Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 16, 2025

01/16 Links Pt1: In Israel, Rage, Disgust and Relief Follow Gaza Hostage Deal; Is Trump Pushing Israel toward a Bad Deal?; VDH: What We Have Forgotten About War

From Ian:

Aviva Klompas: In Israel, Rage, Disgust and Relief Follow Gaza Hostage Deal

Hamas is not a political organization seeking reconciliation. It is a genocidal terror group. Its charter calls for the annihilation of Israel and the murder of Jews. Can you imagine the United States negotiating with the Taliban as equals just 15 months after the Sept. 11 attacks? I can't.

For Hamas, this deal is a victory. The group will boast that it outmaneuvered Israel, extracted concessions, and reaffirmed that terrorism works.

In Gaza, people are already dancing in the streets. Khalil al-Haya, a senior Hamas leader, has already declared that the Oct. 7 attacks will "forever be a source of pride" and promised another assault. "Our people will expel the occupation from our lands and from Jerusalem in the earliest time possible," he said.

We've heard these threats before. We've seen what follows.

The grim reality is that some families will remain in agonizing limbo because Hamas knows it can ensure its survival by holding onto hostages and extracting more concessions from Israel.

Still, despite the immense cost and risk, I believe Israel must bring its hostages home.

There is no doubt that Israel has made significant military gains since the start of the war. It has destroyed most of Hamas's battalions, wiped out the top leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah, humiliated Iran, and restored its regional deterrence.

But for all those gains, Israel remains frozen in time on Oct. 7 — the day 1,200 people were slaughtered. The country is desperate to save the lives of those who can still be saved. The state has a duty to bring home the civilians who were ripped from their homes and the soldiers who were sent to protect the state. Prioritizing life is an agonizing choice, but it is the right one.

But the world must understand the dangerous precedent this deal has set. For 15 months, the terrorists watched as Israel, a democratic nation subjected to atrocities by a brutal terror organization, was castigated in international courts and demonized in the court of public opinion. Israel was restrained militarily and made to negotiate with its terrorist attackers.

This moral equivalence is wildly dangerous. Today, it is Israeli civilians. Tomorrow, it will be others. Hamas's existence isn't just a threat to Israel—it's a threat to all of us. And it will come at a cost we cannot yet fully comprehend.

The return of hostages is not a victory. It is a tragic necessity.

Victor Davis Hanson: What We Have Forgotten About War

All of Israel’s current terrorist enemies are supplied and guided by Iran. After sending 500 projectiles into Israel, and after, in response, Israel had dismantled Iran’s supposedly formidable air defenses, what might have followed had Israel invested another week in destroying Iran’s nuclear capability, with threats to continue on with its military bases and energy sector? Would Iran have been able or willing to supply any further its diminished terrorist appendages?

What if 100 percent of Gaza has been entered, disarmed, occupied, and purged of Hamas terrorists, in the manner that much of it had already? Would Israel have eventually destroyed the entire Hamas leadership, dismantled the entire subterranean labyrinth, and taught the population that Hamas would be a longer politically viable?

Would neighboring so-called “moderate” Arab countries have been more or less willing to ally with a formidable, and unpredictable Israel? And would the United States, even under the sanctimonious and sermonizing Biden administration, privately have been more willing to aid Israelis under such vast geopolitical transformations?

Would hostile enclaves and nations, whether in Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, or Yemen, been more or less willing to negotiate with Israel in a post-Hizballah, post-Hamas, and even post-theocratic-Iran era?

I believe Baratz is right not because I wish him to be, but because I think he has a better understanding of human nature than do his opponents, in that he understands that the revolution in military affairs, new weaponry, artificial intelligence, cyberwar, and smart bombs and shells have changed not the rules of war, but merely the velocity and lethality of it.

The more sophisticated we become, the more difficult it becomes to remember that war is fought collectively by humans. Human nature stays constant across time and space. And thus, it remains predictable and subject to universal laws that, if only understood, can mitigate the violence of war—through strategic victory.

Seth Mandel: A Soldier’s Perspective on the Ceasefire

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have fought in the war against Hamas since October 2003, yet the perspective of the Israeli soldier is often missing from the discussions of the conflict. A friend of mine who is serving his fourth tour in Gaza in this war alone yesterday posted his perspective on this week’s ceasefire deal, and it’s worth considering, since it addresses some of the skepticism toward the deal. G. is a master sergeant, a reservist, and makes two arguments worth grappling with.

First, he writes, “As the military campaign reaches a turning point, it is crucial for Israeli society to begin moving forward. In my opinion, the time has come to focus on healing the nation, supporting those who have suffered, and rebuilding the foundations of strength and resilience. This includes addressing the needs of bereaved families, aiding displaced communities, reuniting a society that has endured immense strain, and supporting soldiers, reservists, and their families in returning to routine, managing trauma, and recovering from life-changing injuries. The long-term stability and strength of Israel depend on repairing the societal fabric that has been tested during this prolonged war.”

That last sentence is similar to one of the practical arguments that helps explain Israel’s determination to redeem its captives even at the cost of incentivizing the continued practice of hostage-taking. Simply put, the Israeli people have made a pact with the state that they will send them their grown children when they reach the age of military service, and the state is to return them home when their service is up.

In that vein, the social fabric of Israeli society cannot be allowed to unravel, because (from a strategic perspective) it would threaten the foundation of Israel’s security. On the other hand, so would permitting Hamas to regroup. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fond of saying that in politics, leadership often requires choosing between two bad choices. This would be one explanation for Netanyahu’s thought process behind the deal.

There is also the question of war aims: Although under the terms of the deal, Israel retains the prerogative to resume military operations if Hamas violates the ceasefire, the agreement suggests an implicit acceptance of a new policy in which Hamas’s total defeat is no longer a primary Israeli goal. But if Hamas’s continued existence isn’t a dealbreaker, why couldn’t an agreement along these lines have been signed earlier in the war? After all, the details don’t appear to have changed significantly from the outline the Biden administration first advanced in May 2024.

Supermarkets Banking A Little Too Much On Shoppers' Enthusiasm For Tu B'Shvat (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Supermarkets Banking A Little Too Much On Shoppers' Enthusiasm For Tu BiShvat

Jerusalem, January 16 - Retail grocery stores have again decided to assume a far greater interest among Israeli consumers in dried fruits, nuts, date spread, and various fruit preserves than actually exists among the buying public, industry observers noted today, as evident in the elaborate displays of such products, either individually or in gift packages, in honor of the upcoming New Year for Trees.

At Osher Ad, a chain of large supermarkets that caters in the main to Haredi consumers, store managers at the Giv'at Shaul branch have created an elaborate spread of such delicacies in anticipation of buyers snatching them up ahead of Tu BiShvat, the fifteenth of the month of Sh'vat - a day that in Jewish tradition and law marks a new year for various agriculturally-related commandments such as tithing fruit. Tu BiShvat will occur this year in about four weeks. Whether shoppers intend to buy anything for it, however, remains a tenuous assumption.

"It's gonna be huge," predicted Polly Anna, an assistant manger. "Lots of ads mention it. Companies give their workers fruits and stuff for it. Preschools make a big deal of it. Must be a tremendous time for sales. I remember bringing home Tu BiShvat stuff from school such as dried figs and dates, and my mom would get so excited! We never ate any of it, though. Just kind of put it out with dessert over the next several weeks until acknowledging no one wanted."

The origins of the day's observance comes from ancient texts that identify the fifteenth of Sh'vat as the day by which most of the winter's rain has fallen, and thus it became a harbinger of spring and the next season's harvest - an intuitive line to draw for defining fruit-tithing seasons and for uniform determination of what year of a tree's productive life yielded fruit (the first three are forbidden, while the fourth must be eaten in Jerusalem). Later centuries saw the harbinger-of-spring aspect of Tu BiShvat evolve into both a time of hope amid cold, dark exile and persecution, and a celebration of the bounty of land to which the Jews longed to return; it sits at the annual pole opposite Tu B'Av, a day of hope and potential for love even after catastrophe.

Since the only way to obtain fruits at all, and certainly the more exotic fruits associated with the land of Israel, in climes such as Eastern Europe, involved dried figs, dates, or raisins, those items became associated with Tu BiShvat even though no one actually likes them.

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Highlights of a Visit to the War-Ravaged Galilean Panhandle (Guest post by Jerry Schwartz)

Guest post by Jerry Schwartz.

Highlights of a Visit to the War-Ravaged Galilean Panhandle

Unprovoked, Hezbollah attacked northern Israel on October 8, 2023, only 25 hours after Hamas initiated its invasion and atrocities of the farming villages of southern Israel the day before. Breaking the cease-fire that had been in effect for 18 years, Hezbollah had been firing guided antitank missiles at the northern Israeli border communities as well as longer-range rockets into the Galilee daily.

After more than a year of these attacks, a new cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel came into effect on November 27, 2024. Hezbollah’s firing of antitank missiles at Israeli border villages from southern Lebanon has finally ceased.

Taking advantage of this lull in hostilities, I joined a guided tour of the Galilean Panhandle Thursday, January 2, 2025. The purpose of this tour was to afford an opportunity to Israelis who don’t live in the border areas to see for themselves the extent of the damage to the border villages and towns, the toll on the population, and the early stages of rehabilitation.

First Stop–Kibbutz Manara

The village of the kibbutz is perched on the highest point of the mountain ridge that runs in a north-south direction along the Lebanese border (legally an armistice line). This point rises steeply 800 meters above and to the west of the Hula Valley.

Figure 1 Hula Valley from the Ridge Looking East, the Golan & Snow-Capped Mt. Hermon Opposite.

A Lebanese village, also perched on a mountaintop, is situated a few hundred meters to the west of Manara. The line of site from the Lebanese village to the houses on the kibbutz is unobstructed. This topography is ideal for Hezbollah fighters who live in the Lebanese village to fire laser-guided antitank missiles at their Israeli neighbors’ homes, and so they did 260 times during the war. Three-quarters of the houses were damaged to the point of being uninhabitable.

We were not allowed to enter the village itself because of the widespread destruction. We viewed it from a lower point from where we could see blown-out windows and rocket holes in the walls of the row of houses visible from there.

She recounted that within the first few days of the war all 260 inhabitants fled except for four who refused to leave. They fled not only because of the antitank missiles, but especially because of fear of an invasion, atrocities, and capturing of hostages such as were perpetrated on the farming villages of the Gaza Envelop in the south on October 7, 2023. Such a fear was well-founded because they knew that several thousand battled-hardened troops of Hezbollah’s Radwan Brigades were stationed just on the other side of the armistice line.

Confirming these fears were detailed plans and maps for such an invasion that were found in Hezbollah’s network of terror tunnels in South Lebanon adjacent to the border with Israel.1 Thankfully, that invasion didn’t materialize. But the threat of it was the impetus for evacuating 65000 residents of the northern border area from their homes in the first days of the war.

Another frightening finding in these tunnels was “astronomical quantities of weapons and ammunition...and they began to empty it out on us,” she said.2

A major consequence of the kibbutzniks’ fleeing was that there was no one left to work the orchards and vineyards. Making matters worse, any workers in them were sitting ducks. As a result they were able to harvest only 10% of their crops in the last year.

Regarding the future of the kibbutz, she lamented that it will take several years to bring the orchards and vineyards back into full production, and said, “We’re only at the beginning of the process of rehabilitation. It will take many months before people can begin to return to the kibbutz. I work every day with insurance assessors and tax authorities.”

The kibbutzniks and their families are now scattered all over the country. She and other responsible members of the kibbutz make sure to keep track of them all, where they are located, their welfare, any needs they may have, and any distress they might be in. Once every six weeks, they hold a kibbutz-wide meeting by Zoom in an effort to ensure cohesion among the members.

At a later stop in the tour, one of the guides commented that at the outbreak of the war there were 20 Gazan workers employed at Kibbutz Manara. The members of the kibbutz assigned the highest priority to ensuring that their workers got back home safely from Manara in the far north to Gaza in the south, by then engulfed in war, and they managed to do so.

Second Stop–Moshav Margaliot

Located a ten-minute drive north of Kibbutz Manara on the same ridge, Moshav Margaliot is a major domestic producer of eggs. Their chicken coops sustained extensive damage from antitank missiles.

Figure 2 Destroyed Chicken Coop

As opposed to a kibbutz, which is owned collectively, the families of a moshav each own their own houses and farms. This means that each family is responsible for rehabilitating its own house and agricultural infrastructure independently.

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One of the moshav’s farmers spoke to us. Standing next to the border fence, he pointed out a Lebanese village on the other side situated on a higher ridge and separated from his moshav by only about 300 meters. From there, looking down on Margaliot is like “looking down at the palm of your hand,” he said. From the elevated position of the Lebanese village, Hezbollah repeatedly fired antitank missiles down onto Margaliot and all the houses were destroyed except for a few at the far end of the agricultural village.

He reported that during this war more cross-border tunnels penetrating into Israeli territory were discovered, including at Manara. Margaliot dealt with several attempts at infiltration. In one incident an armed terrorist managed to sneak into the moshav village. Guards pursued him but couldn’t find him until the next day when they shot him.

Our “additional war” is to restore the damaged agricultural infrastructure, the farmer explained. “Feed bins were destroyed. During the war mine was completely damaged but I repaired it because I still had poultry in the structure. The assessors said because you repaired it you don’t have to replace it, so no compensation for me even though it was already 20 years old. The others will get compensation to buy new ones prorated based on the remaining useful life before the war. A feed bin today costs ten thousand shekels. Repairing the structures themselves will cost 20 to 30 thousand shekels from your own pocket.”

He shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if three or four thousand battled-hardened troops from the Radwan Brigades had crossed the Lebanese border and in the twinkling of an eye covered the short distance to the small city of Kiryat Shmona in the valley below at the outbreak of the war.

Figure 3 Looking East Over the Hula Valley with Kiryat Shmona Below and the Golan Opposite

Looking ahead, he expressed uncertainty about “what would happen six months…, four years…, seven years into the future. So far between 20 and 30% of the residents have returned to the moshav. I estimate another 30 to 40% will return. 30% are estimated not to return. This is the moshav’s most pressing problem.”

The organizers had wanted to take us to Metula, the northernmost village in Israel on the Lebanese border. Before the war it was a popular tourist destination and hosted an annual Israeli poetry festival; during the war 300 of its houses were destroyed. The mayor refused to allow us to visit because he doesn’t want his village to be seen by outsiders in the devastated condition it’s now in.

Heading back to Tel Aviv, we stopped in the town of Kiryat Shmona in the Hula Valley. It was mostly empty, just like the southern town of Sderot was earlier in the war. From a bustling town it is now a ghost town.

Conclusions

During this war the northern communities were hard hit. Of the sixty-five thousand residents from the border communities that had to be evacuated to other parts of the country, so far few have returned because of a persistent perception of insecurity. The cease-fire now in effect is scheduled to expire at the end of this month. In any case, Hezbollah has been violating it since the first hours of its coming into effect by attempting to rearm by importing weapons and ammunition through Syria. The Lebanese army, assigned the role of enforcement, has been completely ineffectual so far, as predicted. So the IDF has had to stay in southern Lebanon to ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement. But the determination of the kibbutzniks and moshavniks, as conveyed to us by the representatives of the communities we visited, gives reassurance that the area will recover from the devastation and depopulation of the war, and will flourish again as long as security can be maintained.

https://www.inn.co.il/news/649842

https://www.maariv.co.il/news/military/article-1140132

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Interview With George Gilder, Author Of The New Edition Of "The Israel Test" (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

George Gilder is an American author and economist. His book, The Israel Test, was published in 2009. A new version of the book came out last year.

George Gilder (YouTube screencap)

What is so important about your book, The Israel Test, that it merits a new third edition?

The issues of The Israel Test are imperative for everyone to understand—a relaunch of the message of the essential book of my lifetime. I've been writing for nearly 70 years, and of all my books, I like The Israel Test best. It's the most personal of my books and the most fervent. It may be the most important. I write about entrepreneurship, I write about technology, I write about creativity as the paramount force in human life. It is all epitomized in the fabulous feats of Israel as the Startup Nation and now possibly the leader of the Free World.

I think Israel is transforming the world as we speak.

Briefly, what is the Israel Test?

The test is how people respond to those who excel in creativity, intellect, accomplishment, and wealth. Do you admire them and try to learn from them or do you envy them, resent them, and try to tear them down? This is the central test of the world economy and human life. When we resent those who excel us and attempt to suppress them, we doom our Human Experiment. To the extent that we admire them and emulate them, there are no limits to our achievements on this planet.

For whatever reason, most of the great breakthroughs of the century have come from Jews, and Israel now epitomizes this genius of the Jews. So when we attack Israel, we're really attacking the very source of human creativity and accomplishment in the world. That is the Israel Test.

U.S. corporations have some 70% of the global market cap and all the world's equity markets. When you examine the companies that account for this global leadership in the United States, they all have crucial, laboratories inventions, factories, research, and operations in Israel. People talk about Israel being dependent on the United States. But the U.S. is more dependent on Israel today than Israel is on the U.S. The United States is in a maelstrom at the moment, and Israel is really the inspirational leader of the world economy.

What are the biggest misconceptions about Israel's economy and the Israeli society that you debunk in your book?

First of all, the whole idea that Israel somehow is occupying something is just misconceived.

One of the reasons for the second edition of the book is that once, after I addressed a synagogue in Far Rockaway in New York, fifteen years ago, someone came up to me and gave me a beaten-up, frayed copy of a book by Walter Lowdermilk. That book is the basis for a couple of new chapters in the recent editions of The Israel Test.

Walter Lowdermilk was a Christian in the United States in the Agriculture Department under FDR. A heat wave had led to a terrible drought in the U.S. causing a crisis for US agriculture and for the West. Lowdermilk traveled around the world, in search of agricultural methods to meet this crisis. He ended up in then-Palestine and discovered amazing agricultural feats. This is back in 1938, before the establishment of the state of Israel. He found that the Jews had performed an agricultural miracle unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

Lowdermilk found that they had solved the water problem and made the desert bloom. In time, this led to desalination plants, drip irrigation, microirrigation, and the planting of a million trees. There is now an Israeli university with a Lowdermilk building because he became a hero and is recognized for his important contributions.

He reported that when the Jews moved to Palestine in the 19th century, there were only 200,000 to 300,000 Arabs in this wasteland that was really a desert. Their average lifespan was around 30 years old. When the Jews came and made the desert bloom, the Arabs crowded into Palestine to take advantage of these breakthroughs the Jews achieved. Jewish migration made a population of Palestinians possible. Without the Jewish immigration, there could not have been a sustained population because of the lack of water. Lowdermilk's book documents detailed observations and testimony about how the Jews transformed the desert and made Israel ultimately into the world's most Innovative agricultural country.

But Israel made a big mistake. They adopted socialism. By 1985, Israel was about over, approaching 1000% inflation with the economy on the verge of collapse. The Histadrut domination of banking had resulted in the bankruptcy of banks and the fall of the shekel. That was when the new government under Netanyahu led the transformation of Israel into a capitalist leader.

The real Israel Test came when Israel demonstrated that freedom, capitalism, and creativity enable human life and accomplishment. That vindication of capitalism, pioneered by Netanyahu, changed the Israel Test from a test of recognizing their agricultural changes to recognizing their technological changes. Israel was a key source of the success of Intel Corporation, the leading American semiconductor company. Nvidia achieved great success by buying an Israeli company called Melanox, making Nvidia one of the world's most valuable companies by enabling their Artificial Intelligence breakthroughs.

It begins with half the Nobel prizes and the serious Sciences and it goes on to the richest people in the world, to the most pioneering country in the world. And it's all ultimately a recognition of the incredible genius of the Jews.

The Israel Test is about how Israel's genius enriches the world.

Is the Israel Test of the Arabs different? Aside from the psychological and emotional elements of envy and hatred of the Jews, the Arab world also has a cultural aspect that you mention in your book: shame and honor. Going a step further, are those Arabs living in Israel under Jewish rule for the first time in Arab history being tested and challenged differently than any other people?

Israel is a democratic government that grants Israeli Arabs more rights than any other place in the world, except maybe the United States. Arabs do better in Israel than they do anywhere else. The million Arabs in Israel comprise 16% of all the engineers. The Arabs do well in Israel and do not support Hamas or Hezbollah activities. There are, of course, disgruntled Arabs. But I think that the Arab integration with Israeli Society and Israeli industry has been a lesson for the world and the Israel Test.

I've spent a lot of time in Israel, talking to Arab engineers. They are making crucial contributions. The ones who learn from the Jews rather than resent the Jews do brilliantly in Israel.

You write that capitalism is one of the best remedies for antisemitism. How does that work?

Capitalism is based on giving. A fundamental principle of capitalism is its dependence on the moral fabric that the Jewish and Christian traditions enabled. capitalism is the secret behind the emergence of Israel as the world's leading creative force and its world leadership. Israel did not become the Startup Nation until it adopted capitalism and they didn't employ all these Arabs either until it adopted capitalism.

Probably seven out of the ten richest people in the world are Jews. All their wealth is invested in projects and companies that employ millions of people around the world. This makes the continued triumph over human exigency possible. It explains why the genius of the Jews converges with the capitalist insights to make Israel's emergence as the leader of the West possible. Israel's amazing achievement is that this tiny country has accomplished so much, yet has only existed for 75 years. And it could only have happened with capitalism.

The American economist and political commentator Thomas Sowell makes an important observation. He studied minorities all around the globe. He acknowledges the incredible achievements of the Jews and of Israel as the spearhead. However, he also shows that a similar phenomenon exists in Asia with the overseas Chinese. There are some 40 million overseas Chinese, more overseas Chinese than there are Jews. It's not exactly comparable, but the overseas Chinese dominate the economies of Asia in the same way that Jews dominate the Middle Eastern economy--and the American economy for that matter. Millions of overseas Chinese have been killed in pogroms in Indonesia, for example. This ended up depleting the Indonesian economy for decades They imagined that the overseas Chinese were somehow stealing wealth instead of creating wealth. Wealth is created; it is not stolen.

You write that anti-Semitism withers in wealthy capitalist countries. But is that really true today?

We are slipping back into Socialism. The West is no longer so wealthy and our wealth does not distribute itself as thoroughly as in a free economy. We are socializing our economy in the name of climate change and other delusions that are inducing us to abandon capitalism. When we abandoned capitalism, people began to look for victims. They consider themselves victims and resent the wealthy. They start failing their Israel Test.

So it's not just because we're living post-October 7th?

That's right. Marxism is based on resentment of wealth. If you start resenting and tearing down wealth, you end up failing your Israel Test and bring about catastrophe. And that's our history.

One of the stories I like to tell is about World War II. It was won because the U.S. admitted Jews to lead the Manhattan Project and create the nuclear weapons that made the triumphs of the Western order possible. After the Second World War, democracy and capitalism were the fruit of the Manhattan Project, and the Manhattan Project was accomplished almost entirely by the Jewish scientists fleeing Europe.

John von Neumann is a great hero of the Israel Test. He was a pivotal figure both in the Manhattan Project and in the creation of the computer industry. He won his debate with Albert, Einstein and persuaded Israel to create a supercomputer and acquire nuclear power. Israel could not have survived without von Neumann's contributions. A Jew who fled Europe for the United States ultimately saved both Israel and The United States.

You mention the United States. Generally, antisemitism doesn't seem to be as large a problem here as it is in Europe. Why is that?

One of the reasons is that Europe accepted massive Muslim immigrants without requiring them to adopt the principles of a free society, and without requiring them to abandon their antisemitism. Europe got occupied. It's a terrible problem and it's why Trump's insight about immigration is so critical. You accept immigrants who accept the constitutional principles of your society, the key moral underpinnings of civilized society. An obsession with exterminating Jews is utterly inconsistent with the principles of any kind of free, civilized society. Europe accepted too many jihadists and it's changing their culture.

Eastern Europe is now becoming more prosperous than Western Europe because of this. It is not trivial. Eastern Europe refused Islamic migration and has managed to continue its capitalist prosperity. Poland is now one of the world's most creative and productive countries.

You write that Judaism perhaps more than any other religion favors capitalist activity and provides a rigorous moral framework for it. How so?

Capitalism is based on escape from materialism. It is based on the belief that human beings are created in the image of their Creator. These Judaic insights and principles help explain why Jews lead the world economy.

Is capitalism the escape from materialism? Some say capitalism is dependent on materialism.

No, it absolutely isn't. Many models imagine the economy is dominated by land, energy, resources, rare metals, or whatever claims they make. Actually, ideas are all the world has. As Thomas Sowell puts it, the Neanderthal in his cave had all the material resources that we have today The difference between our age and the Stone Age is entirely the triumph of intellect and ideas and the transcendence over our material bondage and our material entrapment.

What are Israel's biggest challenges in maintaining its economic growth?

Israel led the world in new venture capital in 2024. It grew its venture capital by 38% over 2024 while the U.S. expanded its venture capital, because of the advance of artificial intelligence and the transformative impact of AI on various industries. But even during this horrific war, Israel has expanded its economic leadership. That is why I say they are the leader of the West. They have to maintain their openness, creativity, and inventiveness. They can't retreat to the materialist superstition that wealth comes from the land. Israel demonstrates that wealth doesn't come from the land--it comes from the mind.

What would you like your readers to take away from The Israel Test, especially the younger readers, who may not be familiar with Israel's story?

They should understand that this is a world of abundance. They should be careful not to accept the materialist superstition that ends up resenting wealth by imagining wealth is something material that was stolen from them. And that's the crucial recognition.

We always face the Israel Test. We all have the propensity to envy people who excel us. We all feel that temptation. We must shun the material superstition and embrace the infinite possibilities of the human mind and creativity.

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Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher Sheikh Ikrima Sabri spoke at a conference in Istanbul on Tuesday, where he made the usual antisemitic and ahistorical statements denying any Jewish history or rights in Israel.

“The occupation is trying to prevent the call to prayer, especially at dawn and evening, under the pretext that it disturbs the settlers who came to Palestine as strangers. They tried to prevent the call to prayer several times and failed. The call to God is Great will remain until the Day of Judgment. Whoever is disturbed by the call to prayer should leave, but we are rooted in our land and we are clinging to our rights," Sabri said.

One wonders how the call to prayer ever happened before electricity.

Then again, Sabri seems to say, the Palestinian cause is much younger than electricity.

"The steadfastness of the people of Palestine is a steadfastness of faith, and if the conspiracies that befell Palestine had affected other countries, they would have become extinct, but the Palestinian cause has remained for 100 years, because Al-Aqsa is in the heart of Palestine."

100 years! Since 1925! Wow, such a long time!

If Jews praying in their holiest site disturbs Sabri, by his own logic perhaps he should leave.

But he must stay to fight the latest worldwide conspiracy to help Jews:

"All current conspiracies target Al-Aqsa, even the Deal of the Century, which the US President (elect Trump) is calling for, aims to control Al-Aqsa and hand it over to the Jews," the preacher stated.

Second Temple "Trumpeting Stone"

He then added a standard Palestinian lie: "In the excavations under and around Al-Aqsa, the (Israelis) did not find a single stone related to the (alleged) temple or ancient Hebrew history. The claim is false and has no evidence, but they use unjust force to control Al-Aqsa." (Notice that the Hamas newspaper added "alleged" in parentheses, to ensure that no one thinks that Sabri believes that there ever was a Temple.)

We learned another thing from him: “The occupation authorities are restricting the Turks coming to Al-Aqsa, especially during the Gaza war, but I say do not give up, and try again and again, because you have the determination and loyalty to Al-Aqsa.”

This sounded unusual enough to be worth researching. What apparently happened is that Turks wanted to cause problems at the Mount and Israeli police got wind of it. They asked those with Turkish passports why they wanted to enter, and if they said it was to pray they would ask them to recite prayers for them. The ones that couldn't pray, or couldn't answer that they went there to pray, appear to be the ones who were restricted, meaning they were potential troublemakers and not worshipers. (I would guess that they tried to enter at the specific times Jews are allowed to visit.)

At any rate, Palestinian antisemitism is alive, well and stronger than ever.

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Amnesty International has proven its hypocrisy when it comes to Jews yet again, this time in Italy.

Amnesty Italy planned to present its "genocide report" at the Venetian Athenaeum last week under the title, “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: The Genocide of Israel Against the Palestinian People in Gaza.”

The local Jewish community protested the title of the presentation, saying it was offensive and incited hate against Jews. It did not ask that the event be canceled.

However, the Athenaeum decided to cancel the event altogether, citing "public order."

Paolo Navarro Dina, vice president of the Jewish Community of Venice. explained, “The flyer Amnesty distributed mentioned the word ‘genocide,’ which trivializes our history. So, as the Jewish community, we asked the Venetian Athenaeum to opt for a different term, without opposing the event per se, We criticized the mention of genocide, but we had no intention of censoring or canceling the event. This was the Athenaeum’s decision, not ours, but the way it was handled suggested otherwise.”

Amnesty quickly found another venue at a university and presented the program on the original date, although the university removed the word "genocide" from its promotional materials.

Amnesty Italy's spokesperson, Riccardo Noury, says his organization is an advocate of free speech. He spoke in October about the right to protest and peaceful demonstration. But that right apparently does not extend to Jews.

“Antisemitism is a violation of human rights. It is unacceptable to accuse an organization like ours, which defends human rights, of being antisemitic,” Noury said.

Unacceptable? Whatever happened to the right of peaceful protest?

Publicly calling for a global intifada is human rights, saying one should destroy Israel "by any means necessary" is all great, but mentioning Amnesty's history of double standards towards Israel isn't? Pointing out that Amnesty's misuse of the term "genocide" in a report where the conclusion was decided before the "research" was done is unacceptable?

Noury added, “After nine months of investigation, we concluded that Israel committed three acts of genocide, as defined by the 1948 Convention. This was not a term we used lightly."

Except that Amnesty admits that it used an expansive definition of genocide just for this report, one not supported by the ICJ. That sounds like they used the term very lightly - and the expanded definition is applied only to the Jewish state.

When the Athenaeum canceled the original event, Noury said, “We deeply regret not having been able to present" their report "in the most important and ancient cultural institution in Venice." But have they ever presented any other report on any other topic in this most important institution? I cannot find a single mention of the Ateneo Veneto in the Amnesty Italy site besides this planned event. If Amnesty treats all cases of perceived human rights violations equally, why does it massively promote its anti-Israel events so much more than any other?

The Jewish community's concerns about antisemitism as a result of this incident were fully realized.

Following the controversy, the Jewish community reported receiving hate mail and threats, escalating tensions.

“We are facing hate unfairly and have received several letters. These people are not even anonymous—they write their full names – so we are still checking who they are,” Navarro Dina said.

Messages ranged from accusations of political manipulation to more serious threats.

“Some letters accused us of controlling political and economic power to silence counter-narratives, while others contained statements like, ‘You will end up in hell and be finally condemned,’” Navarro Dina revealed.

The people threatening Jews represents Amnesty's target audience. That's why it books large venues for its anti-Israel reports. Everyone knows it, and everyone denies it.

“There’s an epidemic of anger and division today, for sure, and we condemn any form of hate towards anyone. But equating our work with antisemitism undermines our pursuit of justice,” Noury said.

Those meddlesome Jews, complaining about being threatened by thugs who Amnesty fully supports. It is really unacceptable.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

This is not Los Angeles. It is Kiryat Shmona, Israel, last June.

We've all seen and been astonished at the size and ferocity of the wildfires in the Los Angeles area this month. As of January 15, the devastating California wildfires have destroyed 40,300 acres of land.

That is less than one third the amount of land destroyed by fires set by Hezbollah and Hamas rocket fire last year.

Last Thursday, Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office released a summary report on attacks on Israel during the year. Among the horrific statistics on deaths, injuries and an astonishing 18,000 separate attacks counted we see the amount of devastation from fires.

Approximately 15,400 rockets were fired from Lebanon and crossed into Israel.
Approximately 700 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip and crossed into Israel.

As a result of rocket fire and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs):

610 fires were started due to rocket fire and UAVs [nearly two a day- EoZ]

As a result of the war, approximately 92,417 acres of land were burned in areas of the Nature and Parks Authority, of which 55,104 acres were in the northern part of the country.

More than 42,749 acres of agricultural land were completely burned.
More than 370 acres of crops were burned throughout northern Israel.

That adds up to over 135,000 acres burned in Israel - more than triple the amount destroyed in California at this time.

You might think it is unfair to compare the Los Angeles metropolitan area with the entire country of Israel. You would be right, but not in the direction you may think. Because the Greater Los Angeles area is nearly 34,000 square miles - and all of Israel including the West Bank and Gaza, is only 10,600 square miles.

Yes, Israel saw triple the amount of fire devastation in one third the total area. (Yes I know it was in the course of a year and not a week, but the lack of news coverage is still unconscionable.)

Israel haters have to bizarrely equate Israeli actions with the California wildfires, like they try to hijack all news stories against Israel. Yet the real analogy is to the 135,000 acres burned by terrorists in Israel.

Zionists like to use the catchy phrase "no Jews, no news" to say that when Jews cannot be blamed for awful things worldwide, coverage is scant. But here we see that it is not precise. Because victim Jews are no news, either.

(h/t Irene)

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/15 Links Pt2: How the Left Has Come to Excuse and Embrace Political Violence; Global Anti-Semitism’s Leading Lady; Virtucrats on Parade

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Pardoning the Universities

CUNY, a public system of 25 schools with one of the worst anti-Semitism problems in the country, was ordered to remedy its sins by: investigating Jewish and Arab/Muslim complaints, telling the Education Department what CUNY found and what they’re doing about it, and training employees in nondiscrimination.

In other words, practically nothing.

Has that changed since last year? Not at all. A couple weeks ago, Rutgers University (my alma mater) followed the same path. Pro-Hamas mobs on campus threatened Jewish students and called for violence against Jews worldwide, but the school “admitted” it failed both Jewish and Palestinian students, because academia refuses to address anti-Semitism without saying “and Islamophobia.”

Rutgers, a state school with one of the largest populations of Jewish students in the country, was directed to make amends by: reviewing its policies, stating it won’t tolerate discrimination, providing training, etc. etc.

Can more be done? Mark Yudof, former president of the University of California system, told Jewish Insider that federal funding cuts should be on the table. Trump himself threatened colleges with the possibility of losing accreditation, should they ignore calls to clean up their acts.

A Trump Office of Civil Rights should also make clear that taking anti-Semitism seriously means being capable of addressing it without legitimizing the standard anti-Zionist response. The playbook is as follows: Jewish students make a civil-rights complaint and Arab/Muslim students treat that civil-rights complaint as a violation of their own civil rights. This makes a mockery of the entire concept of civil-rights protections in public institutions. It is, in fact, intended to do nothing more than torpedo the application of civil-rights law to Jews. The Hamas fanboys on campus and their supporters believe that the purpose of having a civil-rights regime is to make sure it is two-tiered.

Universities love this trick, but they are probably correct in assuming that just because Biden fell for it doesn’t mean future presidents will. Which is why they’re rushing to deliver the fatal blows to Title VI while they still can.

Noah Rothman: A Clockwork Blue: How the Left Has Come to Excuse Away and Embrace Political Violence

This intellectual environment is profoundly redolent of the one in which the violent radicals of the late 1960s and early 1970s were steeped. Terrorist groups like Weather Underground, the FALN, and the Black and Symbionese Liberation Armies—organizations that engaged in targeted assassinations and thousands of domestic bombings from the late 1960s through the late 1970s—immersed their members in revolutionary literature to help their followers think of actual people as abstractions, the better to disengage their emotions from the maiming and killing they were pursuing.

In his chronicle of the Students for a Democratic Society and its devolution into a variety of factions, Kirkpatrick Sale identified the psychological predisposition that had radicalized so many of the SDS members. “There was a primary sense, begun by no more than a reading of the morning papers and developed through the new perspectives and new analyses available to the Movement now, that the evils in America were the evils of America, inextricably a part of the total system,” he wrote. “Clearly, something drastic would be necessary to eradicate those evils and alter that system.”

This explanation is as true of today’s left as it was of the left when it was written in 1973. Just as 1960s and 1970s liberals came to echo revolutionary rhetoric that contributed to the foul atmosphere in the country rather than looking to stem the passions and cool the national temperature, so too do today’s liberals make common cause with those who believe the American system is delegitimizing itself.

If one makes a careful survey of the progressive press, there isn’t much about America in 2025 that is still worth preserving—least of all, its legal structure. In the progressive view, the courts are hopelessly corrupt, and the rot goes all the way up to the top. “The Supreme Court has now allowed Trump to carry out this agenda in a second term through literally criminal methods of repression so long as he calls them ‘official acts,’” yelped Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in 2021 after Derek Chauvin was found guilty for George Floyd’s death. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Even when the courts function in ways progressives like, as they did when George Floyd’s killer was convicted, they are still viewed as tools of a corrupt system. “America has a long history of systemic racism,” Kamala Harris said in response to the conviction of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Joe Biden similarly used the occasion not to speak of justice being served but of the injustice the original crime supposedly represented. “The systemic racism is a stain on our nation’s soul,” he concurred. “The knee on the neck of justice for black Americans.” What is this but a leftward echo of the idea expressed by Donald Trump in 2015 and 2016 that America is “rigged”? Taking measures into your own hands under such conditions is a rational response.

After all this, it surely does not come as a surprise that Americans are growing increasingly comfortable with political violence, at least in theory. A 2017 poll by UCLA’s John Villasenor found that nearly one-fifth of the students he surveyed said violence was acceptable as a form of protest against speakers with whom they disagreed. By the fall of 2022, the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale found more than 41 percent of students believed that physical violence to prevent the articulation of dangerous ideas is justified. In 2024, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression revealed that one-third of the 50,000 college students it surveyed believed violence might be an acceptable response to nonviolent behaviors—even if those polled would prefer that someone else take on the associated risks.

This outlook is migrating off America’s campuses and into the whole of society. A third of respondents in a 2021 Washington Post poll said violent action against the government could be justified, up from just 1 in 10 in the 1990s. A University of Chicago survey in 2024 found that 10 percent of respondents agreed that “violence is justified” to “prevent Trump from becoming president.” Does the percentage sound small? Fine, but it represents some 26 million Americans.

While the argument over the past 25 years in the mainstream media has been that political violence is primarily a threat from the right, the history I have laid out here suggests something very different. We’ve been lucky that no single act has set off a truly cataclysmic chain reaction, but the potential for a spiraling cascade of vengeance and reprisals is ever present. And one day soon—unless we grow sick of the sight of blood or become revolted by the thought of an America descending into actual political carnage, and unless the left is willing to take a long and hard look in the mirror—our luck will run out.

Documentary exposes campus protests and hateful vitriol for what they are

I recently attended a screening of “October H8TE,” a documentary film by director and executive producer Wendy Sachs, which was followed by a question-and-answer session. Later, I had a one-on-one conversation with executive producer Debra Messing, in addition to a student featured in the film.

Unlike some of the other films about the Hamas-led terrorist attacks and atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were massacred and 251 others kidnapped and dragged into the Gaza Strip, this documentary focuses on the wave of Jew-hatred that has spiraled upward in America since Oct. 8.

The film starts and ends in Israel, but the story is told through an American lens. “I am an American Jew,” says Sachs, the filmmaker and mother of a college student. “So, I’m telling it through my experience and what’s happening here in America.”

“This is not a film about the Republican Party or the Democratic Party,” says Sachs. “But at the same time—what is shocking to me, and, I think, to many of us—is what is happening in the progressive left of the Democratic Party—the not just refusal to call out the antisemitism but a hostility toward Israel and even the term ‘Zionism’.”

Anti-Israel bias and loathing have become rampant on many campuses. Clips of angry student protests with their calls for Israel’s destruction weave throughout the film. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, a recent Harvard-Harris poll found that 52% of Generation Z, those between the ages of 18 and 24, said they side more with Hamas than Israel.

I asked Messing, who appears in the film, what she would say to them.

“I would say you’re sympathizing with terrorists,” she told me. “Then I would ask: What kind of civilization do you want? One in which women can’t show their hair, speak in public, sing, learn? Where gay people are hung in the town square or pushed off buildings to their deaths? Where there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom of movement? If this is not what you want, then you have to stop marching with people carrying Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS flags.”

01/15 Links Pt1: Israel-Hamas Reach Second Ceasefire and Hostage Deal After 15 Months of War; Trump and Israelis may regret the hostage deal he wanted … and got

From Ian:

FDD: ‘Hamas Finally Agreed’: Israel-Hamas Reach Second Ceasefire and Hostage Deal After 15 Months of War

Latest Developments
Hostage Deal Finalized: President Joe Biden announced on January 15 that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a finalized ceasefire deal that would see the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for significantly more Palestinian prisoners. During a televised speech, Biden said that the deal was a result of U.S. and Israeli pressure on Hamas. “After more than 15 months of war, Hamas’s senior leaders are dead, thousands of Hamas fighters are dead, and their military formations have been destroyed,” Biden said. “With nowhere to turn, Hamas finally agreed to releasing hostages.” The deal is still subject to a vote by Israel’s security cabinet, expected to occur on January 16. Hamas fighters flooded the streets of Gaza in celebration ahead of the deal’s implementation, which Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said would start on January 19.

Three Stages of the Deal: The agreement includes three phases. The first would see Hamas release 33 hostages, all women, children, and men over 50. In return, Israel would release 100 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences from Israeli jails, 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners, and an additional unspecified number of prisoners that would be released abroad or in Gaza. The second phase would include the release of the remaining living hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The return of remaining hostage bodies and reconstruction plans for the Gaza Strip are expected to be negotiated as part of the third phase.

Biden and Trump Welcome Development: The agreement was based on a plan introduced by Biden in May, but incoming Trump administration Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff actively worked to push the agreement through. President-elect Donald Trump said that his administration would work with Israel to ensure that “Gaza never becomes a terrorist safe haven” again, adding that the ceasefire would help build upon the Abraham Accords deal brokered during his first term between Israel, Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates.

FDD Expert Response
“Israel has not promised to end military operations, and the incoming U.S. president strongly supports Hamas’s destruction. Bringing the hostages home is urgent for the soul of the country and must be done ahead of any future operations.” — Mark Dubowitz, CEO

“Biden is right that Israeli military operations played an important role in finally reaching this point. It is a valuable reminder regarding the role of military power in strengthening leverage in negotiations. We might have reached this point sooner if Biden had spent more time imposing consequences on Hamas for refusing to release the hostages, less time slow-rolling weapons to Israel, and less time publicly criticizing our best ally in the Middle East as it confronted our common enemies.” — Bradley Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power

“The deal is flawed. Jerusalem made major concessions to get their citizens back, and it will be divisive in Israel. Nevertheless, every Israeli will also breathe a sigh of release to see hostages come home alive, many of whom — especially the women and the children — have become familiar names and faces to millions of Israelis.” — Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network

“By agreeing to a ceasefire deal, Israel is making significant strides toward one of its primary wartime objectives: securing the release of hostages who have been held captive for more than 15 months. However, this progress comes at a considerable cost. Israel faces the difficult decision of releasing members of terrorist organizations and individuals convicted of violent acts. Furthermore, without a comprehensive strategy, Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip will regroup, perpetuating a cycle of violence that could emerge once again in the future.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal

Jonathan Tobin: Trump and Israelis may regret the hostage deal he wanted … and got

Falling short of his goal
First of all, the reported terms that Witcoff pushed on Netanyahu and Hamas, and its allies, fall far short of what Trump demanded. All of the hostages are not being released by Jan. 20.

During the first phase of the agreement, only 23 of the remaining women, children, elderly and severely ill who are alive are to be released in exchange for about 1,000 Palestinian terrorists. In addition, Israel will partially withdraw from Gaza while being obligated to facilitate the entry of more humanitarian aid into the Strip, though it is far from clear that most of it won’t again be stolen by Hamas or other Palestinian criminals rather than going to civilians. The remaining approximately 60 hostages, who may or may not be still alive, will only be released if a second-stage deal for a permanent end to the fighting can be negotiated with the bodies of others still in Hamas’s possession and will only be handed over during a theoretical third phase.

What price will Hamas try to exact for going along with a second or third phase? It will almost certainly be a demand for a return to the status quo ante of Oct. 6, 2023, when the Islamist group governed Gaza as an independent Palestinian state in all but name.

Anyone who thinks this won’t correlate to the terrorists rearming and reorganizing their military forces, which were destroyed during the war, is dreaming. And that will ensure a future in which Israelis will be expected to return to a steady diet of rocket and missile barrages from Gaza, as well as an ever-present threat of cross-border terrorist attacks. In other words, all of the sacrifices of blood and treasure Israel made to ensure that Hamas can never repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 will have been for naught.

This would not only be a tragedy for Israel. It would put Trump in a position where he will have to choose, as Biden did, between full-throated support for the inevitable Israeli counter-attacks into Gaza to once again try to eradicate Hamas and a policy of pressuring Jerusalem to simply endure the pain of terrorism as their due.

The rhetoric coming out of the Trump team, such as U.S. Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, about support for Israeli efforts to stamp out Hamas and other Iranian-funded terrorists, is encouraging. And it’s probably fair to assume that Witcoff has assured the Israelis that Trump will have their back if, as is likely, Hamas’s intransigence derails the second phase of the agreement. But if the Trump team believes in a policy that opposes handing Gaza back to Hamas (and there’s no reason to doubt it), why have Trump and Witcoff pushed for a ceasefire that will lead to just such an outcome? Wouldn’t Israel and the United States be better off avoiding doing anything to re-empower Hamas?

A Biden-like blunder?
There may indeed be a ceasefire in Gaza on Jan. 20. Still, Trump needs to understand that the price he is asking Israel to pay for freeing only some of the hostages will hand Hamas and Iran an undeserved victory. There is no denying that this is how the Palestinians and much of the world will perceive this deal. In doing so, Trump is making it more than likely that another round of vicious fighting in the Strip, during which more Israelis and Palestinians will die, will soon follow. Along with that come more decisions where the president will be forced to choose between letting Iran off the hook for its behavior and armed conflicts possibly involving U.S. forces.

This is exactly the sort of mistake that Biden made time and again, as well as the sort of strategic blunder Trump avoided in his first term.

There is much for friends of Israel and those who are deeply troubled by the surge in American antisemitism that took place during the Biden presidency to look forward to once the new administration takes over. And there is every reason to believe that Trump’s first day in office will see him signing executive orders that will begin the effort to end the reign of woke diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) racial discrimination and the “progressive” war on the West that is inextricably tied to Jew-hatred. But by starting his second term with a deal that is a gift to Hamas and Iran, he will be setting himself up for new problems because of an unforced error that Americans and Israelis may have to pay for in blood.

Richard Kemp: If Hamas accepts a ceasefire, it won’t be because of Biden

What is more, a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, if it does occur, may not turn out to be exactly what it seems to the man in the Oval Office for the next few days. In fact, it is likely to be one part of a wider strategy for the Middle East already agreed between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Trump. That plan will have several far-reaching elements but a primary objective is undoubtedly to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme, which represents an existential danger to Israel and threatens the Middle East and the world. It looks unlikely that Trump would send in US forces for this mission, but that isn’t strictly necessary. What is needed is for the US to give Israel the military assistance and diplomatic cover it requires, which Biden refused to do.

There has never before been a better time to eliminate this threat. And doing so could also lead to the demise of the ayatollahs’ regime with its regional and world-wide violent aggression. Israel has largely neutralised both Iran and Syria’s air defences, clearing the way for a major strike against Tehran’s nuclear installations. Another significant obstacle to such an operation was Hezbollah, whose vast armoury of missiles in Lebanon existed to deter and if necessary launch a counter-strike against the Israeli population in the event of an attack on Iran’s nuclear programme. Hezbollah’s offensive capability has now also been largely neutralised by Israel’s masterful decapitation of its leadership and devastating assaults against missiles and launch sites.

This is where the potential Gaza ceasefire comes into play. Israel has been working to free the remaining hostages for the last 15 months as a principal war aim. But despite its best efforts, ninety-four of them remain captive, some of whom are still alive. There is every probability that Hamas might murder the hostages in retaliation for a major attack on its sponsors in Tehran. It would therefore be desirable to get as many as possible out before that. There is another consideration also. Although Israel could launch an attack on Iran while continuing to fight in Gaza, there may be advantages in the proposed three-month cessation that could release important military assets.

It is therefore paradoxical that Biden’s pressure for a ceasefire might end up working against his rigid determination to prevent Israel attacking the Iranian nuclear programme. Such a move would have run counter to his four year long appeasement of the ayatollahs aimed at resurrecting Obama’s dangerously flawed nuclear deal which Trump did away with. Thankfully in this case, that has been yet another Biden foreign policy failure.

Daniel Greenfield: The Hamas Surrender Deal Sets Up Trump to Fail

Let’s be clear about two things
1. The Hamas Surrender Deal is the same deal the Biden administration has been pushing all along which consists of Israel giving Hamas everything it wants in exchange for the release of living or dead hostages.

The final terms haven’t yet been made public, but a leaked draft calls for exchanging live terrorists for dead hostages, an Israeli withdrawal, and Qatar being allowed to ‘reconstruct’ Gaza. Attempts to ‘sell’ the deal hinge on such details as whether Israel will be able to go back into Gaza which will be subject to interpretation. Based on past history, the interpretation that will be followed is the one that forces an end to the fighting.

2. The Hamas Surrender Deal puts the Trump administration in charge of then enacting and managing a policy crafted by the Biden administration and Qatar. The consequences when it inevitably falls apart will be on Trump.

Only so much can be known from outside, but Steve Witkoff appears to have been taken for a ride by longtime pros like Secretary of State Blinken and Brett McGurk and is enjoying the flattering media stories about him ‘intimidating’ and ‘cursing out’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Witkoff is being taken for a ride and the Trump administration is being taken for a ride with him. He didn’t succeed, he failed miserably at extracting meaningful concessions from Hamas, and went right back to Biden’s policy of pressuring Israel. Instead of delivering a win for Trump, he delivered one for Biden.

Instead of crafting its own foreign policy, the Trump administration is being stuck with Biden’s policy of pandering to Islamic terrorists.

And that’s a disaster not only for Israel. but for America.