knows that no one is going to bother to ask why it embeds itself in civilian infrastructure, why it keeps hostages in apartments, or why it shoots rockets from children’s bedrooms. Instead, Sinwar knows that people will blame Israel and Israel alone.

The problem is that when Borrell and Albanese do this, they are emboldening Hamas, putting Israel – as Sinwar himself wrote, according to the WSJ report – “right where we want them” when it comes to the question of who is winning the war. When Sinwar sees that Israel rescues hostages and comes under fierce international criticism, does that make him feel motivated to release hostages in a deal or to hold on to them for longer? Why wouldn’t he feel emboldened when Israel is slammed every time it attacks Gaza?

What these Western politicians fail to understand is that their response is actually prolonging the war. Just look at Hamas’s reaction to President Biden’s proposed ceasefire deal. Why would Hamas say yes when it knows that the world will nonetheless blame Israel and push its government into a corner to accept a version that does not do enough to ensure the Jewish state’s security?

For the war to end, Hamas needs to feel that it has something to lose. Because it does not care about human life, appealing to some moral or humanitarian interest will not work. What stands the chance of getting Hamas to agree to a deal that will return the hostages and potentially end the war is for Hamas to feel that Israel is not restricted, that there is no ticking clock that has been placed in front of Jerusalem, and that the US will continue and even accelerate the delivery of strategic weapons to Israel.

If Hamas leaders in Doha were expelled or arrested, and if Sinwar felt that Israel was not right where he wanted it to be, then maybe he would agree to release the hostages and accept the US-proposed ceasefire.

And if that doesn’t happen? At the very least, the West will have stood on the right side of history. That should also count for something.

Forever the victim: Even if Hamas is defeated, Palestinians will blame external powers

In 2023 and 2024 anti-Israel activists believed that victory against Israel had never been closer. In the hours after the October 7 massacre, anti-Israel activists took to social media to proclaim that the attack would be celebrated as a future Palestinian national holiday, signifying the supposed weakness and crumbling of Zionism.

At the May 24 Detroit People’s Conference for Palestine, speakers bragged how Hamas was supposedly humiliating the IDF on the battlefield, transforming Gaza into “the graveyard of the Merkava tank, the Namer troop carrier, the D9 bulldozer, and the occupation.” The infamous chant “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” has been regularly altered to “from the river to the sea, Palestine is almost free.”

WHEN HAMAS loses the war, and the full cost of the war is appreciated, anti-Israel activists will once again explain the discrepancy between their propaganda and the loss on the battlefield by appealing to the tired theory of foreigners rigging the outcome. Since the beginning of the war, anti-Israel operatives in the West have laser-focused on the complicity of the US and other countries by arming Israel.

They have pushed for arms embargoes and boycotts because they believe that if they disconnect the US from Israel, then Palestinians will finally be able to achieve the victory that has been repeatedly stolen from them. The Israeli war machine being unable to conduct its campaign without US support has been a regular refrain at protests and in speeches at the Detroit conference. Israel is an illegitimate, settler-colonial state, therefore its people couldn’t possibly have the will to match Hamas freedom fighters without US aid.

Everyone and everything but Palestinian intransigence will be to blame for the inevitable defeat of Hamas. Lost in stories of foreign powers or Israeli brutality taking advantage of Palestinian vulnerability, there will be no reflection on how Hamas shouldn’t have slaughtered and raped its way through southern Israel, or shouldn’t have taken hostages, or ignored the opportunity available every day for eight months to surrender and release its captives.

The path of compromise, of peace, of accepting that there is no Palestinian future in which Israel does not exist alongside them, will never be considered, nor will be the consequences to be found on the path of violence be considered. Their suffering in the wake of a war Hamas began is not a consequence of its action, but one more bout of unfair victimization inflicted on them by Israel and the US – and so they will continue to endure them.

Hamas supporters will forever hold onto the fleeting moment of October 7, and, as always, promise themselves that next time victory will be theirs, if only it wasn’t for those meddling kids in the White House.

The Alma Research and Education Center, which keep a close eye on Israel's northern border, released a detailed reportreleased a detailed report on their best estimates of Hezbollah's rocket and weapons arsenal.

It is very concerning.

It should be noted that weaponry transfers to Hezbollah via the Iranian corridor take place continuously. Furthermore, the Iranians have transformed the Syrian CERS Center into a crucial anchor in the armaments corridor, with the goal of researching and manufacturing sophisticated, extremely precise weaponry for Hezbollah. To this, we add that Hezbollah has the potential to produce its own weapons on Lebanese soil. It is quite possible that Hezbollah (with Iranian help) is renewing and preserving its weapons. Even if an all-out war with Israel is declared, the corridor’s operations and weapon manufacture will continue.

If an all-out war breaks out with Israel, the quantity of weapons Hezbollah has will enable it to launch an average of about 3,000 launches (of all weapons) into Israeli territory every day, for at least the first 10 days. Assuming that such a war would continue for up to two months, Hezbollah will be able to continue to manage a very intense launching economy into Israeli territory, with an average of at least 1,000 launches a day. This does not include the number of launches and firing at IDF forces maneuvering on Lebanese soil.

Against IDF ground maneuvers, Hezbollah will use mainly mortar shells, anti-tank missiles, drones and even some UAVs. It may also use heavy-weight short-range rockets against the maneuvering forces.

It can be presumed that not all Hezbollah launches into Israeli territory in an all-out war will succeed or be effective: some will be thwarted by the IDF before launching, some will fall in Lebanese territory or open areas in Israel, some will be unexploded ordnance, and some will be intercepted by air defense systems. However, since this is a very large volume of launches, statistically, the number of daily launches, which will be effective, will be very large compared to what we have seen so far from the northern arena or the Gaza Strip.

For context of the ranges of their rockets/missiles, here are some rough distances from the Lebanon border to major Israeli cities:

Haifa 45 km

Netanya 100 km

Tel Aviv 125 km

Jerusalem 150 km

Ashkelon 175 km

Beersheva 215 km

Dimona 230 km

Eilat 400 km

Israel would also have to be concerned at attacks on the natural gas facilities in the Mediterranean.

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News the media won't tell you: Gazans say humanitarian situation is much better than three months ago in every measurable way

We have been told for months how the humanitarian situation in Gaza is growing steadily worse, and that this situation has deteriorated dramatically since Israel took over the Rafah crossing, from which Egypt refuses to send aid.

But the latest poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that Gazans report that they are in much better circumstances than they were three months ago.

In March, only 44% of Gazans said they had a day's worth of food on hand. Now that has gone to 64%.

The percentage of Gazans who could get a tent from the place they are staying went from 10% to 26%. Availability of clothing went from 14% to 28% in those three months.

Readily available medical care went from 15% to 26%.

In every measured category - drinking water, covers, electricity to charge phones, toilets - the numbers of Gazans who have access in their shelters has increased.

To be sure, the self-reported numbers aren't good. Only 31% say toilets are available at their current location, for example. But the trajectory is up in every single measured category, the exact opposite of what we have been led to believe by the media and NGOs.

Keep in mind that this poll was taken after Israel took over the Philadelphi corridor to Egypt, and after a million Gazans fled from Rafah to Masawi and elsewhere where the media said the facilities were inadequate.

Apparently, Israel is doing a better job in facilitating aid than UNRWA, other UN agencies and the other NGOs combined had been when they relied on Egypt for most of the aid.

The likely reason is that Israel is cutting out the Hamas middleman.

Despite the hardships, Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank, still overwhelmingly support the October 7 attacks on Israel. 67% say that Hamas made the right decision in attacking Israel - 57% in Gaza and 72% in the West Bank. And 63% support a return to an "armed intifada" across Israel today, meaning terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

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UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese makes up a new war crime for Israel: "Humanitarian camouflage"

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, famously tweeted - quite falsely - that Israeli commandos had pretended to be humanitarian workers when they rescued four hostages last week.

But the phrase she used, "humanitarian camouflage," is actually from previous accusations she made of Israel.

And they were just as absurd.

In a report she released in March, Albanese wrote:

In its defense, Israel has argued that its conduct complies with international humanitarian law (“IHL”). A key finding of this report is that Israel has strategically invoked the IHL framework as “humanitarian camouflage” to legitimize its genocidal violence in Gaza.

So, is Israel adhering to international law or not? Albanese cannot seem to find any actual violations - so she made up a new category, essentially saying that when Israel adheres to international law, it is really violating it.

The paper has an entire section called "Humanitarian camouflage: distorting the laws of war to

conceal genocidal intent" which says:

After 7 October, this macro-characterization of Gaza’s civilians as a population of human shields has reached unprecedented levels, with Israel’s top-ranking political and military leaders consistently framing civilians as either Hamas operatives, “accomplices”, or human shields among whom Hamas is “embedded”. In November, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs defined “the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields” and accused Hamas of using “the civilian population as human shields”. The Ministry defines armed groups fighting from urban areas as deliberately “embedded” in the population to such an extent that it “cannot be concluded from the mere fact that seeming ‘civilians’ or ‘civilian objects’ have been targeted, that an attack was unlawful”.Two rhetorical elements of this key legal policy document indicate the intention to transform the entire Gaza population and its infrastructures of life into a ‘legitimate’ targetable shield: the use of the all-encompassing the combined with the quotation marks to qualify civilians and civilian objects. Israel has thus sought to camouflage genocidal intent with humanitarian law jargon.

This is, simply, slander. The November IDF paper - which is quite worth reading - describes normative humanitarian and international law, and the difficulties of fighting in an area where Hamas is deliberately using the civilians as human shields. It does not say, as Albanese implies, that every Gaza civilian is a legitimate target. It does not justify genocide. It just says that the laws of war do not prohibit attacking seemingly civilian objects which are used for military purposes - which is 100% true.

The IDF document is a completely accurate description of international law and the legality of the IDF targeting military targets even when civilians are placed in the way, given the international laws of applying the principles of distinction and proportionality.

Albanese cannot stand that Israel is acting in accordance with international law. So she has to make up a new crime: pretending that Israel is twisting international law into a means to perform genocide in a technically legal way.

The antisemitic rapporteur, in her zeal to try to parse the words of the IDF paper to find genocidal intent, ignores the many statements that explicitly say otherwise. Here are only a few:

"Israel is operating against Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza, not against the civilian population. It is directing its attacks only at military objectives..."

"Israel wishes no harm to civilians and is committed to addressing the humanitarian needs of those suffering as a result of Hamas’s brutality and instigation of these hostilities. "

"As repeatedly affirmed by Israel’s senior political and military leadership, the IDF is fighting Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in Gaza, not the civilian population. In accordance with the principle of distinction, the IDF only targets persons who are members of organized armed groups or civilians directly participating in the hostilities, and objects that qualify as military objectives."

Moreover, Albanese cannot deny that Hamas is indeed using all Gaza civilians as human shields - a war crime that she is not concerned with, or even implicitly denies. Hundreds of miles of tunnels underneath a territory that is only 25 miles long and 5 miles wide, most of them under the most densely populated areas in Gaza, is proof if Hamas' intent to use the highest number of Gazans as actual shields for the terrorists underground.

Ironically, Albanese's inability to actually find Israel violating international law, and her having to make up a new category of crime just for Israel, proves Israel's case.

(h/t Irene)

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06/13 Links: The inside story of Israel’s dramatic Gaza hostage rescue; How Palestinian terrorists train ‘journalists’ in Gaza; 2/3 of Palestinians Support Oct. 7 Massacre: Poll

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: The U.S.-Backed Ceasefire Plan Ensures Hamas's Survival

In 1977, Ronald Reagan shared his thoughts on the Cold War: "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: We win, and they lose." What is Joe Biden's theory of victory?

His style of governance is to manage threats, not defeat them. He believes Israel has a right to protect itself. But his previous insistence that Hamas has to be defeated has given way to a U.S.-backed ceasefire resolution that effectively ensures Hamas's survival.

He has vowed that Iran will never get nuclear weapons. But in the face of Iran's refusal to give international inspectors access to its nuclear facilities, the U.S. worked to soften a diplomatic censure.

Biden needs some wins - real, not cosmetic, ones. The Gaza ceasefire isn't it. It merely punts a problem that needs to be solved: Hamas's continued grip over the territory. It begins with a six-week pause in the fighting that might lead to the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

But it risks falling apart because no Israeli government will retreat from all of Gaza while Hamas retains power, and Hamas won't release all the hostages or meet the deal's other terms while Israeli forces remain in the territory.

Jake Wallis Simons: The West would rather stand with terrorists than Israel

Israel is hardly the only country that has enacted spectacular release missions in the past. In 1980, the CIA, with Canadian support, smuggled six diplomats out of Tehran while posing as a film crew researching a science fiction production. That same year, when gunmen took 26 hostages at the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, the SAS abseiled from the roof and enacted a daring rescue.

By contrast, recent decades have instead seen an increasing reliance on diplomatic jaw-jaw, often accompanied by hefty ransoms. Last year, the White House released £4.8 billion into Iranian coffers to secure the freedom of five Americans, raising the future incentive to £940 million per hostage. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was set free in 2022 after Downing Street had paid the Iranians £400 million, supposedly a debt that had been owed since the Seventies. You could hear the chuckles in Tehran.

It is true that the Israelis have often paid a heavy price in return for the release of captives: there was the deal in November to free 150 Palestinian convicts in return for 50 hostages. In 2011, 1,027 prisoners – among them a certain Yahya Sinwar, the future architect of October 7 – were controversially released in exchange for one kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Israeli citizens are constantly asked what they can do for their country; this is what the state pledges in return. But Israelis also know that if the opportunity for direct rescue arises, the best commandos in the world will be standing by, no matter the risks.

Why have British and American forces not directly joined the IDF, either in supporting roles, as we did against Islamic State, or in the air or sea, or to participate in special forces operations? That would have sent a powerful message to our jihadi enemy that the West stands resolute, shoulder-to-shoulder in defence of our hostages and our people.

The RAF and American airforce magnificently helped thwart the Iranian missile assault in April. But what about British and American captives? What about destroying Hamas? When he announced the building of an American humanitarian pier, President Biden was at pains to point out that “no US boots will be on the ground”. Why? Victory over Hamas is squarely in our national interest. True collaboration could facilitate a swifter end to the conflict.

From the point of view of Hamas, a deal with the Biden administration would further strain US-Israeli relations. It would pile pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of neglecting a hostage agreement. Terrorists know that the sowing of discord between allies is a powerful weapon. That Hamas places such a premium on doing so holds a lesson that we should urgently learn.

The hostages are international. Our enemy is the same. If jihadism is to be defeated, Western unity – and strength – is vital.

The International Community Must Back Israel's Objectives in Gaza

Last week, the Biden administration, along with 16 other countries, called for Israel to end the war in Gaza without completing its objectives and effectively to enter into a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would pave the way to a Palestinian state, which would be the ultimate award for the horrific war crimes committed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The joint statement not only insults Israel and undermines its efforts to achieve victory against Hamas in Gaza, but also emboldens the other enemies of Israel and the Western world who are watching what Israel does to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas. Ending the war with Hamas still governing Gaza would send the message that the crimes of Oct. 7 are allowed to go unpunished.

The U.S.-led Marshall Plan to rehabilitate Western Europe after WWII was conditioned on the total de-radicalization of German and Italian society. The international community should expect no less of Gaza.

The statement makes a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. It calls "on the leaders of Israel as well as Hamas to make whatever final compromises are necessary to close this deal." In other words, Israel and Hamas are fighting senselessly like two schoolboys in the playground. This is not a democratic ally of the West fighting a just war against a barbaric terrorist organization. It's just hotheads who are going at it and need to be held back by the cooler heads in the neighborhood.

This attitude by countries who are supposed to be Israel's friends and allies can only encourage Iran and its proxies to continue to pursue their policy of aggression against Israel and Israeli targets in the West.

Chag Sameach!

I wish all my readers who celebrate a wonderful holiday of Shavuot.

I will not be blogging until Thursday night or Friday morning.

Enjoy!

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06/11 Links Pt2: When Jew Hate Doesn’t Count; Exposed: Albanese’s Global Influence Network Targeting Israel; The Washington Post goes post-reality

From Ian:

When Jew Hate Doesn’t Count

Over the weekend, thousands—not hundreds—of protesters encircled the White House waving Palestinian flags and accusing Israel of “genocide” and calling for the death of “Zionists,” which is what Jew-haters have taken to calling Jews to veil their hatred. “Stand with Hamas,” read one poster.

These are the people who dressed up as jihadists and defaced statues and screamed “Piggy! Piggy!” and “Fuck you, fascist” at the park rangers and held up a fake bloodied mask of Genocide Joe Biden. The New York Times, like CNN and The Washington Post and most every major outlet, made a big point of how the demonstrators really, really just want a cease-fire. There was no mention of Jews or antisemitism.

The Biden administration, to its credit, put out a statement saying it was against antisemitism. But that did not stop Biden campaign spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod from saying that Biden “supports the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression” and that the protesters “have a right to speak their mind.” (I could not agree more. Where were these champions of First Amendment rights at Charlottesville?)

Most everyone else stressed that the only people who detected any antisemitism were the Jews, and that that wasn’t the point, and that the anti-Zionists, the people screaming at the park rangers and defacing statues and LARPing around like wannabe terrorists—who specialize in murdering and raping Jews—don’t hate anyone. Except Israelis.

“Many protesters chanted slogans that some Jewish groups have said incite violence against Jews,” the Times explained. “That some Jewish groups have said.”

Because—remember!—it’s never, ever about whoever dies. On the contrary, it is always about who can be blamed for that death. That is how one furthers the agenda.

New Book by Daniel Pipes Challenges Conventional Wisdom about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Renowned historian and Middle East expert Daniel Pipes announces the release of his latest book, Israel Victory: How Zionists Win Acceptance and Palestinians Get Liberated, published by Wicked Son, an imprint of Post Hill Press. Tracing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the 1880s, Pipes argues that the prolonged conflict between Palestinians and Israelis stems from two entrenched and opposing mentalities: Palestinian rejectionism and Israeli conciliation.

Palestinian rejectionism is characterized by the negation of Jews, Judaism, Zionism, and Israel. It explains the Palestinians' enduring goal of genocide, their refusal to take yes for an answer, their unwillingness to seek improved living circumstances, and their determination to defame the Jewish state.

Zionist conciliation is characterized by the attempt to win Palestinian acceptance not by defeating Israel's enemy, but by enriching and placating it. Pipes argues against this anomalous Zionist approach, advocating instead the traditional method of ending a war—through victory: Palestinians give up, Israel wins.

In a brilliant essay that brings surprisingly fresh insights and original policy recommendations to a well-worn topic, Pipes draws lessons from past "peace process" failures, delves into the universal nature of defeat and victory, and offers practical advice on how Israel can win through minimal violence and maximal messaging. Both sides need an Israel Victory to break with entrenched, outdated mentalities. For Israel, it means acceptance, especially among Muslims and on the global Left. For the Palestinians, Israel Victory means liberation from a destructive obsession, enabling them finally to build a polity, economy, society, and culture worthy of their skills and ambitions.

Gerald Steinberg: To combat UN hostility to Israel, Israel should bar UN officials from entering

One important policy tool is to immediately prevent the entry of all UN officials into Israel – meaning no new visas – and order the departure of officials already in the country.

This approach has been implemented on a limited scale – the visa of the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was not renewed and she left. However, her replacement – a Dutch politician with a history of hostility towards Israel – was admitted.

In addition, officials from the UN Human Rights Council were barred from entering after they led a series of blatantly biased “investigations” for the reports of the special rapporteur for Palestine.

With the hot war that fuels the waves of antisemitic attacks worldwide and the attempts to impose sanctions coming from Secretary General Guterres, the time has come for a total ban on all UN personnel seeking to enter Israel and the areas under Israeli control.

This will not change the UN’s automatic majority led by the 56-nation Islamic voting bloc and their allies, or end their control over appointments, budgets, and committees. It will also not lead to the dismantling of UNRWA, the removal of hate-filled antisemitic special rapporteurs, or the end of bogus “investigations.”

But for UN officials, a blanket prohibition from entering Israel poses a significant cost and creates a dangerous precedent. If for their own reasons, other countries follow by barring officials from specific agencies, the image (or myth) of an authoritative global framework encompassing all countries will be brought into question and begin to disintegrate.

UN agencies that operate from inside Israel (or in Gaza, which is now under IDF control) would be incapacitated and, as a result, could lose their large budgets, resulting in major staff reductions.

A clear Israeli policy move would also gain support from UN-skeptics in the US and some other countries and could lead to budget cuts and other actions to curtail the organization and its influence.

Although prohibiting the entry of all UN personnel until the policy changes fundamentally is a limited action, it sends an important message highlighting the absence of legitimacy. Given the stakes in this hot war being waged by the UN against Israel, the failure to take strong action could be very costly.

06/11 Links Pt1: For Sinwar, Gaza’s civilians are cannon fodder; 19,000 Rockets Since Oct 7; John Spencer: Urban Warfare, Civilian Casualty, & Human Shields

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Saving Sinwar

The most important part of the Wall Street Journal’s expose on Yahya Sinwar’s text messages isn’t a message written by the Hamas leader at all. It is, rather, the collapse of the West’s will to win.

The Journal aptly sums up the tranche of Sinwar’s messages: “In dozens of messages—reviewed by The Wall Street Journal—that Sinwar has transmitted to cease-fire negotiators, Hamas compatriots outside Gaza and others, he’s shown a cold disregard for human life and made clear he believes Israel has more to lose from the war than Hamas.”

The main takeaway from the article has been what should’ve been clear long ago: The ceasefire negotiators are getting played by a man whose every decision is calculated to cause as much bloodshed as possible. But the Western naivete isn’t merely unsuccessful as a negotiating strategy; it has relieved Sinwar’s isolation. That makes it one of the more consequential strategic blunders in modern history.

Sinwar has always been an ideologue and a maximalist, not a pragmatist. As the texts show, he has personally ordered the escalation of violence each time there appears to be a diplomatic breakthrough—whether between Israel and another country, such as Saudi Arabia, or between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or even between Israel and Sinwar himself. His entire military and political strategy revolves around literally blowing up peace talks.

That gives him an advantage: He knows Israel will be blamed for any lack of aid getting into Gaza, for example, so he orders attacks on aid crossings. If at any moment not enough Palestinians are dying, Sinwar will adjust accordingly and make sure to change that. Palestinian deaths are more important to the success of his strategy than Israeli deaths, although both are necessary to his hold on power.

For Sinwar, Gaza’s civilians are cannon fodder

Messages sent to mediators by Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar show that as far as he’s concerned, the more civilians die in Gaza the better.

He sees such deaths as working “to his advantage,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The Journal reviewed “dozens of messages” Sinwar sent to ceasefire negotiators and others in which “he’s shown a cold disregard for human life and made clear he believes Israel has more to lose from the war than Hamas.”

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” said Sinwar in a message sent recently to Hamas officials looking to make an agreement via Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

In one message to Hamas leaders in Doha, the Hamas leader, citing civilian deaths in national-liberation conflicts in Algeria, said, “these are necessary sacrifices.”

In an April 11 letter, he told Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who lost three sons to an Israeli airstrike during the war, that their deaths would “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honor.”

Sinwar’s strategy appears to be to outlast Israel, win a permanent cease-fire and “declare a historic victory,” the Journal reported.

If a ceasefire isn’t reached, Sinwar calculates that Israel still loses as it will have no choice but to rule the Gaza Strip, only to be bogged down in a Hamas-led insurgency.

He was thinking along these lines at least six years ago, telling a journalist in 2018, “For Netanyahu, a victory would be even worse than a defeat.”

During that time, Hamas had organized the “March of Return” protests along the Gaza border, forcing Israeli soldiers to fire on demonstrators who threatened to breach the security barrier.

“We make the headlines only with blood,” Sinwar said in the interview. “No blood, no news.”

WSJ: Gaza Chief Sinwar Is Confident that Hamas Can Outlast Israel

For months, Yahya Sinwar has resisted pressure to cut a ceasefire-and-hostages deal with Israel.

"We have the Israelis right where we want them," Sinwar said in a recent message to Hamas officials seeking to broker an agreement with Qatari and Egyptian officials.

In dozens of messages - reviewed by the Wall Street Journal - that Sinwar has transmitted to ceasefire negotiators and Hamas compatriots outside Gaza, he has made clear that he believes Israel has more to lose from the war than Hamas.

In one message to Hamas leaders in Doha, Sinwar cited civilian losses in the national-liberation conflict in Algeria, where hundreds of thousands of people died fighting for independence from France, saying, "these are necessary sacrifices."

His ultimate goal appears to be to win a permanent ceasefire that allows Hamas to declare a historic victory by outlasting Israel and claim leadership of the Palestinian national cause.

AJC poll shows Biden has lost 19% of Jewish voters who supported him in 2020; fewer Jews say being Jewish is important to them

The American Jewish Committee has released the results of a survey of American Jews.

They held similar surveys in previous election years, so it is worthwhile to compare some results.

In the 2020 poll 75% said they would likely support Biden against Trump. Now, that number has slipped to only 61%, a loss of 19% of his Jewish supporters from 2020.

Interestingly, Trump's support is nearly the same, going from 22% to 23%.

Equally interestingly, Biden's 61% is exactly the same as Hilary Clinton's 61% support vs. 19% for Trump in 2016.

The most alarming result is the continued loss of American Jews who care about Judaism. Here are the results from the polls in 2016, 2020 and 2024 to the question of how important being Jewish is to Jews:

The percentage of Jews who feel being Jewish is not important to them went up from 21% to 29%, and the number of Jews who feel being Jewish is very important to them has been steadily dropping.

This despite the findings that more Jews feel connected to their Jewish identity since October 7.

Also, while many Orthodox Jews congratulate themselves both on the ba'al teshuva movement and their higher birthrate than other Jews, the percentage of Jews who identify as Orthodox has actually slightly decreased, from 9% in 2016 and 2020 to 8% today. We see places like Lakewood booming in size, but that means that we are losing even Orthodox Jews elsewhere. Perhaps the Orthodox movements should also think about "inreach" and not only outreach.

As we've shown, Jews who don't care about their religion are unlikely to care about Israel. And almost certainly the vast majority of Jews who claim to oppose Israel, like "Jewish Voice for Peace," are Jews in name only, who use their vestigial Jewishness to attack Israel but for no other purpose.

The ignorant Jewish protesters want to join a cause that is bigger than them. The fact that their own heritage is not even on their radar is perhaps the biggest problem facing American Jews today.

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