Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 30, 2025

01/30 Links Pt1: Hostages Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger and Gadi Mozes free after 482 days; You’re Lucky To Survive Being Freed By Hamas; The wickedness perpetrated by Hamas can never be undone

From Ian:

Bassem Eid: The wickedness perpetrated by Hamas can never be undone

Why would anyone, even terrorist operatives, behave with such abject cruelty toward their fellow human beings? To understand this, one must understand Hamas’s ideology of hate. Its founding charter commits to the annihilation of the State of Israel and for it to be replaced with an Islamic theocracy under Sharia law. These are not just words on a page. Hamas-controlled Gaza has a deeply antisemitic media and education environment, in which even children’s programming and school textbooks are full of misinformation about the alleged perfidy of Jews and calls for their annihilation.

It’s not only the traumatized hostages and the Hamas-ruled Gazans who have been irreversibly damaged by the terrorist group’s reign of terror. The day after Oct. 7, Israel was attacked by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah as a Hamas ally, inaugurating a brutal war in Israel’s north that displaced tens of thousands in both countries. Attacks on Israel continue from other terrorist factions armed by Hamas’s sponsor, Iran, notably the Houthis, who have led an assault on global shipping through the Red Sea. (The Houthi flag bears the unsubtle slogan “Death to the USA, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.”) The ferocious war on Israel has also launched a global surge in antisemitism, with nearly half of adults worldwide now reporting antisemitic views. These trends have derailed efforts toward peace, including the near-signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

All of this is to say that even if all of the hostages were to return home tomorrow, nothing would go back to the way it was. Rape is often a trauma with lifelong impacts; just consider the effects of nearly a year and a half of captivity and unrelenting abuse. Nor will the Gazan population, which has been under Hamas rule since 2007, quickly unlearn the lessons of control by a brutal genocidal regime that uses hospitals, schools, mosques and churches as military sites. Beginning to undo the damage requires one clear and straightforward prerequisite: Like the Nazis before them, there is no just compromise with Hamas that leaves them in power.

They must be unseated, everywhere they hold sway, for the monstrous scars they left behind even to begin to heal.

Seth Mandel: You’re Lucky To Survive Being Freed By Hamas

Ah, the Red Cross! Willing participants in the psychotic torment of hostages. Although the Red Cross was unbothered by its role in a public torture passion play, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped in. The Palestinian murderers and terrorists being released in return for innocent Israeli hostages could sit on their bus a bit longer, Netanyahu decreed, until he could get assurances that the demonic scenes in Gaza would not be repeated.

To be clear: The process of dragging hostages through the crowds is not just morally abominable; it is legitimately dangerous. You are lucky to survive being freed by these psychopaths. And for the Red Cross to stand there and accede to this is beyond disqualifying.

To watch these scenes, in other words, is to watch the full range of human complicity in unspeakable crimes, and experience the full range of emotions that comes with it.

When the relief finally arrives, then, it’s almost overwhelming. The hostages finally cross from the death cult to the land of the living, the land of their forefathers, of God. The homes waiting to host them in Eretz Israel will feed them and protect them rather than abuse them and hold them against their will. They are transferred from the Red Cross into the hands of medical professionals who will treat them and heal them instead of pretending they don’t exist. The guns and uniforms around them are now their own.

And the drones, too. It was announced earlier today that the terrorist who kidnapped Naama Levy, one of the hostages released this past weekend, had been killed in a targeted IDF strike four months ago. This information had been kept under wraps until Levy was free, for her own safety.

Future hostage releases will probably look different from what we saw today. They will seem humane. Let us not forget that such humanity had to be demanded.

Hostages Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger and Gadi Mozes free after 482 days

Three Israelis and five Thais were redeemed from terrorist captivity in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as part of Hamas’s truce with Jerusalem, 482 days after they were taken captive during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

Israeli civilians Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80, were handed over by Hamas to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday afternoon in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Mozes was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside his wife, Margalit, who was one of the first captives released in the 2023 truce.

The five released Thais—all foreign workers who were taken hostage during the Oct. 7 cross-border assault—were named by the Israel Defense Forces as Thaenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakhan, Sriaoun Watchara, Saethao Bannawat and Rumnao Surasak.

“According to information provided by the Red Cross, seven hostages, including an Israeli male and female hostage and five foreign nationals, were handed over to it and are making their way to the IDF and [Israel Security Agency] forces in the Gaza Strip,” the military confirmed.

The army subsequently confirmed that the seven returnees have “now crossed the border into Israeli territory with IDF and ISA forces.”

Leftists Hoping Barriers To Kahanist Candidates Better Than Barriers With Gaza (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Leftists Hoping Barriers To Kahanist Candidates Better Than Barriers With Gaza

Tel Aviv, January 30 - Voters and politicians concerned about the sharp rise in popularity since October 7, 2023 for the policies and rhetoric of a party banned in the 1980's over its advocacy of transferring hostile Arabs out of areas that threaten Israeli communities continued to express their anxieties this week regarding the robustness of the protective measures intended to maintain that ban, given the failures before and on October 7 of other protective measures intended to keep murderous Palestinians out of Israel - failures that led directly to the surging popularity of that banned party's positions.

The Central Elections Committee barred Rabbi Meir Kahane's "Kach" Party from 1988 parliamentary elections over the group's racism. Though Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990, his followers continued to advocate for removal of Arabs - on either side of the 1949 Armistice Lines - who refuse to accept Israel. Some followers resorted to violence, resulting in a legal ban on the existence of their groups in the 1990's. However, now that the State's defense mechanisms proved inadequate to keep 6,000 Gaza Palestinians from invading southern Israel on Simḥat Torah 2023 on a murder, rape, pillage, torture, looting, vandalism, and kidnapping spree that left 1200 dead, political opponents of Kahane's spiritual heirs worry that the State's defenses against Kahanist parties will prove similarly inadequate, and that would be even worse.

"We must avert unprecedented disaster, but I can only hope the protective measures are robust enough," acknowledged MK Yair Golan of The Democrats Party. "We all trusted the measures we had in place on October 7, though. And look what happened."

"It's not even like it as a bunch of right-wingers or settlers who got killed or hurt," he continued. "That would be bad, yes, mainly because it would generate sympathy for them among voters, but not as bad as it in fact turned out to be: the victims were mainly people who would vote for me and my political allies! Those are precious few, and we can't afford to lose any and fall below the electoral threshold again. Especially since the right-wingers outbreed us by a significant margin. But if the anti-Kahane safeguards fail as well? We're in for REAL trouble."

His colleague Meirav Michaeli elaborated. "We can tolerate when right-wing Jews get harmed, because they deserve it," she explained. "But if Arabs have to suffer? Inconceivable. What is the Jewish State for, if not to sacrifice Jewish lives for Arab security?"

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

NYT says universities already curb antisemitism, so no need for more safeguards for Jews on campus. Jewish students disagree, but who cares what they think?

Here is the original headline in a New York Times article today (since changed):

The headline's implication is that there is no need for an executive order protecting Jews on campus, since universities already did the work.

Problem solved!

The headline now reads, "Trump Order Pushes Universities to ‘Monitor’ Protesters on Student Visas," someone must have noticed that the headline downplayed Jew-hatred on campus. Or maybe the New York Times realized that this headline did not work too well with another story that came out today.

The ADL and Hillel International released a survey today of college students that found:

* 83.2% of Jewish college students surveyed have experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.

*More than a quarter (27.3%) of Jewish students surveyed said they had observed antisemitic activity by faculty.

* 66.2% of Jewish and 60.1% of non-Jewish student were not confident in their university’s ability to prevent antisemitic incidents.

* Less than half (49.6%) of Jewish students reported feeling “very” or “extremely” comfortable with others on campus knowing their Jewish identity and only 26.7% felt comfortable with others on campus knowing their views of Israel.

* An overwhelming majority of students (92.5%) who had reported witnessing or experiencing an incident of antisemitism on campus did not report the incident to campus authorities.

Even worse, Jews report that other students try to gaslight and "goysplain" them by saying that what they are experiencing isn't antisemitism.

[N]early a third (32%) of Jewish students surveyed said that they had been told by non-Jews what is or is not antisemitism. Nearly half (49.5%) of non-Jewish students surveyed at least somewhat agreed with the idea that Jews weaponize antisemitism to stifle criticism of Israel, while a similar proportion (44.2%) at agreed with the statement that Israelis intend to cause as much suffering to Palestinians as possible. Endorsement of such statements was associated with statistically significant decreases in perceived anti-Jewish hostility on campus, underscoring the point that higher levels of antisemitic attitudes on campus perpetuate a gaslighting effect wherein the problem of anti-Jewish prejudice on campus is consistently minimized.

Is this what Jewish privilege looks like?

Is this what the New York Times thinks is an adequate response to campus antisemitism?

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The Media's Post-Gaza-War Propaganda Campaign Against Israel Is Already Under Way (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

The cease-fire is holding, Israeli hostages are being exchanged for Palestinian terrorists, and the stage is being set for further Israeli compromises.

What could go wrong?

Typical of the media agenda leading up to the cease-fire is the sloppy media narrative as per The Washington Post:

The conflict started when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 others hostage. The Israeli military responded with a brutal campaign that destroyed much of Gaza and killed at least 47,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

...in which:

o  Hamas terrorists are described as "Hamas-led fighters
o  The massacre is described merely as an attack, with no modifier
o While the Israeli retaliation is described with an added adjective as a brutal campaign
o  At least 47,000 were killed -- despite analyses that dispute that number
o  The Gaza Health Ministry is quoted, without mentioning it is controlled by Hamas
o  The claim that the majority of those dead are "women and children" without mentioning contrary views
o  No mention of what age range defines "children"
o  No mention of the Hamas rockets landing in Gaza or how many Gazans killed by those rockets

Now, the media is framing the appropriate cease-fire narrative for their audiences. All this time, the media has carefully eschewed labeling Hamas as terrorists. This is hardly the time to describe the agreement as swapping of hostages for terrorists. Instead, we have descriptions along the lines of The New York Times:

Mere "prisoners"?

In the second paragraph, they clarify:

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, crowds of Palestinians held aloft the returning prisoners, many of whom had been jailed for deadly militant attacks against Israelis

Give The New York Times credit for at least admitting that the attacks were deadly. But many of them were guilty of "deadly attacks"?

Honest Reporting points out that actually the vast majority of the first batch of "prisoners" -- 83% -- were guilty of violent and deadly offenses.

But the New York Times "admission" of deadly attacks does not stop them from gushing:

"One of the largest prisoner exchanges" -- a prime example of New York Times evenhandedness, equating hostages with terrorists, "some" of whom are serving life sentences, without any specifics as to why.

Speaking about that exchange, it is noteworthy that Hamas violated the agreement during the second exchange. As The Washington Post noted:

Israel said Saturday that Hamas had violated the deal, which required it to release all living civilian women first. Israel had expected that Arbel Yehud, a 29-year-old civilian who was abducted with her boyfriend from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, would be among those in the Saturday release. [the article is reposted on msn.com]

JNS therefore duly noted that Israel took measures to ensure that Hamas would follow through by releasing Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud as agreed:

But CNN's sloppily constructed headline could not be bothered with the facts:

The headline paints Israel in the worst possible light. It is not until the eighth paragraph that CNN deigns to inform us:

Israel has been pushing for the release of Arbel Yehud, 29, who was kidnapped from her home in kibbutz Nir Oz. Israel says she is a civilian and should have been released Saturday.

Not only does CNN bury this important detail, but they also make it seem that Israel is inconveniencing the hapless Hamas terrorist leaders by "pushing" for the release.

In case you are wondering just how many cease-fire violations is Hamas guilty of violating...

According to Haaretz, Hamas is guilty of 3 violations:

The first, current phase of the deal was intended to be the simplest of the deal's proposed three phases. Both Hamas and Israel are thought to be committed to the so-called humanitarian part of the phase, but obstacles thrown up by both sides have threatened to stop the deal before it even began.

Hamas failed to submit to Israel the names of the hostages to be released in time, didn't release the civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud as promised and delayed issuing the list specifying which of the hostages designated for release are still alive. Israel, for its part, delayed allowing displaced residents of northern Gaza to return to their homes in response.

The 3 Hamas violations are:

o Failing to submit to Israel the names of the hostages to be released in time
o Not releasing the civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud as promised
o Delaying issuing the list specifying which of the hostages designated for release are still alive

But wait! Israel also placed an obstacle preventing the smooth proceeding of the cease-fire. According to Haaretz, Israel put an obstacle in the way of the cease-fire by insisting on the release of a kidnapped hostage as per the agreement.

In their haste to be "fair" and find something to pin on Israel, Haaretz claims that "obstacles thrown up by both sides have threatened to stop the deal before it even began," But the one "obstacle" by Israel clearly happened after the cease-fire began.

Now the campaign to erase Hamas responsibility for the war begins, as CNN tells us that this is not Hamas's war at all:

After 16 months of war, we were inundated by the media agenda to reframe the Hamas massacre itself and the war that Israel had to wage to protect itself.

Now, we should prepare for the media's coverup of the cease-fire as well.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Today there are lots of articles in the press about how awful it is that Israel has banned UNRWA from operating on its territory, because of its history of pro-terrorist activities and its own employees participating in and celebrating October 7.

The articles complain how UNRWA is essential to getting aid to Gaza, as the other UN organizations in the area (WHO, WFP, UNOPS) are deemed inadequate.

If we take that assumption at face value, then why can't UNRWA operate out of Egypt? You know, the Arab country bordering Gaza?

UNRWA has an interesting and mostly unknown history in Egypt. When UNRWA was established, it attempted to have a presence not only in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria but also in Egypt, Libya and Iraq, as potential places for Palestinian refugees to go.

Egypt cooperated with UNRWA, but didn't allow it to work in Egypt proper. It insisted that all Palestinian refugees to move to Gaza, then under Egyptian control. Within Egypt proper, it gave no residential rights to Palestinians. (Over the years, this support varied; Nasser allowed Palestinians to attend Egyptian universities, for example, but these rights were given and taken away periodically over the years, and have steadily decreased.)

The reasons given are familiar: Egypt pretended to do this for the Palestinians' own sake, so as not to compromise their "right of return." But in fact, this gave Palestinians in Egypt a protection gap - Egypt does not allow UNRWA to operate on its territory but also did not recognize the Palestinians as refugees eligible for UNHCR protection. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Egypt who did not move to Gaza were left to fend for themselves without access to education, medicine or any government services.

In 1965, the Arab League signed the Casablanca protocol where they promised to give residential rights to Palestinians. Egypt was one of the countries that ignored this agreement that it signed.

The protection gap for Palestinians and only Palestinians exists today in Egypt with the tens of thousands of Gazans who managed to escape in the first months of the war by paying large bribes to Egyptian officials. As their six month visas have expired, they have no recourse for protection - and a large reason for this is because Egypt does not allow UNRWA to operate on its territory.

Israel actually dismissed UNRWA once before, in 1952, when it said that UNRWA was not needed to support refugees from the war who were fully Israeli citizens and eligible for normal Israeli social benefits. The contrast with Egypt couldn't be clearer.

The offices that Israel is closing today are in east Jerusalem that they inherited in 1967. These are just offices; if Egypt would allow, UNRWA could relocate by renting office space in Cairo or El Arish and coordinate all aid to Gaza from there.

But Egypt does not allow that. And no reporters seem to be curious as to why that is.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Abbas tells Sisi, "Thanks for helping keep Palestinians in misery 💗"

From the official Palestinian Wafa news agency:

President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed deep appreciation for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's firm stance reaffirming Egypt’s rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

In a message sent to President el-Sisi, President Abbas stated, "We deeply appreciate Egypt’s steadfast position, which you reaffirmed today—rejecting the displacement of our people from Gaza, standing against injustice toward the Palestinian people, and upholding Egypt’s historic and unwavering support for the Palestinian cause."

He emphasized that these words hold great significance for the Palestinian people and align with international law, reinforcing their determination to remain on their land and resist any attempts to uproot them.

President Abbas concluded his message by wishing President el-Sisi good health and happiness, while expressing hope for continued progress and prosperity for Egypt, its government, and its people.

Abbas had joined Egypt's and Jordan's rejection of Gazans fleeing to safety during the height of the war. In fact, he declared that Palestinians from Gaza would be barred from entering even the Palestinian Authority controlled areas in the West Bank - not even leaving "Palestine!"

Then, as now, these Arab leaders pretend that their principled stands to ignore the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who desperately want to leave is support for their "human rights."

If we assume that about 20,000 civilians were killed in Gaza, that would be 1% of the population. If Egypt, Jordan and the PA had taken in, say, 200,000 refugees from Gaza in late 2023/early 2024, that would have saved about 2,000 lives.

No articles in The Lancet are going through those statistics.

I'm still waiting for a single human rights group or official that says that Gazans who want to leave Gaza should have that right. Just one.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/29 Links Pt2: The dark descent into Holocaust erasure; Trump Executive Order To Deport Anti-Semitic Student Visa Holders; Peter Beinart justifies Hamas

From Ian:

Nicole Lampert: Don’t mention the Jews

This removal of Jews from Holocaust Memorial Day has long been the plan of that weird marriage of the far left and Islamists. For too many leftists, Jews have never been good enough victims for their compassion. They certainly don’t want to remind people that anti-Semitism, the creed they so often march alongside with, is dangerous. Instead, they like to paint Jews as oppressors – or genocidal maniacs. So they have to hide the fact that Jews were the ones attacked in the most heinous and deliberate genocide in history.

There is another reason for removing Jews from the memory of the Holocaust. It’s a way of undermining the necessity of Israel’s existence – a state that had to come into being because the world closed its doors to Jews, despite knowing they were being slaughtered.

Parts of the left really do seem keen on taking the focus of Holocaust Memorial Day away from Jewish suffering. In 2011, Jeremy Corbyn was among a group of mainly Labour politicians who supported a parliamentary motion to rename Holocaust Memorial Day, saying instead it should be called ‘Genocide Memorial Day – Never Again for Anyone’. This was despite the fact it already did officially remember later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

It is telling that, a few weeks ago, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) wrote to 460 town halls and educational centres around the UK asking them to boycott this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day because apparently it wouldn’t be inclusive enough (the organisers failed to categorise the war in Gaza as a genocide). In truth, the IHRC hardly needed to go to all that trouble. The message of Holocaust Memorial Day has become so watered down that it is an act of bravery to even mention who the victims of the Holocaust were – especially after Hamas’s pogrom in Israel on 7 October 2023.

One London Jewish councillor tells me that, having organised Holocaust Memorial Day events in the past, since the 7 October attacks she hasn’t been allowed ‘near’ it at the council. ‘I think lots of councils think erasing Jews from their events is “playing it safe”’, she tells me.

I’m ashamed to say that some Jewish organisations have let activists and politicians do this. They’ve let them water down the Holocaust because, otherwise, no one will talk about it at all.

What does that tell you about all those who drearily intone ‘Never Again’ with their crocodile tears about some anonymous horror? If they meant it, they would talk about what must never happen again. They would talk about Jews and anti-Semitism.

All the while, anti-Semitism is surging. As a Jewish person who writes about this stuff, sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the fear, the angst, the terror of people writing to me about the anti-Semitism they have faced.

You’ve seen the weekly images of ‘pro-Palestine’ protesters marching with swastikas, chanting blood libels, calling for another genocide of the Jews. You’ve seen how our political class has done nothing to challenge any of it. You’ve seen how news channels repeat Hamas propaganda. You’ve seen how anti-Semitism has been normalised, even as public figures slap themselves on the back because they lit a candle on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Not one Jewish person who I know has felt entirely safe in the UK since 7 October. Never Again has become a hollow slogan, and not one of our cowardly leaders is prepared to call that out.

The dark descent into Holocaust erasure

More worrying, however, is the ongoing attempt to draw comparisons between the Holocaust and the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. To compare the systematic murder of 6 million Jews to Israel’s war on Hamas is not only absurd but deeply offensive to survivors and the wider Jewish community.

Many in the community will have seen the Irish President Michael Higgins address a Holocaust Memorial Day event which he was asked not to attend by members of Ireland’s Jewish community. While it was not a surprise that he used his speech to reference the conflict in Gaza, it was shocking to see Jewish members of the audience thrown out of the room for objecting.

Only recently, Ireland adopted the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which states that equating the State of Israel to Nazi Germany is antisemitic. Higgins’ hijacking of Holocaust Memorial Day makes one wonder why they did.

Even more disgracefully, the Islamic Human Rights Commission called for boycotts of Holocaust Memorial Day events this year unless they included a reference to Gaza. Those who call to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day events, unless they are inverted to associate modern-day Jews with their persecutors, are the clearest example of why we must keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

This Holocaust Memorial Day I had the privilege of hearing Janine Webber’s testimony at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration event.

Unfortunately, as Holocaust survivors grow older, first-hand survivor accounts are becoming less easily available. Initiatives like the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Ambassador Programme and Testimony 360 do vital work to advance Holocaust education.

I also support the construction of a new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Westminster, which will enshrine Holocaust remembrance at the heart of our democracy. In a world of rising antisemitism, where people seek to abuse the memory of the Holocaust, this is more important than ever.

JPost Editorial: Cheapening the Holocaust: Irish president’s remarks equate Nazi and Gaza conflicts

Higgins has had no qualms about calling Israel’s war to remove Hamas from power in Gaza and free the hostages a “genocide,” but he could only muster calling the Nazi extermination attempt of the Jews “an attempted genocide.”

His statements spurred a protest by some members of the audience, with video footage showing at least one attendee being dragged away by security.

What does any of that have to do with International Holocaust Remembrance Day? There is a time and place to hurl criticism of Israel and its policies, but it’s not on a solemn day that honors those slaughtered by the Nazis and those who survived.

At Monday’s main ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, where roughly 1.1 million Jews were murdered, only 50 survivors were expected to be present – down from 300 a decade ago and 1,000 a decade before that.

The focus should be entirely on them – now more than ever.

Incidents of global antisemitism have spiked to unprecedented post-World War II levels, and public figures like Elon Musk are quoted telling supporters of the rising far-Right German political party Alternative for Germany that “there is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that.”

Clearly, the lessons the world needed to learn from the Holocaust are getting muddied and faded the further we move from the actual events that took place. As the survivors die, and along with them their first-hand accounts of the horrors perpetrated against the Jews, the easier it will be for people like Higgins to diminish their magnitude and use them for cheap political gain.

Abe Greenwald: The Self-Defeated ‘Resistance’

Via Commentary Magazine Newsletter, sign up here. And the very fact of the pro-Hamas movement goes a long way in explaining why there’s no anti-Trump resistance this time around. The people who made up the resistance at the start of the first Trump presidency are the same people who show up at every radical protest, whatever the nominal purpose. The Women’s March is Black Lives Matter is Free Palestine. And when each cause has its moment in the spotlight, it deprives the others of fuel. What’s more, as each one winds down, it’s revealed as a failure in one way or another. There’s no resistance because America’s radical protesters are grievance dilletantes and literal losers.

As early as 2018, the leaders of the half-million strong Women’s March were exposed as anti-Semites with links to Islamists and the Nation of Islam (which, in itself, makes it clear that every radical protest campaign is the same as the next). The bad press, ugliness, and infighting eventually sundered the movement. It’s now rebranded as the People’s March and is one-tenth the size of its predecessor.

Black Lives Matter, alternately, can claim a win—which turned into a ruinous loss. After the killing of George Floyd in 2020, the calls by BLM and adjacent parties to defund the police were heeded to varying degrees by several cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Then violent crime shot through the roof, and defunding became toxic. Moreover, a number of BLM leaders were revealed to have gotten rich off the back of the movement, which enabled them to buy suburban mansions while cities went down the drain.

And what do the pro-Hamasniks have to show for their 15 months of chaos and violence? Those geniuses turned on the administration that was trying play nice with them. In denying Democrats their vote, they helped Trump win Michigan. And while they managed to make life very unpleasant for American Jews, Israel pulverized Hamas (and other enemies). His first week in office, the president whom the anti-Israel mob helped elect announced that he was lifting the Biden administration’s hold on delivering 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

As I noted in a previous newsletter, the pro-Hamas movement will continue to die down as Israel continues to win. By then, there will be another cause behind which the same wandering malcontents will rally. And they’ll lose again. They can’t resist.

01/29 Links Pt1: It isn't a hostage 'deal,' it's extortion of Israeli souls; Sydney police uncover cache of explosives, intended target was a synagogue

From Ian:

Michal Cotler-Wunsh: It isn't a hostage 'deal,' it's extortion of Israeli souls

Anyone with a heart was moved beyond words at the return home of Emily, Romi, and Doron. Every parent, child, sibling, and friend could almost taste their mothers’ embraces.

The script could not have been imagined by anyone when Emily raised her three remaining fingers, signaling life, resiliency, and hope.

The thing is that for the heartless, genocidal Hamas barbarians who stole Emily, Romi, and Doron from their beds on October 7, 2023, human tragedy is the strategy.

For them and for the murderous Islamic regime in Iran, of which they are proxies, every parent, child, sibling, and friend is a human shield or sacrifice on the altar of genocidal intent to destroy civilization and build an alternate reality on its rubble.

The thing is that internationally created and funded institutions and agencies in whose “civilian shelters” Emily, Romi, and Doron and other hostages were held have been hijacked and weaponized to sow fear, despair, and distrust that collapse the foundations of democracies.

"Human rights industry"
The thing is that the “human rights” industry that was entrusted to protect the hostages is inverted to “justify” mutilation, burning people alive, rape, murder, and their abduction – as “resistance.”

Their release was not the result of “negotiations” that enable making “a deal.” It is the result of multitiered extortion, resulting from decades of appeasement and cemented in 16 months of false moral equivalence – by Western countries, international institutions, terror-supporting campus mobs, and legacy media spewing lies provided by genocidal proxies and their supporting regimes; extortion that will be compounded with every passing day and “stage” of “the deal,” feeding the beast and emboldening genocidal proxies of murderous regimes to continue dictating equations and conduct in this and other contexts.

For more than 10 years, we have warned that appeasement and enabling genocidal terrorists to dictate conduct and equations, even as they trample law and morality, out of the false hope that they’ll “play nice,” will only whet the appetite of terror proxies and their supporting regimes.

In an unbelievable turn of events, proving once again that reality far exceeds the imagination, even as we waited to see Romi, Doron, and Emily embraced by their no less heroic mothers, we buried deceased soldier Oron Shaul, held by the same genocidal Hamas barbarians for 10.5 years in standing violation of law and morality – enabled by international silence, indifference, false moral equivalency, and impunity from the very organizations, institutions, and countries mandated and entrusted to hold them accountable and uphold foundational principles equally and consistently.

Standing by Oron’s grave, I understood the meaning of the term “case and cause,” which I have pled for 10.5 years – in the UN, in the State Department, in the Knesset, and every Friday, in Israel’s Gaza border area at the Black Arrow Memorial, desecrated following the October 7 massacre.

His was indeed a case – which, alongside deceased soldier Hadar Goldin, killed and abducted by Hamas shortly after a 2014 internationally brokered “humanitarian ceasefire” took effect; alongside Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed, who, unwell, wandered into Gaza in 2014, was our 10.5-year cause – that predicted, and should have prevented, the emboldening of genocidal barbarians with silence, false moral equivalence, and impunity. It was an international failure that fueled the confidence of genocidal proxies and their supporting regimes in Iran, Qatar, and Turkey that rockets, missiles, murder, rape, and the abduction of hundreds on October 7 would be met by continued international silence, false moral equivalency, and impunity, enabling the extortion of Israel.

That we are in the midst of an extortion fiasco and not “a deal” is made clear by the tsunami of antisemitism around the world that continues to rage in Australia, Canada, Germany, and the US, after the alleged sought-after “ceasefire.”

The explosion of unhinged antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, should sound sirens for all who cherish humanity and freedom.

That this lethal hate, which has mutated by latching on to the organizing idea of each era – religion, science, and the secular “religion” of human rights – was unleashed in response to the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust should have been met with urgency and clarity.

Instead, the inability to unequivocally condemn regressive barbarism in the name of “progress” signaled “legitimacy” for a multifront war openly intent on committing the genocide of Jews and annihilating Israel, the Jew among the nations.

Jonathan Sacerdoti: There is no justice in the Gaza hostage deal

What makes this deal even more grotesque is the context in which it is taking place. These terrorists are not being released for good behaviour or remorse. On the contrary, their release is a ransom payment to Hamas, extracted in exchange for hostages abducted during the 7 October massacre. Many express continued pride in their murderous actions. The message this sends is chilling: terrorism pays.

This week, Salim Hajjeh was released. A senior Hamas member, he was serving 16 life sentences for his involvement in the suicide bombing on Haifa’s bus line 16 in 2011. In that attack, 15 people were murdered, and 40 were injured. Hajjeh was a member of the Hamas cell in Nablus, which was also responsible for the infamous bombings at the Sbarro restaurant and the Dolphinarium.

Bilal Abu Ghanem, set for release in the coming weeks, expressed regret during his trial – not for the lives he took, but for not killing more Jews. Meanwhile, among the women released, four of them attempted murder, one successfully, thereby shattering the illusion that female prisoners are somehow less dangerous. Even the non-murderous women are far from innocent: Ayat Mahfouz, for instance, was imprisoned for carrying and manufacturing knives and daggers, intended for use in terror attacks. The Western media’s romanticised portrayal of these women as victims ignores the severity of their crimes.

How would British citizens react if, tomorrow, the government announced the release of Ahmed Hassan, the Parsons Green bomber, as part of a deal with Isis? How would the families of their victims feel if the murderers were welcomed back as heroes in their communities, feted by political leaders, and given financial rewards for their ‘sacrifices’, all the while filmed for emotional reports on Sky News and the BBC?

This is precisely what is happening in Israel. Many of the released terrorists will return to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or even abroad, where they will resume their roles in terrorist organisations. Others will be celebrated as martyrs and given monthly stipends funded by foreign aid. This deal does not bring justice; it perpetuates a cycle of violence, rewarding those who use kidnapping and murder as tools of political blackmail in a way which we in Britain and the West would never accept for ourselves.

Israel faces an impossible choice: leave the hostages in Gaza to suffer or pay the ransom in the form of releasing these repulsive terrorists. For the hostages and their families, the joy of reunion is accompanied by the bitter knowledge that others will now pay the price for their freedom.

There is no justice here – only the harrowing logic of ruthless terrorism. This is not a deal that brings peace or reconciliation. It is a deal that ensures the cycle of bloodshed will continue, as the released terrorists return to their ranks, emboldened by the success of their comrades. It is a deal born of desperation, paid for in blood with the currency of injustice.

Most Hamas terrorists were drugged, completely inhumane, rescued hostage says

"The hostages today are suffering from prolonged hunger," released hostage Luis Har said in an interview with Maariv.

"Hamas takes all the aid," he continued. "I was there; I know what delaying the deals means. Every day increases fear, danger, and suffering. We must not wait, and we must not delay because every passing day increases the concern that, in the end, there will be no one left to bring back."

Har, who was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was later freed in a daring military operation in Rafah in February 2024. In his interview, he described the terrifying moments of his abduction, his prolonged captivity in the home of a Hamas operative in southern Gaza, and his eventual rescue and return to Israel. Violent abduction

"The terrorists burst into our safe room; there were five of us there," Har recounted. "We started shouting, 'Don't shoot! Don't shoot!' They yelled in Arabic and dragged us out violently. Those with hair were pulled by their hair; the others, like me, who are bald, were pulled by their clothes and pushed. On the way out, I looked around and saw the entire house filled with terrorists shouting, banging on the furniture with their weapons, shooting, and smashing glass. The living room, kitchen, and rooms were packed with them."

A scene of chaos outside
Har described the devastation he saw outside. "I saw other homes that had also been broken into. All the doors were open, and the yards were empty and silent. It seemed like they had already taken all the residents of the kibbutz captive. Someone had stolen a bicycle and tied a child’s small tractor to it. There were many women and teenagers looting houses, running in all directions, and trying to enter homes along with the terrorists. It looked like a surreal movie."

The captives were led through a breach in the kibbutz’s fence to waiting vehicles. "A white Toyota screeched to a halt and quickly loaded us in amidst shouts and urgency," he said.

Har noted the terror in Mia [Leimberg], a fellow captive: "Mia was in shock, utterly terrified. She was holding the dog and not speaking. But we spoke in Spanish among ourselves. We said, 'Let’s pretend we don’t understand Hebrew or Arabic to minimize contact with the terrorists.'

The car was filled with weapons—mortars, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)—and we were sitting on top of them. Above us were five terrorists, shooting upwards and shouting 'Allahu Akbar.'

They trampled us as if we were rags."

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

The night before the first three women hostages were released, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the nation. Attempting to placate a nation appalled at the prospect of another terrorist release, the prime minister made a promise [emphasis added]. “We have established that terrorists who have killed will not be released to Judea and Samaria; they will be expelled to the Gaza Strip or abroad, and we also decided in the cabinet on a very significant reinforcement of our forces in Judea and Samaria to protect our citizens,” said Bibi.

Because we have been lied to before, we didn’t really believe this declaration. But it didn’t much matter. The only difference between a terrorist who has killed and one who hasn’t, is that in the first instance, the victims died, and in the second, they lived. That is why the distinction isn’t much comfort to the 5,700 or so Jewish residents of Beit El. Of the first 200 terrorists released in this deal, 114 of them were sent to Ramallah, adjacent to Beit El.

One woman in my town of Efrat heard that a further 22 terrorists “who have not killed” were released to Hebron, quite close to us. I asked how she knows this, since everything about the mass terrorist release has been cloaked in mystery. It turns out her son’s friend is serving there. He said he would have been safer in Gaza.

In truth, there is a general air of despondency here. Many assume that what we hear about the terrorist release is not true, or at least not the whole truth, because so little information filters down to the common man that it makes us suspicious. Others are more pragmatic. “I'm not sure it's a ‘lie’ as much as politics and hands tied and deals behind the scenes,” says Chani Ugowitz of Efrat.

Be that as it may, the lack of information has created an air of distrust. Victim families directly affected by the release have yet to be contacted by the government. Those of us who live in close proximity to locations where terrorists will now roam free, have not been briefed.

“This is a crazy complicated situation. I am so against this "deal"/ blackmail but know so many people that are going with it because they feel we had no choice. We tried the other way and it didn't work. I don't know. Makes me mad, scared, and sad,” says Ugowitz.

“It’s incredibly painful,” said another Efrat friend, Rachel Schwartz, “Statistically, half of those will do another terror attack. 170 out of 200 hundred that were released had life sentences. Varda, it is so incredibly painful. I can’t stand it.”

I had heard the same figure regarding terrorist recidivism. But it seems this figure has been updated. Lt. Col. (res.) Attorney Morris Hirsch formerly of the Military Prosecutor’s Office, writes that [emphasis added], “[As] part of the cabinet discussion going into approving the deal, the head of the Shin Bet noted that 82% of those released in the Shalit deal returned to terrorism.”

In the frightening Hebrew-language article, Without you knowing: This is how Israeli terrorists will be released back to the country, Hirsch shares a further, little known but profoundly disturbing fact, “The list of terrorists who will be released as part of the deal includes no less than 73 terrorists who hold Israeli citizenship or residency. This means they will be released back to the country.”

“Of that list, 21 terrorists are serving life sentences – that is, murderers. Of these, eight terrorists are to be released to Israel (within the 1949 armistice lines), while the rest are to be deported, although at this stage it is not clear where,” writes Hirsch. “Five of the eight are affiliated with Hamas and the rest with Fatah. All eight were arrested between 2001 and 2003, during the terror attacks initiated by the PA, starting in September 2000.”

All in all, of the 73 Israeli terrorists to be released from prison, 45 will be released into Israel, writes Hirsch, “while the remaining 28 terrorists will be deported abroad, either temporarily (3 terrorists) or permanently (25 terrorists).”

We may not know nearly enough about the terms of this deal but one thing seems certain, exactly none of the terrorists slated for release will be deported to America. President Trump wants Americans to feel safe. He doesn’t want any more innocents killed, people like Jocelyn Nungary and Riley Laken. So Mr. Trump is having these criminal elements deported. He doesn’t want them in his country.

“And there they are deporting murderers and criminals,” said Chani Ugowitz of the new administration, “while forcing us to take them to our streets with our children.

“I've gotten very harsh in my views since the war and I don't like it but I don't like how the other side has pushed me to think in an "us or them" mentality. There is no partner on the other side of the negotiation table so it becomes blackmail on their end and force on ours.”

Then too, what does it say about Israel that we’re freeing murderers into the wind? Whatever it was that was held over Bibi’s head to agree to this deal, it’s hard to hear that it was worth letting these murderers roam loose. Why would anyone even ask us to do so?

“How depressing that monsters like these are the price of getting innocent Israelis freed from the Hamas underworld,” remarked Arnold Roth, father of 15-year-old terror victim Malki Roth, murdered in a pizzeria. “and that there's no one so monstrous that Israel would keep him or her in prison if the blackmail demands were perceived as warranting an even more painful surrender.”

Meantime, outside of Israel, Jews are giving Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff multiple ovations (!) for forcing Israel into accepting Biden’s May horrific deal. Yet he managed to get not a single American hostage released.

What then, was the point?

I wonder if President Trump is aware that among the terrorists released or slated for release in this deal, are many who were convicted of murdering Americans. JD Vance begged us Israeli Americans to vote for Trump, and we did. Now we wonder at the betrayal of American Israeli victims of terror whose murderers we were leaned on to release.

Why was Israel pressed into this deal now, when we were ahead of the game, when we were winning, when we were no longer between a rock and a hard place because it was no longer Joe Biden threatening us, slow-walking arms, and supplying the enemy with cash dollars? Trump had won and could now push Hamas into releasing the captives with just a few threatening words. Why then force Israel to release murderers from Israeli jails into the wild?

Will we ever know why we were compelled by Trump to sign a bad deal months after it had been rejected? Or why not one American hostage has yet been released since this ceasefire was implemented. As of this writing, Keith Siegel is not to be released in this latest batch of hostages, and we know he is fast fading. Emily Damari was so worried about Siegel that she offered to switch places and let him go first. Hamas refused.

Keith Siegel, an dual American citizen held captive in Gaza

So we watch as no Americans are released, but the murderers of Americans like Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who were blown up in the Hillel Café on the night before what would have been Nava’s wedding are going free in this “deal.”

Dr. David Applebaum, Nava Applebaum, murdered at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem

Member of the cell that killed them, released or about to be.

The same is true of the murderer of American citizen Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan, who were on their way to spend Shabbat with their family when their murderer stoned their car with boulders.

Asher and Yonatan Palmer, murdered when their car was stoned while driving to family for Shabbat

On the list of terrorists demanded by Hamas

Ditto the murderer of Tuvia Yanai Weissman, an American killed by a child terrorist in 2016 while shopping at a supermarket.

Out or about to be out and free as birds.

It was that last name that grabbed at my throat, as I finished scanning a new list of the terrorists to be released, this time in English, from Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). It was just before Shabbat, and I had to shut down my computer, but I remembered that one. I never could get Tuvia Yanai Weissman out of my mind, because of the photo that circulated of him with his young wife and infant son. He had such a beautiful baby face, and his wife’s face was so full of joy and light. How awful to lose her young husband with whom she was clearly smitten. I mentioned Tuvia at the Shabbat table, and my youngest son told me that Weissman’s wife is his friend’s sister.

Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a dual American citizen, murdered in a supermarket.

Every Israeli has multiple connections to multiple terror victims. Connections upon connections upon connections. That’s the way it is.

Ari Fuld, dual American citizen, murdered while talking to his wife on the phone

I wonder: does President Trump feel a connection to the American victims whose murderers are now being set free in this deal we were compelled by his man Witkoff, to sign?

Why don’t we hear President Trump threatening Hamas if they don’t release Keith Siegel, now?

Why don’t we hear Witkoff saying to Hamas, “No. You can’t have the terrorists who killed American citizens. You can’t have the murderers of Americans Marla Bennett and Ben Blustein, exchange students killed in the Hebrew University Cafeteria,” or “No. You can’t have the terrorist who killed American citizen Ari Fuld while he was standing outside a supermarket talking on the phone with his wife,” or “No. You can’t have the murderers of David and Nava Applebaum, or the murderers of Asher and Yonatan Palmer. You can’t have the murderers of Tuvia Yanai Weissman.”

Ben Blustein, American exchange student

Marla Bennett, American exchange student, who along with Ben was murdered in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus

Instead, we hear none of this. We hear people say things like, “What if it were your family members being held in Gaza?” as if those of us who feel as I do, that this “deal” is a horrible, unjust, and dangerous thing, are heartless.

But two things can be true at once. We are joyous at the release of each hostage, and sick at the release of murderers of loved ones we tracked down, caught, and jailed. Where is the justice for the victims?

How do you think their families feel?

And how would you feel if you lived in Beit El, and 114 murderers had just been released next door to your home?