Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 26, 2025

The missing word from all the articles about Trump's idea for Gazans to go to other Arab countries: "Voluntarily"

The media is aghast at President Trump floating an idea for Gazans to temporarily relocate to other Arab countries. Articles are filled with Palestinian fears of ethnic cleansing, of another "nakba." The broad implication is that Trump is trampling on the human rights of Palestinians by suggesting they be allowed to go elsewhere.

There is one word that the media is avoiding mentioning as much as possible: "voluntarily."

Nobody is proposing that Gazans be forced to leave Gaza if they don't want to. The idea is that they should be treated like any other people worldwide who can leave a war zone if they so desire.

As far as I see, none of the articles are mentioning this. AP notes that Egypt and Jordan already host many refugees from other conflicts, but instead of advocating that Palestinians be treated exactly the same way, it gives excuses as to why they should not.

The New York Times has to make up facts to justify the anti-Palestinian policies of other countries:

Millions of Palestinian refugees are living in camps in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and a few other countries in the Middle East. Since the start of the war, Egypt has said that it will not take in any more Palestinian refugees, and that any attempt to force Palestinians into their territory risks agreements that it has with Israel.

There is not one camp for Palestinians outside the UNRWA camps in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Egypt has no camps, and neither does Saudi Arabia or the UAE or Qatar or Libya or anywhere else descendants of Palestinian refugees from 1948 have moved to. The people living there are not refugees according to the definition in the Refugee Convention. and UNRWA uses doubletalk to paper over this fact.

The media avoids mentioning that hundreds of thousands of people desperately tried to flee Gaza for safety during the war. Tens of thousands of those with the financial means paid huge bribes to Egyptian officials to become "VIPs" who were allowed to get temporary visitor visas.

Not once does the media or NGOs mention the basic fact: Palestinians have the human right to voluntarily seek better lives elsewhere, and this right that is being denied by every Arab country. Outrageously, this right is emphasized by human rights organizations for every war zone except Gaza.

If the media would mention the voluntary nature of the plan, it would damn the Arab countries who have different policies for Palestinians than for every group of refugees from places like Syria, Iraq and Sudan.

One could even say that these different policies for Palestinians and for everyone else is in some ways the very definition of apartheid.

People who pretend to care about Palestinians love to say how many times Gazans were forced to leave areas where Hamas used them as human shields. Their cynical pretense to care about human rights never extends to allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza to seek safety and asylum elsewhere - on the contrary, they frame this refusal by Egypt and Jordan as if they are protecting Palestinian human rights.

If the news articles would include the simple word "voluntarily," everyone would see that this is a human rights issue. That is the last thing the media wants its readers to know.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

One of the prisoners scheduled for release on Saturday was Ammar Marzi Al-Huwaitat. He is a Jordanian citizen who was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years for murdering an Israeli in Judea and Samaria in 2002.

Huwaitat was supposed to be released to Jordan, but Jordan refused to take him. Apparently the Jordanians aren't keen on a murderer being released free on their soil, even if he killed a "settler."

Israel tried to find another place to release Huwaitat to, either the West bank or Gaza or even another Arab country. Huwaitat refused, saying if he cannot return to Jordan, he'd rather stay in Israeli prison than go anywhere else.

Now, Huwaitat has accused the Israeli prison authorities of beating him mercilessly. In 2023, a month after October 7, he claimed that 15 guards beat him, broke his ribs and forced him to be hospitalized.

Now he is saying he prefers to stay in captivity in an Israeli prison that he claims mistreats him rather than go to the West Bank or Gaza or anywhere else.

Most people serving a life sentence and given an opportunity for freedom, even if it had to be in another country, would eagerly accept such a deal. If they were being constantly mistreated in prison, all the more so.

But Huwaitat prefers to stay in Israeli prison for the rest of his life than go anywhere that might take him.

Either he is a masochist, or his life in prison is a far cry from the lurid descriptions that Palestinians tell credulous Westerners about rape and torture.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/25 Links: Freeing hostages should be a standalone imperative; Hamas parades 'victory' in hostage deal: The message behind the spectacle; Israel: UNRWA has five days to leave Jerusalem

From Ian:

Irwin Cotler: Freeing hostages should be a standalone imperative

The singling out of Israel for selective opprobrium and indictment, coupled with indulgence of Hamas demands, only prolonged the painful process, and the pernicious paradigm that underpinned it. In not condemning Hamas’ outrageous demands, the international community delayed a ceasefire and thereby contributed to the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike.

The Canadian government was missing in action, thereby prejudicing this process and the cause of the hostages. As a major G7 country and founding nation of the rules-based international order and its multilateral institutions like the UN, Canada’s foreign policy positions matter in influencing other countries and shaping the global narrative.

The government could have more clearly called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages,” without referencing any other considerations in the same statement. While negotiations are the means through which this would be achieved, the rhetoric surrounding it matters, and “unconditional and immediate” underscores the illegality of hostage-taking and reinforces international norms against it, while increasing pressure on Hamas. Many others, such as the U.K. government, have effectively done so.

Far too often, the Canadian government linked the recovery of hostages to other considerations or conditions including a ceasefire, two-state solution (which we otherwise support), and the broader situation in the Middle East, thereby encouraging other countries to do the same and emboldening Hamas intransigence.

In echoing false accusations against Israel like the Al-Shifa hospital bombing — where the evidence revealed that the bombing was by Palestinian Islamic Jihad — and becoming the first G7 country to ban sales of defence materials to Israel, Canada further marginalized Israel amidst hostage negotiations, strengthened Hamas, and was marginal amongst major allies. Even Hamas issued a statement thanking the Canadian government for its positions.

As counsel to families of hostages and victims of October 7, we have been supporting the ongoing investigations by U.S. law enforcement, which led to the issuance of indictments against Hamas perpetrators. While Canada had initiated criminal investigations for Russian crimes against Ukrainians, ISIS crimes against Yazidis and others, and Canadian victims of terrorism and kidnapping abroad, the government has opted not to pursue justice and accountability for the Jewish Canadian victims of Hamas.

This did not only hurt Israelis and Palestinians, but also Canadians, who are at increasing risk of being abducted abroad. As hostage-takings rise around the world, Canada’s words and deeds inadvertently normalized the largest international hostage-taking in history, thereby undermining the international norms against it and putting all Canadians abroad at risk.

As the hostage recovery and ceasefire agreement is implemented, all Canadian public officials and parliamentarians can support its success by continuing to emphasize the standalone nature of the hostage crisis, and the need for the return of all the hostages, including human remains being illegally held captive. Particular reference should continue to be made to Toronto-native Judi Weinstein, who deserves a dignified burial and her Canadian family the closure of a funeral and gravesite. As well, specific support should be extended to hostages with close Canadian connections, such as Omer Neutra, Agam Berger, and Hadar Goldin.

The current hostage crisis and concomitant rise of other global hostage-takings — and Canada’s insufficient leadership therein — demonstrates the need for a new approach.

When Parliament resumes in March, it should adopt Bill C-353, the Foreign Hostage Takers Accountability Act, which makes important improvements to the legislative framework to combat hostage-taking.

Canada should also establish a standalone office for freeing hostages with a dedicated staff and an integrated whole-of-government approach, headed by a Special Envoy or Ambassador. This would be in line with our major allies, where the U.S. already has a Special Envoy — the cornerstone of a bipartisan foreign policy priority — and the U.K. is in the process of establishing one, after having already appointed an ambassador and team specifically for the October 7 hostages.

Grounded in the Canada-led Declaration on Arbitrary Detention in State to State Relations endorsed by 79 states — and wherein hostage-taking by terrorist state proxy would logically be within its mandate — Canada should convene a global task force of states against hostage-taking with concrete collective actions against hostage-takers and their state backers.

The return of hostages must continue to be urgently pursued as a humanitarian imperative until all are free. It is a legal obligation of the first order, as every day hostages remain in captivity is an ongoing Crime Against Humanity. Canada can now help free the captives in Gaza while combating the global scourge of hostage-taking by exercising global leadership.

Seth Frantzman: Hamas parades 'victory' in hostage deal: The message behind the spectacle

HAMAS MADE it clear that this exchange on Saturday is a military affair. It kidnapped the women from Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023. The women were sheltering in an area that was supposed to be safe. They were part of an IDF unit of women lookout observers who were unarmed and had been stationed on the border.

Hamas kidnapped the women from Nahal Oz base on October 7. The women were sheltering in an area that was supposed to be safe. They were part of an IDF unit of women observers who were unarmed and had been stationed on the border.

Many members of the unit, which is mostly women, were massacred. They had no real protection at the Nahal Oz base. The base was not designed to be able to withstand a mass assault of the type that Hamas conducted. In addition, it took many hours before the surviving women IDF soldiers were actually kidnapped on October 7.

The realities of October 7
In addition, it took many hours before the surviving women IDF soldiers were actually kidnapped on October 7. The kidnapping was caught on video taken by Hamas members that was later recovered. It shows five of the women being kidnapped. However, two other members of the unit were also kidnapped alive.

Ori Megedish was rescued from Gaza in the first days of the ground offensive in late October. Noa Marciano was kidnapped alive but she was later killed near Shifa hospital.

Agam Berger, who was kidnapped alongside Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag, is still held in Gaza.

The images of these five women, who were 18 and 19 years old when they were abducted from Nahal Oz on October 7, have been common sights across Israel. The image of Naama Levy being pulled by her hair out of an IDF jeep that the Hamas members stole on October 7 has become one of the most jarring images of the war as well.

The kidnapping was caught on video taken by Hamas members that was later recovered. It shows five of the women being kidnapped. However, two other members of the unit were also kidnapped alive. Ori Megidish was rescued from Gaza in the first days of the ground offensive in late October. Noa Marciano was kidnapped alive, but she was later killed near Shifa Hospital. Agam Berger, who was kidnapped alongside Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag, is still being held in Gaza.

These images have been seen worldwide. Hamas knows this, and it staged the spectacle in Gaza on Saturday to exploit these images as much as possible. Hamas also wanted to show that it can deliver the women soldiers back to Israel in a ceremony in which the women appear healthy.

This is all part of Hamas propaganda designed to showcase the terror group as if it were a normal organization. In contrast to the images from October 7, of the women being roughly pushed and made to walk over gravel in bare feet, some of their faces and clothes bloodied, the terrorist group is trying to show that all is well in Gaza. This is Hamas’s “total victory” moment.

2023: The Woman in the Hamas Video Is My Daughter

You have seen the video of my daughter Naama Levy. Everyone has. You have seen her dragged by her long brown hair from the back of a Jeep at gunpoint, somewhere in Gaza, her gray sweatpants covered in blood. You may have perhaps noticed that her ankles are cut, that she’s barefoot and limping. She is seriously injured. She is frightened. And I, her mother, am helpless in these moments of horror.

On October 7, Naama had been sleeping at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and was awakened by the chaotic sound of a missile barrage. At 7 a.m., she sent me a WhatsApp message: “We’re in the safe room. I’ve never heard anything like this.” That was the last I heard from her.

The next day, I saw the video, but the woman in the footage was so bloodied and disheveled it was hard to tell if it really was her. Naama’s father called and confirmed the terrible news.

Before that day, every video our family had taken of Naama was joyful—dancing with friends, laughing with her three siblings, and simply enjoying life. Naama is only 19, but she’ll always be my baby girl. A girl who truly believes in the good of all people. She enjoys athletics and dreams of a career in diplomacy, and her greatest passion is helping those in need. As a girl, she was a member of the “Hands of Peace” delegation, which brings together American, Israeli, and Palestinian youths to promote global social change.

But now, one video, totally unrepresentative of the life she had led until October 7, is how the world knows her.

It has been deeply disturbing to see the United Nations and feminist organizations refuse to acknowledge that Hamas raped and committed appalling sexual crimes against women, simply because the victims are Jewish. It took two months for some to finally admit the scale and the brutality of the horror. Meanwhile, Israeli experts are gathering the evidence. Shari, a volunteer worker at the Shura military morgue, told The Washington Post about what she documented: “We saw many women with bloody underwear, with broken bones, broken legs, broken pelvises.”

The same monsters who committed those crimes are holding my daughter hostage.

There are seventeen young women still in captivity. They range in age from 18 to 26. I think of what they, and my Naama, could be subjected to at every moment of the day. Each minute is an eternity in hell.

On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that one of the reasons Hamas doesn’t want to release the young female hostages “is they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”

Everyone knows exactly what he means.

What would you do if your daughter were being held hostage by violent rapists and murderers for two months? Perhaps the better question is: What wouldn’t you do?

01/24 Links Pt2: Enough promises: Unleash the law in the fight against antisemitism; Israeli Victory Protects American Jews; Just how useful are the ‘useful idiots’?

From Ian:

Arsen Ostrovsky: Enough promises: Unleash the law in the fight against antisemitism

What should be done
A much more aggressive legal approach also needs to be added.

In Canada, lawsuits targeted Toronto Metropolitan University and unions, while court injunctions were sought and obtained to protect synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish community centers. In Australia, legal proceedings have also been initiated against the University ofSydney, under racial vilification laws, paving the way for the first broad class action lawsuit tackling post-October 7 campus antisemitism, with new laws also introduced against doxing, the display of neo-Nazi material and ensuring that glorifying and praising acts of terrorism are criminal offenses under Commonwealth law.

However, laws and task forces are only as good if they are backed by political willpower andenforced by the police and judicial authorities.

The police and security agencies cannot continue to allow the perpetrators of antisemitic attacks or those expressing support for proscribed terror groups to continue evading justice. Doing so will only encourage more attacks, as the perpetrators know they can act withimpunity.

Legislation should also be considered mandating graver levels of punishment, including mandatory prison sentences for some of the most violent forms of antisemitic attacks and hate crimes, such as fire-bombings of Synagogues or Jewish schools.

There must also be a recognition that chanting phrases like “Globalize the Intifada” or “Free Palestine” are not calls for peace, and do not depend on ‘intent’ or ‘context’, but are a clear and unmistakable incitement to violence, directly targeting Jews. This should be codified into law.

Moreover, we should consider whether non-citizens who commit acts of antisemitism and terror should be deported. There can be zero tolerance or place for such hatred in our democratic societies.

Political leaders must also understand that when they effectively throw Israel under the bus in the international legal arena, such as the United Nations and the international courts in The Hague, for their own domestic expedience, this leads to a more pervasive discourse on Israel and a direct correlation in the surge of antisemitism, as does repeatedly singling out the Stateof Israel for opprobrium, lecturing and differential treatment at home. This only emboldens perpetrators of antisemitism with a warped sense of justification to carry out their attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions.

The sad truth is that once great democracies, Australia and Canada, have failed to protect their Jewish communities.

Unremitting campaign of terror
Today, whereas the world’s only Jewish state has been forced to defend itself from Hamas and existential wars being waged by Iran and their terror proxies, another unremitting campaign of terror has been unleashed upon the Jewish communities of Canada and Australia.

Many Jews are increasingly asking if they are still welcome in the countries they have called home for generations, or if they have been abandoned by the political leadership and society at large.

Britain’s former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, once noted that a society that has no space for Jews has no space for humanity. As we look ahead to 2025, and on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp, both Australia and Canada must therefore ask if they still have space for Jews and what kind of societies they wish to have.

Israeli Victory Protects American Jews By Abe Greenwald

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A friend once remarked to me that liberals love Jews so long as those Jews don’t have power. There’s a lot to this. The liberal worldview romanticizes the cute Jew, the funny Jew, and even the brilliant Jew. The strong Jew, however, the armed Jew ready to fight, is treated as an unsettling deviation from type. Take this to its logical end and you arrive at the writer Dara Horn’s formulation: “People Love Dead Jews.”

If this is true, and I believe it is, then how do we explain that the recent rise in global anti-Semitism, including in the United States, began not when Israel showed its strength and invaded Gaza but the instant it broadcast vulnerability on October 7, 2023? Recall that it was on October 8, one day after the Hamas attack, that protesters took to Times Square and elsewhere to chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” And on social media, the Jew-haters didn’t even wait that long to speak up. Anti-Semitic posts came spewing forth at the first word of Hamas’s massacre.

Here was the weak, or weakened, Jewish state having suffered the worst day in its history—and its very weakness was summoning a deluge of worldwide anti-Semitism that seemed unimaginable days earlier. Israel was mourning 1,200 dead Jews. So where was the love?

Getting at the answer requires that we differentiate between liberalism and leftism. Liberals are discomfited by Jewish strength; leftists are deterred by it. For the left, Jewish weakness signals an opportunity to attack. And attack they did. Leftist organizations, in coordination with Islamists, swung into action to advance Jew-hatred on city streets and university campuses while the Jews were wounded and traumatized.

As with all radical protest movements, some liberals followed the leftists into the fire, imagining that they were somehow still on the side of the angels. Others, particular Jewish liberals, were forced to reevaluate the aims of their revolutionary compadres.

Just how useful are the ‘useful idiots’?

The idea that Jews of any social class in Israel would abandon their own state to become a minority in an Arab-dominated, Soviet-controlled republic was always outlandish. But for the Israeli Communists—and even the handful of Israelis further to the left, such as the Matzpen group that actively identified with Palestinian terrorist groups—the abiding belief was that Jews would be a welcome presence in the socialist Palestinian state that would replace Israel.

It is on this last point that the current crop of Jewish anti-Zionists has shifted. However ridiculous all the old slogans about a “joint struggle” with the Arabs against Zionism were, and however shameful the political alliances these beliefs nurtured, all this was preferable to what we have now. This generation of anti-Zionists fervently believes that Jews have no rightful place in the Middle East at all, regardless of who governs them.

In the last 20 years, social media has dramatically amplified the voices of the miniscule number of Jews who hold this position. Some readers might remember Israel Shamir, a Russian-Israeli writer who converted to Christianity and whom many were convinced was an agent of the Russian secret services, and Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli jazz musician who relocated to London, both of whom delighted in baiting other Jews with antisemitic tropes and who spoke and wrote about Israel in demonic terms, particularly during the wars in Gaza in 2008-09 and 2014. A decade on, Shamir and Atzmon have become pretty much invisible, but their inheritors are out there.

The best, and therefore the worst, current example of what I’m talking about is an individual I’d never heard of before the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. His name is Alon Mizrahi, and from what I can tell from his social-media presence, he is a former Israeli who quite literally sees his homeland as the root of all the evil in the world. In a sane environment, someone like this would have only a handful of followers, but Mizrahi has close to 100,000. His imbecilic posts are lauded by Hamas supporters and attract the ire of Jews. Even the identity he adopts—an “Arab Jew” because his family are Mizrahim—is scorned by other Jews of Mizrahi and Sephardi origin, me among them.

What distinguishes Mizrahi is the unvarnished pathology he displays. Whereas Meir Wilner was guilty of holding the ludicrous belief that the promise of the Soviet Union could sway the Jews away from Zionism, Mizrahi is guilty of spitting uncontrolled bile in their direction. In one post, he said the claim that the Nazis were driven by antisemitism is rooted in Jewish “narcissism.” In another post after last week’s release of three female Israeli hostages, he viciously mocked concerns about sexual abuse in captivity, in turn, sparked by the ordeals of the Israeli women raped and violated on Oct. 7. “Deep sense of disappointment in Israel: None of the returning hostages is pregnant,” he wrote.

The question persists: How useful is this latest iteration of “useful idiocy”? Not that useful. Unlike the PLO, Hamas doesn’t care whether it has Jewish cheerleaders since its goal is to eradicate Jews from the face of the earth. The millions across the globe who have attended pro-Hamas demonstrations similarly don’t care whether they are joined by dissenting Jews because theirs is the Palestinian cause, and Jews are simply in the way. There’s no need, anymore, for people on the left to protest that some of their best friends are Jews because in these circles, Jews are not a historically persecuted minority but the most affluent white community out there. Therefore, the function of someone like Alon Mizrahi is to entertain Hamas supporters when he trolls Jews and Jewish concerns, but nothing more than that. He may think of himself in heroic terms, but he is actually one of the clowns in the circus of the left.

If history is any guide, there will be other Jews and Israelis tempted to follow in the footsteps of Mizrahi and his forebears. At one time, I might have said that solid, informed political argument was the best way to win them over. But now, I would advise those friends and family members who love them to get them in front of a therapist. Because what today’s Jewish anti-Zionism shows us is it is no longer political. It is a mental disorder that traffics in antisemitic hate to win the respect and admiration of non-Jews. Don’t be that guy.

01/24 Links Pt1: Hamas names four hostages to be released on Saturday; Gaza Hospital Leaders Are Also High-Ranking Hamas Members

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israel must win this war

To win the peace of the Middle East, Trump must walk away from Biden’s failed policy of standing with Iran and its terror proxies Lebanon and the Palestinians in Gaza. He must restore his first term’s doctrine of supporting America’s allies against America’s enemies.

If Trump backs Israel in returning to the battlefield to secure Hamas’s defeat in Gaza, and maintaining its buffer zones in Gaza permanently to prevent the area from threatening the Jewish state in the future, then he will build the foundation for a long-term peace between Israel and the Arabs of the region.

If President Trump stands with Israel and backs its requirement for a security zone inside Lebanon that will prevent Hezbollah and other terror forces from invading northern Israel, and if he stands with Israel in its efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations and supports the Iranian people that have fought for their freedom from the regime for decades, then he will restore America’s standing as the only significant superpower in the region.

If he fails to do these things, then he will cede the U.S.’s position to China. China has been a beneficiary of Biden’s weakness and determination to realign the U.S. away from its allies and toward Iran and its terror armies.

As for Israel, the dilemma is whether to sacrifice its future collective security for the salvation of the hostages today, or to secure its national survival. Israelis who support the first option speak of the damage to Israel’s soul if we accept that the hostages may continue to suffer.

For those who receive their news from most Israeli media outlets, the dilemma isn’t too large. With a few notable exceptions, the Israeli media have been serving the public a diet of demoralization for nearly a year. Israel cannot win, they are told. There is no purpose to the fight. All it does is prolong the suffering of the hostages. The only reason we are still fighting is that the man they have spent the past decade demonizing—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—refuses to quit. He refuses to capitulate despite the futility of the fight, because fighting is the only way he stays in power.

The media—like the Biden administration— prefer to ignore the strategic ramifications of Oct. 7, which they prefer to present as a one-off. The Palestinians aren’t really the people who beheaded their victims, and who mutilated their bodies as they butchered them. That was a mistake, or something. And anyway, fighting is futile. Bring them home.

This week, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren wrote an article resonating this view. Oren admitted that the deal means that Hamas wins the war. But then he counters that Israel will save its soul by showing its devotion to the lives of its hostages by losing. “Our victory is moral, deep and long lasting,” he crooned.

The problem with Oren’s argument and the broader claim of the deal-at-any-price advocates is that the war is not futile. Our heroic soldiers are winning and can win. And they must win. Oct. 7 will only be a one-off if Hamas is annihilated and Gaza remains pacified forever. They are willing to pay a steep price to secure the freedom of 33 hostages, but the fight cannot be forsaken.

Hostage taking is the cruelest form of psychological warfare. And it is the most powerful weapon that Israel’s enemies have in their arsenal. They know that while they sanctify death, the sanctification of life is the foundational creed of the Jewish people.

Those who seek a deal at all costs are right about the soul of Israel. Our collective soul was bludgeoned on Oct. 7, and the wound remains unhealed every day the hostages remain in Gaza. As the years pass, the wound will become a scar that every Israeli and every Jew on earth will carry till the end of time. But our ability to carry those scars requires Israel to survive.

Oct. 7 showed us our enemy. And now that we have seen it, we cannot ignore the truth. For the nation of Israel and the State of Israel to survive, Israel must win this war no matter what the cost.

For Peace in the Middle East, Trump Must Move the US Al-Udeid Air Base from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates

"This is Qatar's classic game: support the Islamist terrorists and then present itself as a mediator, liaison, and even peacemaker – the arsonist playing firefighter. As in Afghanistan, as in Egypt in 2010, and as in every Muslim country. In every Muslim country where there is a battle between the Islamists and the secularists, Qatar supports the Islamists, as in Gaza supporting Hamas for years, building its military might and enabling October 7." — Colonel Yigal Carmon (ret), MEMRI, January 21, 2025.

[Syria's de facto leader Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa], who claims to have broken completely with Al Qaeda, apparently did so only because of strategic disagreements, not because he suddenly abandoned its plan to create an Islamic state in Syria.

Hurrying to the next scandal, the Biden administration practically threw itself at Sharaa's feet. It rushed to meet with the terrorist leader, then immediately removed the $10 million bounty for his arrest, without even waiting to see what he would do.

The US cannot continue to reward terrorism. President Donald J. Trump would do well to declare as a Foreign Terrorist Organization the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the font of all Sunni Islamist terrorism and is effectively promoted worldwide by Qatar's television bullhorn, Al-Jazeera. Trump would also be well-advised to move American forces completely out of Qatar's enormous Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of the US Central Command, transfer them to the United Arab Emirates, and effectively cut ties with Qatar, a country "pretending to be an ally."

"Biden failed miserably. Trump should not recycle Biden's approach, and should recognize that Qatar and Erdogan are enemies despite their incredible skill in presenting themselves as friends, and as firefighters when they are actually arsonists. Trump would achieve the release of all the hostages if he were only to hint that it is conceivable that the CENTCOM base could be relocated out of Qatar. In fact, he owes this to the Saudis and the Emiratis, who are his true allies. If Trump clings to Qatar and Erdogan against these allies, he should not then wonder why his true allies, the Saudis and the Emiratis, are drifting towards America's adversaries, China and Russia" — Yigal Carmon, MEMRI, January 9, 2025.

Kassy Akiva: These Gaza Hospital Leaders Are Also High-Ranking Hamas Members

Several leaders of Gaza hospitals are high-ranking members of Hamas, while many others have terrorist ties, a Daily Wire review of Arab media reports and social media posts found.

The Daily Wire previously exposed that Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, whose recent detainment caused international uproar for his release, was characterized in Arab media as a Hamas colonel. His social media posts show his support for Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israeli civilians.

But Abu Safiya is not the only Gaza hospital leader with ties to Hamas. He is joined by current and former leaders of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and Gaza European Hospital near Khan Yunis.

Dr. Saleh al-Hams, Nursing Director of Gaza European Hospital
Dr. Saleh al-Hams, the nursing director of the Gaza European Hospital, has made several public posts on Facebook that indicate his strong ties to Hamas. In 2017, al-Hams uploaded a photo of himself wearing a military camouflage jacket and a hat adorned with the logo of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. He donned the same outfit in a photo at a 2018 event with others wearing Hamas logos.

In a 2020 post, al-Hams shared images of Hamas members and a child holding a rifle, with a caption reading: “Our resistance is more than paying the price for the victory of the undermined and whoever stands with us in truth, we do not support him in unjustness and whoever doesn’t like it should prepare the preparation list for the next confrontation to be the alternative.”

Al-Hams celebrated Hamas’s October 7, 2024 attack on Israel the following day, calling it a “gift.”

“I did not imagine that I would enter the threshold of fifty years, that I would live to fill my eyes with moments of pride and dignity as I live them today, and to receive a gift as I received them yesterday and today,” he wrote.

In another post, Hams shared a video of victims of the California wildfires receiving medical treatment, where he states Gaza hospitals were bombarded by Americans’ missiles, adding “you tasted from the same cup, and the response was divine.” In a second post about the victims of the wildfires, he wrote, “I hope you’re having a reflective moment to review your attitudes.”

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, Head of Al Shifa Hospital
Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the head of Al Shifa Hospital — who was awarded the Arab Doctor of the Year Award in 2024 — has participated in Hamas events, including an event celebrating the terror group’s 32nd anniversary. According to a 2019 article from Pal Times, Salmiya spoke at the event alongside Hamas officials, where he thanked Hamas and spoke about martyrs.

“During the speech of the martyrs’ families, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya thanked the Hamas movement and the family of the Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Mosque for this wonderful gesture, through which Hamas and the family of the mosque confirmed that they are loyal to the blood of the martyrs, the sons of the neighborhood from all factions,” the article read.

Salmiya, a pediatrician, was arrested in November 2023 and remained in Israeli detention for seven months on suspicion of allowing his hospital to serve as a Hamas command and control center that also held hostages. Tunnel networks were found under Shifa Hospital, and hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen were killed in fights with the IDF at the complex. The body of 19-year-old Israeli hostage Noa Marciano was found in a building next to the hospital. In May, her parents claimed a doctor at the hospital killed Marciano, Jewish News Syndicate reported.

Salmiya — who claims he was tortured in prison — sparked significant controversy in Israel, which followed a directive from the National Security Council directing Israeli security agency Shin Beit to create a list of prisoners to be freed due to lack of space in jails. The Shin Bet reportedly reprimanded the senior official who approved Salmiya’s release.

In 2014, Salmiya uploaded a photo to Facebook of himself with a Qassam Brigades logo at the bottom. In 2013, he posted a photo of a man in a Hamas headband, with the caption: “My enemy is coming to you, coming from every house, alley and street. Our hope is for tomorrow, God willing.” In 2014, he shared a graphic of the Al Qassam Brigades logo on an airplane. The next day, he shared an image with fighters of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad with the caption, “Brothers in blood, brothers in arms, this is the true unity.”

Salmiya has also used his Facebook page to praise a November 2022 terror attack at a Jerusalem bus stop where a 15-year-old boy was killed and 14 others were injured. Salmiya has also publicly mourned terrorists including Udai Tamimi, who killed an Israeli soldier when opening fire at the entrance of Ma’ale Adumim.

According to investigator David Collier, Salmiya’s brother, Khalid Abu Salmia, was a leader of the al-Qassam Brigades before he was killed in a targeted strike in 2004.

The real root cause is, and always has been, Jew-hatred. @Amnesty doesn't combat it - it encourages it.

Amnesty USA tweeted a short slideshow in the wake of the ceasefire in Gaza. Here is one particularly disgusting slide:

The three examples they give are for Amnesty reports accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide.

To Amnesty, Jews are the ones really responsible for Hamas attacking on October 7.

Every time a group like Amnesty speaks about root causes, it is to justify Palestinian and Arab attacks on Jews. They never say that the "root cause" of Israeli defensive actions is a Palestinian action. Their interest in history always only goes back to some Jewish "root cause" and not a second beforehand.

On November 8, 1913, the Filastin newspaper published a poem by Sheikh Sulayman al-Taji Faruqi called "The Zionist Menace" which was both antisemitic and anti-Ottoman. The poem caused the Ottoman authorities to shut down the paper for a time.

Here, possibly for the first time in English, is a translation of the poem. The first half is addressed to Jews, and the rest to the head of the Ottoman Empire.

Sons of gold, time has exposed your deception,
For we are not ones to abandon our homelands through deceit.
You have unleashed your arrogance, but within us remains
A spirit that declares: we shall act and respond.

The most insignificant of nations, without a true identity,
Now dares to bargain with us over our land—how could we allow this?
The Jews—oh, how well we know the ways of the Jews,
For they are a people united in misguidance.

Our laws—what has struck you that you do not heed them?
Do you not see that aiding the motherland requires uprooting you?
Our judgments are clear: leave this world and take refuge elsewhere.
But after this day, patience has no place.

You have obeyed the enemies in their schemes against us—
But will all of you now yield and retreat?
This is the terrible danger of those who oppose us.
Have you not seen how the eye of the homeland is torn apart,
Except to send a message to the rulers:
That the heart of the courageous shall falter and be severed?

If they do not give leadership its due right,
Then its enemies shall rise and settle in their place.
And you, O Commander of the Faithful, show kindness
To us, for we are the shield of the Caliphate.

And lands that God has blessed around them,
And a people who are the pride of all religions,
Are weakened by the frailty you embody—
Unless they fall in ruin and are utterly destroyed.

Does it please you, O successful one, that our lands
Are sold and snatched away while witnesses remain?

It is filled with antisemitic imagery, of rich Jews who aren't a real people anyway and who are hated by Muslims for centuries. It calls for ethnically cleansing Jews from the region.

This is before "apartheid," before "occupation," before the "nakba," before Balfour. Anyone who looks at root causes must conclude that the root cause is Arab antisemitism.

You might argue that this was a single poem in a single newspaper and not representative of Arab feelings towards Jews.

So let us look at the 1921 Jaffa riots. The British Haycraft Commission wrote a report on the 1921 riots where Arabs killed dozens of Jews in Jaffa and elsewhere, which was sparked by a May Day demonstration by a small number of Jewish communists.

Ironically, the communists supported Arab workers as much as Jews; their chants during the demonstration included "Long live the international solidarity of the Jewish and Arab proletariat!"

The commission did not blame the riots on the demonstration. They said they fully expect the Arabs to attack Jews in a situation like that. Here, however, the Arabs turned it into a "race conflict" - meaning, attacking Jews as Jews. It wasn't self-defense and it wasn't a reaction, it wasn't aimed at only the demonstrators. It was the deliberate attacking of Jews, including murdering children and raping women, sadistically splitting open Jewish skulls. One of their first targets was the "Immigration House" where a hundred Jewish men, women and children lived. Arab policemen also joined in the attacks on Jews, shooting at and killing Jews in the building. his was followed by "an orgy of pillage" of Jewish homes and shops.

In many ways, it was a miniature October 7.

The commission noted that the violence towards Jews was not at all proportionate to this supposed excuse of an illegal gathering. It was a "race conflict" - meaning, attacks on Jews because they are Jews. Unlike Amnesty, they didn't automatically blame the Jews for every violent act by the Arabs.

Amnesty keeps blaming Jews as the "root cause" for Arab outrages, but when you go back through the "cycle of violence," the first attackers are always Arabs towards Jews. The Amnesty slide shown above proves that it is Amnesty's own antisemitism that pours gasoline on the fires of Arab Jew-hatred.

Another point worth mentioning is that the Arabs in 1921 were often motivated to kill by unfounded rumors of Jews attacking Arabs and doing heinous crimes. This is what prompted them to attack Hadera and Petah Tikva in the days after the May 1 attacks. The British investigators found that the rumors were baseless. Compare that to today where researchers from NGOs and the media are likely to believe anything Hamas says and not believe the Jews; they themselves are fueling the terrorism by spreading the false rumors and Hamas statements as truth. Blatant lies get laundered through UN agencies and become presumed truth and justifications for murder.

Despite the fact that Amnesty claims to be against antisemitism, and despite the tsunami of antisemitic incitement published today in Arabic media that would make Sheikh Faruqi, blush, Amnesty has not written a word about Arab Jew-hatred which is the real root cause of the conflict and of Arab violence. Amnesty's own contempt of Jews poisons its own analyses.

The 1921 riots and 1913 poetic incitement came decades before "apartheid" and "genocide" and "occupation" and "nakba." How can anyone not infected with antisemitism blame Jews as the "root cause" of the violence?

Amnesty is a sick joke. it doesn't want to talk about root causes. it wants to ensure that every dead or kidnapped or raped Jew is blamed on Jews themselves.

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Here is a video published yesterday by the Hamas-linked Gaza Now Telegram account, showing Hamas terrorists publicly executing several Palestinians in the street in front of a crowd. (Warning: graphic violence.)

Hamas is bragging that it murdered 11 Gaza citizens yesterday.

Outside of some Israeli media, no news site or "human rights" NGO has said a word.

Palestinian human rights activist Howidy Hamza tweeted Thursday, "As expected, Hamas began executing Gazans the moment the ceasefire deal was reached, accusing them of 'working with the occupation.' Just today, they executed 10 Gazans, and they promised to do more in the coming days. This isn’t a novel tactic; it’s an age-old strategy employed by Hamas to silence critics and instill fear among citizens who oppose their rule. I would greatly welcome a position from the pro-Palestinian movement advocating for pressure on Hamas to end its ongoing oppression of the people in Gaza."

Do you think this wasn't also happening during the fighting? After seeing this video, can one doubt that Hamas would use the war as an excuse to kill its critics and then blame Israel?

Beyond that, isn't it likely that Hamas would sometimes kill innocent women and children just for the PR value of blaming their deaths on Israel?

The people who spent so much time and money pretending to defend Palestinian lives have been struck dumb in the face of incontrovertible evidence of Hamas murdering people in Gaza. Palestinian lives really don't matter to these hypocrites if Jews cannot be blamed.

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From Turkey's TRTWorld:

More than 38,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023, a Health Ministry official has said.

“At least 13,901 women were also widowed by the war,” Zaher al-Wahidi said on Thursday.

The Palestinian official explained that some 32,151 children lost their fathers, 4,417 lost their mothers, and 1,918 lost both parents.

It is unclear whether the count of losing both parents is included in the counts of losing mothers and losing fathers. If it is, then assuming that all fathers are of fighting age (roughly ages 18-50,) the ratio of dead men to women of those ages is 7:1; if it is not the ratio is 5:1.

Either way, this is much different than the health ministry has been saying.

The latest breakdown of health ministry numbers shows 14.724 men and 12,298 women killed, a ratio of 1.1:1. This doesn't include children, and it seems not to include the elderly, so it is probably for ages 18-64.

There is no way that there is near parity between men and women between 18-64 while there is at least a 5:1 ratio of men to women of parenthood ages 18-50.

Hamas is not very good about keeping consistency between its many statistics of fatalities in Gaza. But they are quite right in assuming that the media will never report on their inconsistencies.

(h/t David L)

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01/23 Links Pt2: EU Funds NGO Promoting Antisemitic Imagery; Groups with ‘direct’ terror ties planned anti-Israel protests at Columbia; Nova massacre survivor to represent Israel in 2025 Eurovision

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: EU Funds NGO Promoting Antisemitic Imagery and Theology

According to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) database, in December 2024-October 2028, the European Commission will provide Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center with €1 million for a project entitled “Faithful Futures: Religious Leaders for Accountability, Justice and Peace through the Two-State Solution.” As described in the database, the project, apparently funded through the EU Peacebuilding Initiative instrument (approved under the previous Commission), “seeks to preserve from further erosion and possibly reverse the negative public perception of the prospect for peace and a two-state solution.”

Yet, in blatant contrast to the project’s goal and EU policy, Sabeel states that its “ideal and best solution” is “a bi-national state in Palestine-Israel,” “one state for two nations and three religions” (emphasis added). Sabeel, through its “liberation theology” agenda (see section below), demonizes the existence of Israel and promotes antisemitic tropes. As such, Sabeel should be disqualified as a recipient of and a partner in any government-funded peace or development project.

Sabeel
Sabeel is a Jerusalem-based NGO, presenting itself as an “ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians” that “encourages Christians from around the world to work for justice and to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

Applying “liberation theology,” Sabeel casts Palestinians as the modern-day version of Jesus, blaming the State of Israel and Zionism for their “suffering”. The NGO regularly publishes imagery that violates provisions of the IHRA Working definition of antisemitism, endorsed and used by the European Union, thus also violating EU funding guidelines.1 In particular, Sabeel’s rhetoric conforms to the Working Definition’s examples of contemporary antisemitism is public life, such as:
Using the “symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.”
“denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor”
“holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

For example:
In April 2024, Sabeel referred to the “Gaza crucifixion.”
In April 2024, Sabeel published a prayer: “Crucified Messiah, we behold how you were tortured, mocked, beaten, stripped, and killed on the cross. Your cry ‘My God my God why I have you forsaken me’ (Matthew 27:46) is an exclamation we are saying for more than 75 years , and now more than ever” (emphasis added). The reference to “75 years” makes clear that Israel’s very existence is illegitimate, causing inherent suffering to Palestinians – who are equated to Jesus.
In April 2024, Sabeel published a statement marking the Jewish holiday Passover, stating that “no one [Jews around the world] can celebrate the essence of Passover if they are enslaving others and promoting supremacy.”
In December 2023, Sabeel published a statement: “While the world is celebrating the Christmas season by decorating trees and holding Christmas parties, in Palestine, we are commemorating Christmas by foregoing the usual celebrations, waiting for God to deliver us from 75 years of settler colonial violence. Indeed, we are living out the reality of the Christmas story” (emphasis added). The imagery attached to the statement shows Jesus as a baby wrapped with a Palestinian keffiyeh and Santa Claus looking for kids in the ruins of a building in Gaza.
In 2017 and 2021, marking the Balfour declaration, Sabeel published posts with imagery portraying Jesus and a man tearing apart the Balfour Declaration, a way to undermine the legitimacy of Zionism and the existence of the State of Israel. According to Sabeel, the declaration started the “process that led to our dispossession.”

Nearly 60 Years Ago, a Polish Journalist Wrote a Familiar-Sounding Attack on Anti-Zionism

In 1967, following Israel’s sudden victory over the Soviet-backed Syrian and Egyptian armies, the Kremlin started encouraging anti-Zionist rhetoric often barely distinguishable from anti-Semitism. For Poland, the events came at a time of upheaval: there was a student movement increasingly unhappy with one-party rule and a head of state eager to maintain his position amid the reshuffling following Leonid Brezhnev’s consolidation of power in Moscow. When the Polish party began encouraging anti-Jewish propaganda, it unleashed a tidal wave of repressed anti-Semitism that culminated in the expulsion of the vast majority of the country’s Jews in 1968.

Philip Earl Steele surfaces a September 1967 document composed by Wiesław Górnicki, a Polish journalist recently returned to his country from several years covering the United Nations in New York City. Steele provides a partial translation of Górnicki’s formal statement to the Polish press bureau:

Even before the outbreak of the Near East crisis, I had begun to notice aspects of our policy with which I could not come to terms. Let me mention, for example, our visa policy, which . . . in its most vulgar form, often amounts to a general ban on entry visas for foreign citizens of Jewish origin. I was also concerned about specific aspects of our personnel policy and the growing trend in the party that at times is difficult to distinguish from open anti-Semitism.

It is my opinion that the concept of Zionism has of late been arbitrarily misused in our party. One cannot equate every hint of sympathy for Israel, or rather for Israelis, with Zionism. The tragic history of European Jews, the forging of new national traits, the resilience of Israelis in the development of a poor and inhospitable land—this must inevitably elicit favorable reactions in various people, regardless of national origin.

Górnicki also calls attention to now very familiar combinations of Holocaust inversion and misinformation:

I have in mind . . . the frequent use of a purported quote from an Israeli radio station, where the actions of the Israeli air force were allegedly compared to those of the Luftwaffe over Poland. The quote is a forgery. . . . I also have in mind . . . the public speech of Comrade [Kazimierz] Rusinek [then the deputy minister of culture], who stated that Nazi war criminals are advisors to the Israeli government—while the second bloodiest executioner of Warsaw, . . . SS Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, is head of government security in Cairo.

When Germany’s Foremost Liberal Scholar Turned against the Jews

Almost a century before Górnicki wrote his memorandum, a similar dispute was going on in a neighboring country. In The Berlin Anti-Semitism Controversy, Frederick Beiser examines attacks on Jews in highbrow German publications of the 1870s and 1880s, which paralleled more vulgar efforts to harness prejudice by pamphleteers and agitators. Allan Arkush writes in his review:

The key figure was Heinrich von Treitschke, who was a leading nationalist historian, editor of the important Historische Zeitschrift, and a prominent legislator. He was widely known as “the herald of the Reich,” of a unified Germany, and he had had nothing to do with the anti-Semitic movement during the years that it began to take shape. But in November 1879, he published an article surveying current events that concluded with a few pages on the recent rise of anti-Semitism.

Treitschke deplored the “dirt and brutality” in anti-Semitic activities. But he quickly acknowledged that the stir they were creating showed that “the instinct of the masses has in fact correctly recognized a grave danger, a very considerable fault of the new German life.”

How could a lifelong liberal veer so far in such an illiberal direction?

Beiser sizes up Treitschke’s outlook objectively, not sympathetically, but it is still startling to see how he takes for granted the basic accuracy of the German historian’s depiction of all too many of his Jewish fellow citizens in 1879 as members of a culturally alien nation within a nation.

01/23 Links Pt1: Congress Bill Sanctioning Palestinian Government Over 'Pay-to-Slay'; IDF to stay in southern Lebanon after deadline; Son of ME Crime Boss Charged with Sydney anti-Semitic attacks

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Art of the deal or rout of the real?

As Jewish Insider has reported, one of the key people hiring isolationist staffers to fill Pentagon roles is Dan Caldwell, a Koch-affiliated policy adviser who has often criticized America’s close relationship with Israel.

There can be no doubt that Trump and Witkoff genuinely wish Israel well. However, there’s a potentially lethal flaw in their view of the world.

On Fox, Witkoff was asked about the comment by Hamas official Abu Marzouk, who told The New York Times: “We’re prepared for a dialogue with America and achieving understandings on everything.” Witkoff replied: “I think it’s good if it’s accurate. We were able to demonstrate that President Trump’s policies, peace through strength, they work; everybody listens.”

Saying the release of the three hostages was the essential “hopeful moment,” he said that “we needed to show people we could stop the violence, and we could have conversation, dialogue. So this is the beginning of that, and hopefully, everything over there can be settled in that way. If it’s possible, everyone will become a believer.”

This is laughably naive and ill-informed. It ends up in the same place as liberals like the Bidenites, for whom everything can be negotiated because they assume that everyone is governed by reason.

The Witkoff view is that everything can be negotiated because when Trump brings his fist crashing down everyone jumps. It’s true that everyone jumps. But the Islamists play the longest game in town. Behind a series of feints, they will regroup, recalibrate and adapt to suddenly emerge stronger than ever, precisely because they have not been defeated.

Which is why Witkoff’s further reported comment, that he wants to solve tensions with Iran over nuclear weapons “diplomatically … if people are willing to adhere to their agreements,” is even more troubling as are the rumors that Trump has already reached out to “negotiate” with Iran.

In the Islamists’ world, no agreement is anything other than a stratagem to defeat their enemy—with deceit Divinely mandated as a means to advance the Islamic cause.

The Witkoff view of the world doesn’t appear to factor in that Islamists aren’t motivated by self-interest. The prospect of peace and prosperity for the region means little to people who believe that they are the warriors of God himself in purging the world of Israel, the Jews and the Christians, and conquering it for Islam.

For people who set their clock in the seventh century, waiting out four years of Trump is just another small delay that they will try to leverage to their advantage. This advantage may not become apparent until Trump has left office. But Israel can’t live with the threat of more Oct. 7-style massacres after 2028.

Of course, it’s possible that Trump does indeed realize all this. After all, most of his major appointments are of people whose commitment to Israel is deeper and more uncompromising than among many Diaspora Jews. It’s possible that he will come through strongly for Israel and help it see off its foes.

But it’s also possible that the art of the deal turns into the rout of the real.

GOP-Controlled Congress Considers Bill Sanctioning Palestinian Government Over 'Pay-to-Slay' Program

The Republican-controlled Congress is moving on legislation that would authorize wide-ranging sanctions on the Palestinian government and any international partner that has aided its terrorist payment program, known as "pay-to-slay," according to a copy of the bill obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Republicans in the House and Senate jointly introduced the bill with broad backing, signaling that the measure is an early priority in both legislative chambers. The legislation would impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for providing millions of dollars to imprisoned terrorists and their families. It also would sanction any "foreign persons" known to facilitate these payments or help the Palestinian government administer the program.

Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) is shepherding the bill in the Senate, with Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) introducing the House version. Eight Senate Republican leaders, including Texas's Ted Cruz, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, Florida's Rick Scott, North Carolina's Ted Budd, and Tennessee's Bill Hagerty, are also backing the bill.

The measure is likely to garner broad support in the GOP-controlled House, which has already moved on separate legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court for its persecution of Israel on the international stage. In the Senate, it would need at least some Democratic support to cross the upper chamber's 60-vote threshold. Both parties overwhelmingly supported a similar 2018 law, the Taylor Force Act, which forced the American government to freeze Palestinian aid until the terrorist payments program ends.

The latest bill, dubbed the PLO and PA Terror Payments Accountability Act, builds on the 2018 law by sanctioning not just the Palestinian government but its international enablers, a provision that could impact foreign financial institutions and the United Nations, which provides financial resources to both the PLO and PA.

"Despite the enactment of the Taylor Force Act, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority have continued their system of compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism," the bill states.

In an attempt to build further pressure on the Palestinian government, the legislation targets a host of affiliated entities that have helped keep cash flowing to imprisoned terrorists. Those entities include: the Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, the Institute for the Care of the Families of the Martyrs and the Wounded, the Palestine National Fund, and the National Association of the Families of the Martyrs of Palestine.

Sanctions, meanwhile, would be applied on any foreign financial institution that facilitates transactions on the Palestinian government’s behalf.

"The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization continue to support terrorism against Israel by providing hundreds of millions of dollars per year in their reprehensible ‘pay-for-slay’ program," Cotton told the Free Beacon. "Anti-Semitic Palestinian terrorists know they can expect payment as a reward for killing Israelis and Americans—with thousands of Palestinian terrorists tied to October 7 eligible for these terror payments."

The Palestinian government pays around $16 million a month to imprisoned terrorists, including nearly 900 Gaza-based Hamas fighters captured in the wake of Oct. 7, according to estimates.

A Turkish Perspective on the Gaza War: "What Victory Is This?"

Turkish news outlet 10Haber reported on Tuesday that a Hamas delegation arrived at the headquarters of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Istanbul on the morning of Oct. 7. As news of the assault on Israel unfolded, members of the Hamas delegation reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" and celebrated, while Turkish officials present remained silent.

A senior Turkish intelligence officer asked the Hamas delegates: "You've gone 1-0 against Israel, but...understand that Israel won't leave the score at 1-1....We know Netanyahu and Israel. They'll take it to 10-1, or even 12-1."

The article's author continued, "Don't you see the devastation behind you? What victory is this? Do you never look at the balance sheet? 46,000 people are dead. More than 100,000 are injured, many of whom will live with those injuries - amputated hands and legs - for the rest of their lives. Over a million people have been displaced from their homes. 90% of Gaza's homes and workplaces are in ruins. Schools and hospitals have been flattened. Electricity is gone. You've lost all your regional allies. Your leadership has disappeared. Hizbullah, your closest supporter, is not even on its knees - it's flat on the ground."

"Israel has entered Lebanon. Tons of bombs fall daily on your allies in Yemen. Assad, the only leader who supported you militarily, has fled. His successors now say, 'We won't allow further actions against Israel from Syria.' Your entire leadership team has been killed. Two, even three future generations have been destroyed. Yet you stand there making victory signs. What kind of victory is this?"

"Why did you brutally murder 1,200 people - young and old, men and women - including those enjoying a music festival? Why did you abduct hundreds, causing dozens to die underground?...Let us be clear: the fingers that yesterday pointed at Israel will now point at Hamas....Anyone seeking true peace in Gaza must now deliver the necessary message to these reckless individuals who make victory signs.

MEMRI: Arab Journalists on Gaza War: If This Is Victory, What Does Defeat Look Like?

Arab journalists took to X to slam Hamas officials for presenting the Gaza war and the ceasefire agreement as a victory, despite the immense destruction in Gaza, the displacement of hundreds of thousands, and the death of tens of thousands. Saudi media figure Yahya Al-Shabraqi wrote: "If you see this blood and destruction as a 'victory,' I'd like to know how you would describe a defeat." Abd Al-Hak Snaibi, a Moroccan security commentator, wrote: "The people [of Gaza] are glad that the tragedy and bloodshed may be at an end, and their joy has nothing to do with victory."

Saudi businessman and blogger Monther Aal Al-Sheikh Mubarak shared a cartoon showing Hamas political bureau member Khalil Al-Hayya giving his "victory speech" while surrounded by a sea of corpses.

Saudi researcher Muhammad Al-Hababi wrote: "After over a million innocent civilians have been displaced, who before the war had electricity, food and water, and whose children went to school and shaped their future, today none of these things are available. All of Hamas's leaders and fighters have been killed, yet there are still some who say 'we won, and thank you, Iran.'"

Saudi journalist Hussein Al-Waday wrote: "If Hamas thinks it has gained a victory, then it's a victory over the Palestinians, for it has destroyed their lives and future and defeated their cause."

Iraqi politician Faiq Al Sheikh Ali wrote: "As for Israel, it pulverized Hamas, completely demolished Gaza, killed many of its people, and totally humiliated Iran, removing it from the equation of the conflict. This is defeat by any criterion."

"I Can’t Believe I Ate Those Bears’ Porridge – They’re Zionists!" by Goldilocks (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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I Can’t Believe I Ate Those Bears’ Porridge – They’re Zionists! by Goldilocks

Tewkesbury, January 23 - This is so embarrassing. I must do better. It turns out the home I sneaked into the other day when I was tired and hungry, and where I ate and rested, was occupied not by just any ursines, but ursines who want to genocide the Palestinians and establish a Jewish ethnostate! I cannot believe I platformed them like that.

I could make excuses, as some do, when they fail to adhere in any meaningful way to the Boycott, Divest, Sanction principles. We see it all the time with technology and pharmaceuticals. But I refuse to compromise on this. Well, except for technology and pharmaceuticals, without which you would not be reading this. My point is, I will own up to not doing due diligence on the political leanings of the home occupants - excuse me, occupiers, not occupants, since it's Zionists we're talking about - and resolve to take greater care going forward not to legitimize Zionists even inadvertently by sharing space with them.

My colleagues have asked whether there were any indications in the house itself that the bears held Zionist ideology. I must confess I recall nothing that aroused suspicion. In retrospect, perhaps that should have raised a red flag, because Zionists work extra hard to portray themselves as normal, even good. See: pinkwashing, or participation in international sporting competitions. But I was probably too hungry and tired to notice.

The chairs of various hardness and softness gave no sign of having been violently taken from indigenous Palestinians. Sure, hindsight now tells me I should have understood the metaphor of assuming I was "entering an empty house" like no one lived there, and treating it as my own. I get the analogy. But it's not intuitive if you're not already thinking that way. I have to do better and think that way all the time. Stay angry.

And the porridge! You'd think porridge is porridge. But I've since been told that indigenous Palestinian porridge is different from the swill that Zionists now claim as their own, whether it's too hot, too cold, or just right.

This is neither here nor there, but someone should look into the hows and whys of a family of bears leaving their porridge on the table long enough for a little girl to spend a good bit of time in the house and only then begin tasting the gruel, yet each serving of porridge remains in its paradigmatic state of too hot, too cold, and just right, respectively, the entire time.

Anyway, I'm glad I got out of there when I did.

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

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