Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, September 07, 2025

The New York Times promotes a terrorist family, implies Israel lies about October 7, and more

Today, the New York Times is featuring the Abu Samra family from Deir al Balah in Gaza as tragic victims of Israeli aggression, tearfully afraid that they are living through another "nakba" and being forced to leave their homes.

It doesn't mention that this family has been associated with terrorism for decades.

The article, written by rabidly anti-Israel reporter Raja Abdulrahim, starts off with her typical bias where any facts that might make a reader sympathize with Israel is treated as suspect.

Here is its framing of the events of October 7:

Hamas waged its surprise attack on Israel, storming across the border on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people — most of them civilians, according to the Israeli government — and seizing about 250 others as hostages. Israel then launched its war in Gaza, killing tens of thousands and leaving generations of Palestinians to experience displacement and hunger, and the fear that they would never see their homes again.

The majority of victims of October 7 were civilians - but only if you believe the Israeli government. The New York Times isn't quite sure, you see.

But it is certain who launched the war: Israel. Before that was merely a "surprise attack," completely independent of anything else. There is no "according to Hamas' health ministry" for the "killing tens of thousands" to parallel the caveat for Israeli victims.

The centerpiece of the article, however, is the Abu Samra family of Deir al Balah. Abdulrahim describes how they were fearful when the war began, and many fled to Egypt, paying huge amounts of money to escape. Yet their patriarch, 87-year old Abdallah Abu Samra, was not able to leave, because of some capricious Israeli decision: according to the family, Israel placed a "security block" on him. So he is left in Gaza, homeless with only a few family members, just like he was in 1948.

Awful, isn't it?

Here's a photo of the Abu Samra family home in Deir al Balah from before the war.

This is a five -story mansion.

Such houses are often seen in the West Bank, but in Gaza, where land is at a premium, almost no one lives in such a house.

Unless they have connections.

What Raja Abdulrahim doesn't mention is that the Abu Samra clan of Deir al Balah has been associated with Hamas and other terror groups for years, which would explain how they could live in such an opulent home.

Meet Qassam Brigades commander Mahmoud Ahmed Abu Samra from Deir al Balah:

Palestine Remembered describes his family as a "good, generous and blessed family that loved resistance." Mahmoud himself participated in a suicide car bomb attack on the humanitarian aid site at Kerem Shalom in April 2008, which injured 13 IDF soldiers.

In 2015, on the eighth anniversary of the attack, Hamas organized a march from a mosque to the Abu Samra home to pay tribute to their "martyr." Here are masked members of the Qassam Brigades together with the Abu Samra children in what is almost certainly the same palatial house that the New York Times showed:

Also from Deir al Balah is Awda Mahmoud Abu Samra, a leader of the Nasser Salah Din Brigades:

He was responsible for a number of rocket attacks on Sderot as well as other attacks, listed here. He was "martyred" in 2005, and his obituary notes that his father was also a terrorist who spent time in Israeli prisons.

But Abu Samra's family association with Hamas didn't end years ago. Asharq al Awsat notes an incident this year where a Hamas policeman shot and killed a child of the Abu Samra family, and they publicly executed the policeman. The article mentions that Israel "killed at least 20 members of the Abu Samra clan during the current war, including activists affiliated with Hamas."

This terrorist family is who the New York Times is framing as tragic victims of another Nakba.

There is no way that Raja Abdulrahim is not aware of the history of the Abu Samra clan. But she sure doesn't want the readers of the New York Times to know any of this.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Harpers magazine - trash pretending to be intellectual

I don't remember why I started getting Harpers in the mail, but it is an astoundingly bad magazine. And of course it is doctrinally anti-Israel.

In the current issue there are three articles that feature Israel of Jews.

The first employs a typical Harpers trick, usually seen in its "Harpers Index" section: take a bunch of facts and position them, out of context, to create a narrative.

The impression they want to give is Bibi has been lying about Iran's nuclear program for decades. It doesn't bother mentioning that the IAEA, US and European intelligence as well as records seized by Israel show that Iran has been acting completely consistently with an offensive nuclear program non-stop.

Then they use initial leaked intel to pretend that the US strikes on Iran did little damage, had no purpose, and in fact makes Iran more dangerous:

The fact is that no one knows yet how much damage occurred. But it is several months later and we are not seeing indications that Iran is rushing to enrich lots more uranium so quick.

The third article was a review of a book about antisemitism, written by an editor of the far-left Jewish Currents. Its last paragraph suggests that the real victims of antisemitism nowadays are Arabs, while the rest of the article claims that Zionists are weaponizing the claim - exactly how Hamas looks at antisemitism.

But even the rest of the magazine is pseudo-intellectual. A long article about owning cats, a condescending article about Christian schools, another long piece about naked women talking in a sauna. This is all pretending that these self-centered readers are expanding their horizons by pruriently gazing at parts of the world that they want no part of but that they want to pretend to show interest in. To Harpers, the world is a series of museum exhibits of strange peoples under glass and then the viewers can call themselves cultured for even knowing they exist.

The Harpers Index and the similar last page "Findings" give a series of random-sounding facts that are in fact highly curated to ensure that the magazine's readers are not exposed to any facts that might make them uncomfortable - anything conservative is positioned as Neanderthal if it is mentioned at all.

I don't care so much about today's intellectuals acting condescending - they always have. But Harpers represents how people who pretend to be elite are just as ignorant, just as prone to conspiracy theories and just as closed-minded as the people they despise.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

09/06 Links: Israel releases 22 Minutes of Oct7 footage; The insanity of 7th October denial; First Image of Alon Ohel after 700 Days; The Gaza flotilla is a fraud

From Ian:

Eve Barlow: 22 Minutes

It has taken until 700 days for Israel to get permissions from families and friends to freely distribute 22 minutes of the 47 minutes of footage that was initially shown to journalists in private screenings following the October 7 massacre. I was one of those journalists. I endured the entire 47 minute screening. I averted my eyes a few times, and just listened to sounds. For the most part, I kept my eyes open, no matter how horrifying, because I needed to bear witness to the atrocities to know that I understand October 7 and that I know why the IDF is in Gaza. I needed to see it all to strengthen my resolve in the face of a two-year-long media onslaught that has since taken place to frame Israel as the aggressor “genocidal” force, when in fact it was Gaza who intended to commit a genocide on that black Shabbat, 700 days ago.

It must be noted that there is vastly more than 22 - or even 47 - minutes of bodycam and CCTV and cellphone footage. This is a snapshot of what Israel had to face on the day that would never end. On the day that still has yet to end. For us, it is still October 7, 700 days later. We are yet to wake up from the nightmare. If you’re still here reading, thank you. You are one person yet to cave to public pressure, yet to be so gaslit by the narrative that you no longer can see right from wrong and good from evil, yet to vote with your feet and leave the Jews in the darkness alone once more.

700 days. The last 700 days has shown us the truth of the world both outward and inward. A gargantuan test. We are still standing and we keep fighting for the truth and for the 48 hostages - dead and alive - who remain in captivity.

Our adversaries have stopped at nothing, aiding Hamas’s strategy to seduce the world and usher in a feverish call to banish the Jews from public life. The other week I was at coffee with a friend. He said that he heard a one word definition of antisemitism. Impossible, I thought. “Libel”, he said. Wow. That’s it. The world has bathed in it for almost two years following the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Bathed in it like it was a vintage bottle of Dom Perignon. Champagne socialists have turned the word Zionist into a slur and made Jew hatred the socially acceptable form of racism among every class. They have picked their own self-hating Jews to speak to their agenda, turning our own brothers and sisters against us. They have made Israel stand trial for defending her right to exist in the face of a regime that would wipe her off the map and replace her with yet another Arab colonized state: Palestine.

Andrew Fox: The insanity of 7th October denial

There is a direct line from this video of Hamas atrocities to the hysteria and denial of the pro-Palestine mob. Their need to scream at the top of their voice at the slightest supposed evidence of Israeli “genocide” is a pathetic compensation for the cognitive dissonance 7th October causes them, and their inability to process its sheer scale and horror.

Hamas has to bombard us with some real, some fake, some heavily manipulated snuff clips from Gaza until we go mad. If they didn’t, people would look 7th October and never forgive them. All those screeching hordes would be silenced if they had to watch that video and be honest about it. Hamas’s media campaign from Gaza gives them a get-out-of-jail-free card to carry on, untroubled by the mass rape and the slaughter of Israeli civilians.

The world has to drown out 7th October by heaping opprobrium on Israel as a behemoth of evil. If it didn’t, these people would have to face what happened on 7th October. Even worse, they would have to face their own complicity. Of course the UN is colluding and lying about Gaza, because through UNRWA and other agencies, it helped 7th October happen by at least turning a blind eye, at worst actively enabling it.

Owen Jones is the template; this phenomenon in microcosm. Something in him broke when he saw that video: not just his prejudice about Israel and Palestine but his own belief in humanity. He came out having looked at the Medusa and not having an answer. He has spent nearly two years deflecting 7th October with a mirror of confected outrage, because that video challenged every belief he held about “Palestine”. Accepting the truth would have turned his foolishly-held conviction to stone. Now he spends his days trolling from oCcUpPieD pALesTiNe.

Since witnessing the video, Owen has since invested everything in ignoring and disregarding the atrocity of 7th October, throwing himself into pretending that everything that has come since is far worse, so that he can hide from his own shock, fear and confusion. This is reflected in the madness of the pro-Palestinian mob: they cannot accept that Israelis were ever victims, and so they ignore and deny not only Hamas’s actions on 7th October, but also Hamas’s actions in sacrificing the people of Gaza.

Here is the video in the first reply. I challenge you to make it through more than five minutes.

09/05 Links Pt2: IAGS: Academic Fraud and Complicity in Propaganda Warfare; The CBS Meltdown Over Bari Weiss; Spanish FM backs banning Israeli cyclists; 53 years since the Munich massacre

From Ian:

Statement Condemning the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) for Academic Fraud and Complicity in Propaganda Warfare

The resolution’s accusation of genocide by Israel is a baseless fabrication, unsupported by evidence and a shameful misuse of the term “genocide.” The following facts dismantle this fraud:

1. Humanitarian Realities: Gaza’s population has grown since the conflict began. Israel facilitates substantial aid, including increased caloric supplies and polio vaccinations, actions fundamentally incompatible with genocidal intent.

2. Israel’s Civilian Protections: Israel issues evacuation warnings before military operations, a practice antithetical to genocide. Conversely, Hamas, which initiated this war and holds hostages, could end the conflict instantly by releasing them but refuses to negotiate.

3. Fabricated Narratives: Allegations of starvation rely on manipulated images. Active markets and restaurants in Gaza contradict claims of systemic deprivation.

4. Complicity of International Actors: Many humanitarian agencies fail to denounce Hamas’s terrorism or advocate for peace, instead amplifying anti-Israel narratives that perpetuate a cycle of violence for political ends.

Categorical Evidence Against Genocide Accusations: The claim that Israel’s actions constitute genocide is not only false but impossible under the legal and factual circumstances, as demonstrated by the following:

- Absence of Genocidal Intent: Genocide requires specific intent to destroy a group “as such” (1948 Genocide Convention). Israel’s actions target Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, not Palestinians as a group. Military operations focus on combatants, with documented efforts to minimize civilian harm, such as precision strikes and warnings.

- Population Growth and Aid: Gaza’s population has increased, and Israel has facilitated massive humanitarian aid, including 1.5 million tons of supplies since October 2023, contradicting claims of intent to destroy. Conditions of life are not calculated to cause physical destruction but are impacted by Hamas’s diversion of aid.

- Hamas’s Role in Prolonging Conflict: Hamas’s refusal to release hostages and its use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes (e.g., tunnels under hospitals) drives the conflict’s intensity. Israel’s response is a legitimate act of self-defense, not a genocidal campaign.

By being deliberately deceived into endorsing this propaganda, IAGS has abandoned its scholarly mission and become an active combatant in the information war. A small faction of activists has manipulated the organization, exploiting its pay-to-join structure to push a false narrative. The consequences are catastrophic: IAGS has destroyed its own credibility, reduced itself to an absurdity, and disgraced the field of genocide studies.

I demand the immediate retraction of this fraudulent resolution and the expulsion of every signatory who endorsed it. These individuals, having exploited a vulnerable organization for propaganda, must be held accountable for this academic travesty. The damage to IAGS’s reputation and the broader field of genocide studies is profound and irreparable.

Palestinian statehood recognition now betrays Labour’s better traditions

The Labour Party has a complex history with Israel. The post-war Labour government neither intended to recognise the Jewish state nor support its UN membership, abstaining from the UN Partition vote in 1947. Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin told his US counterpart that Britain was “unanimous” in opposing a Jewish state, calling the Balfour Declaration an “unfortunate error.”

After the vote, Bevin condemned President Truman’s recognition of Israel, insisting borders not be recognised and the arms embargo maintained. Labour systematically tried to sabotage the UN Partition Resolution, such as offering “wholehearted support” for the Bernadotte Plan, which would have removed 60% of the Jewish state. They were among the few to abstain from the 1949 vote admitting Israel to the UN.

Yet Labour giants like Nye Bevan and Richard Crossman celebrated the new state. Harold Wilson, the only modern prime minister to win four general elections, continued this legacy throughout the 1960s and 70s, expressing reverence for “social democrats who made the desert flower.”

However, Soviet bloc support for Israel reversed from the late 1960s, with extreme anti-Zionist propaganda infecting the far-left, including then-outsiders Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway.

Tony Blair’s leadership saw Labour reaffirm close ties with Israel as a fellow democracy surrounded by hostile actors, clinging to liberal values in an anti-democratic region plagued by extremism.

Today, Starmer’s Labour holds little influence with Israel. Foreign Minister David Lammy allegedly couldn’t secure a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister during his visit. When two Labour MPs were barred from Israel for calling for sanctions, 70 colleagues were reduced to a protest photoshoot.

After hostile diplomatic gestures, Sir Keir dramatically announced UK recognition of a Palestinian state — presumably for cynical electoral reasons, after feeling squeezed by vocal anti-Israel backbenchers and independents who make Gaza their core policy offering.

But pandering to extremists for whom Labour can never be extreme enough is unacceptable when voices of reason are so desperately needed. The government cannot explain the borders it will recognise and has no clear idea how the Palestinian Authority can exercise governance. It seemingly hasn’t noticed that the PA relies on aid, is deeply unpopular, corrupt, has lost control of West Bank areas to Iran-backed terror groups, pays salaries to convicted terrorists, and glorifies violence and racism to children.

Lammy replaced by Cooper as Foreign Secretary

David Lammy has been replaced as Foreign Secretary by former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in a major cabinet reshuffle.

In another surprise move Shabana Mahmood becomes the new Home Secretary.

Tottenham MP Lammy – who has been a divisive figure within the community for his stance on the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and moves to recognise a Palestinian state – has been appointed Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister.

In her role Home Secretary Cooper had proscribed the Palestine Action group, and had worked with police chief over incidents of antisemitism at pro-Palestine demos.

Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary, CST Fundraising Dinner 2025. (C) Blake Ezra Photography

She has also been a regularly attendee at the Community Security Trust’s annual dinners, along with her husband Ed Balls.

Lammy had been scheduled to fly out to the Gulf imminently to meet senior officials in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the next few days to try to build a consensus around a framework for lasting peace in the region.

His role as Deputy PM will still offer Lammy the chance to use his diplomatic skills.

Cooper will now also be handed a central role over the imminent move by the UK to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23.

But Cooper has received criticism of the failure to get a grip on the small boats crisis.

09/05 Links Pt1: The Choice: Trump or Obama; Hamas releases video of hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel; Hold Jordan accountable: Extradite Sbarro terrorist Ahlam Tamimi

From Ian:

Lee Smith: The Choice: Trump or Obama

It seems important that Trump and Netanyahu’s campaign of purposeful misdirection preceding the Iran strikes was designed to fool not only the Iranians and their U.S. allies throughout media, academia, and the think-tank world, but also MAGA influencers who opposed military action to end Iran’s nuclear program. So long as they thought they’d boxed Trump in, outing a plot to stop Iran and its proxies that was contrived by a “neocon” cabal inside the administration that was destined to fail, these influencers favored the president they deemed vulnerable to their threats as well as their blandishments. After all, what was Trump without them?

Thus, Bannon must have been confident he’d be able to talk sense into Trump and dissuade him from striking Iran when the president invited him to the White House for lunch as doomsday for Iran’s nuclear program approached. Because Bannon’s echo chamber celebrated him as a savior, and because the anti-Trump schemers inside MAGA can’t fathom the thought that they’re utterly irrelevant without Trump, he was unprepared to find that Trump had used him as a decoy. Thus, after the president joined Israel’s efforts against Iran, Bannon, Carlson, and the rest were in open rebellion against Trump. The only other place on the board they could move to was Obama.

The MAGA cohort voicing its contempt for Israel and pro-Israel activists—and loathing for the Israeli leader with whom Trump has made a historic alliance—characterizes its stance by drawing on historical Republican models such as Buchanan. They’re not left-wingers, no; rather, according to them, they’re Buchananites.

The problem is that Pat Buchanan, who expressed his disdain for Israel supporters among the representatives of the U.S. public by labeling them Israel’s “amen corner” in Congress, was a presidential speechwriter and later a third-party presidential candidate. He never implemented policy because he wasn’t the president and never got close to being president. The president who implemented a policy to replace Israel and the Jews with the negation of Israel and the Jews is Obama. On the other side is Trump. In that framework, it’s clear that the aim of the nominally pro-Trump figures attacking the U.S.-Israel alliance is to complete Obama’s project and sever the United States from Israel and cut us off from our history.

Bannon is zeroing in on the strategic aspect of the U.S.-Israel relationship by claiming that Netanyahu is corrupt and Israel is weak and worthless as an ally. Israel is a protectorate, says Bannon. The Jews needed Trump to finish the job in Iran, and now they’re trying to drag America into a regime-change war. To help sell his case, Bannon draws on Obama partners such as Iran lobbyist Trita Parsi, a chief spokesman for the Iran nuclear deal.

Carlson, on the other hand, is focused on the American majority. Obama went after the Jews, but for Carlson, it’s Christians, in particular evangelicals, the bedrock of pro-Israel America. It seems that his slate of shows on religious or spiritual topics is purposed to build an evangelical audience—a potentially self-defeating endeavor, since selling despair, sowing confusion, and peddling lies about the Jews while comforting their hunters may give evidence to believers that a man who claims to have been attacked by demons lost that skirmish.

The more practical problem is that evangelicals understand not only scripture but also American history better than Carlson and his guests do. Americans’ love of Israel didn’t start at the dawn of the 20th century, thanks to a best-selling Bible commentary; rather, it’s contemporaneous with our founding. That is, the small upstate New York town founded in 1714, for instance, was named Goshen not because of the 1902 Scofield Bible, but because our forefathers believed that the American project is rooted in the history, faith, and trials of the Jews.

Replacing Israel and the Jews with the negation of Israel and the Jews means not only undermining our historical and cultural foundations but also exposing our constitutional republic to extinction-level danger. A Palestinian Youth Movement conference last week in Dearborn, Michigan, gave evidence of what happens when the enemies of the Jews are raised to pride of place: threats of assassinating pro-Israel officials and disrupting American supply lines and commerce, all in the name of anti-Zionist resistance.

Even before Biden collapsed our borders, we lost thousands of miles from our eastern-most frontier, Europe; the continent is on the verge of collapse under the weight of foreign populations whose values and ideas are incommensurate with the civilization the West built on the foundations laid long ago in Jerusalem. Our flank is increasingly exposed because we have no other ally who can or wants to fight to preserve our past and ensure our future. It’s the United States and Israel alone. Thus, the choice for us is stark: America or the hellfire, Trump or Obama.

Hold Jordan accountable: Extradite Sbarro terrorist Ahlam Tamimi

There have been some indications of American pressure on Jordan of late. On Oct. 1, 2020, for instance, Tamimi’s husband, Nizar Tamimi, was forced to leave the country after Jordan refused to renew his residency permit. He currently resides in Qatar.

Earlier this summer, the Trump administration was asked about Tamimi during a State Department Press Briefing as a reporter questioned what was “preventing” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio from pushing the Jordanians to enforce Tamimi’s extradition. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce promised to get more information.

The issue was raised two days later at another State Department press briefing. This time, the question was tied to President Trump’s Day One executive order declaring that America and its citizens come first.

Noting that Jordan receives more than a billion dollars in aid each here, the reporter asked a State Department spokesperson. “How is it conceivable that Tamimi is still there, and any of that falls under these dictates of what American foreign policy is supposed to be, with three dead Americans at Tamimi’s hands? … the U.S. failure to turn the screws on Jordan is a violation of Trump’s promise that ‘the foreign policy of the United States shall champion core American interests and always put America and American citizens first.’”

This time, it was deputy spokesperson Thomas Pigott who proved a tepid response, saying the United States “has continually emphasized” to Jordan that Tamimi has to be held accountable, and that the United States “continues to impress” upon them that she should be brought to justice. This response, however, likely fell far short of the kind of pressure the reporter was asking about.

But it does seem that some more concrete steps to extradite Tamimi are being taken.

On July 17, the Roths met with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who plays a key role in extraditions. They also had a private meeting in May with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and presented him with a petition with more than 30,000 signatures urging more pressure on Jordan. However, the Roths have yet to meet with Rubio.

For years, Tamimi’s continued freedom has been a blatant symbol of impunity and a painful affront to the victims’ families. Yet lately, we are seeing signs of pressure being applied to the Trump administration. The recent involvement of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, continued high-level meetings and public pressure signal a possible shift and re-energizing of the push to finally hold Jordan accountable for its obligations.

It’s time to force Jordan to choose: Tamimi or $1.5 billion.

Trump signs order that punishes those who detain Americans illegally

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that creates a designation for state sponsors of wrongful detention of Americans.

A senior U.S. official told reporters that the public can appreciate the measure’s consequential nature by watching videos of Israeli-American Eden Alexander’s White House-brokered release from Hamas captivity earlier this year and Ksenia Karelina’s arrival on American soil after Washington intervened to secure her release from Russia.

“Listen to the voices of the American citizens, who were liberated as hostages and wrongfully detained, and that will give you the significance of the action the president is taking this afternoon,” the official said.

Senior Trump administration officials told reporters that designating states that support detaining Americans wrongfully is based on sanctions of state terror sponsors but has a different scope and purpose. The new designation aims to turn such detentions from a potential asset to a liability, they said.

Under the new order, Washington could bar officials and nationals from the offending country from entering the United States.

The U.S. government interprets the designation “wrongful detention” based on the degree to which the country’s judicial system is impartial, evidence presented against the alleged offender and whether the detention appears to be used as leverage to extract concessions from Washington, the senior officials said.

If offending countries don’t release wrongfully detained Americans prior to penalties being imposed, the new order could also limit U.S. passport holders from traveling to those states.

“We are drawing a very clear delineation today—a line in the sand,” a Trump administration official told reporters. “You will not use Americans as bargaining chips, and there will be severe consequences for anyone who thinks that that which was done under the Biden regime can continue under the second Trump administration.”

The order applies to entities that control significant territory, even if they aren’t recognized governments.

Jordan Is Still Harboring a Terrorist While America Is Paying the Bill (Daled Amos)

by Daled Amos

(Part of this article originally appeared on JNS.org)

Jordan’s defiance in protecting Ahlam Tamimi—the terrorist who masterminded the 2001 Sbarro Massacre—may be even more appalling than the attack itself. For more than two decades, Jordan has celebrated Tamimi as a hero while rejecting U.S. demands to honor its 1995 extradition treaty and surrender her to face justice. In July 2021, Arnold Roth, whose 15-year-old daughter Malki was murdered in the bombing, posed a painful question in The Free Press: Will Joe Biden Grant My Daughter Justice?

The lives of three U.S. nationals and one unborn American child ended in the Sbarro conflagration. One was a newly married young woman, herself an only child, visiting from New Jersey. She was pregnant with her first baby. Next, a young mother was catastrophically brain-damaged, alive but in a vegetative coma to this day. (The toddler daughter she was eating pizza with survived unharmed and grew up motherless.) And finally, our Malki, an American citizen because her mother is a native New Yorker.

The mother succumbed to her injuries and passed away in 2023.

Jordan defends its refusal to extradite Tamimi to the US, claiming the treaty is not valid and was never ratified. Jordan's claim is bogus.

Roth points out that for more than 20 years, Jordan never denied the validity of the treaty. On the contrary, Jordan has extradited 3 Jordanian terrorists to the US in accordance with the agreement:

In 1995, Eyad Ismoil was extradited to the US for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

In 2006, Mohammad Zaki Amawi was extradited for plotting attacks against US targets.

In 2015, Nader Saadeh was extradited for conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS. Saadeh, along with others, allegedly planned to travel to Syria to join ISIS and engage in terrorist activities.

The treaty's validity was further established in 2021, when Roth and his wife sued the US government for documents related to the extradition treaty under the Freedom of Information Act. Among the documents was the declaration by King Hussein to the US government on July 13, 1995, giving his personal guarantee on the treaty:

With the help of God and His guidance,

We, Hussein I, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, having reviewed the Extradition Treaty signed in Washington on March 28, 1995 between the Government of the Hashemite [Kingdom] of Jordan and the Government of the United States of America, do hereby declare our agreement to and ratification of that Treaty in whole and in part. We further pledge to carry out its provisions and abide by its Articles, and We, God willing, shall not allow its violation.

Accordingly, we have ordered that Our Seal be affixed to it, and We have signed it properly.

Issued on this day the Fifteenth of Safar, 1416 H, corresponding to July 13, 1995, by the Hashemite Court.

The Roths received the State Department's authorized Arabic-to-English translation:

It was accompanied by a copy of the Arabic original:

In past years, there has been political pressure in Washington for extradition, or at least for an explanation of the government's timid acceptance of Jordan's refusal to take action. On March 19, 2019, twenty Congressmen sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Pompeo, requesting the US State Department maintain the extradition of Al-Tamimi as a high priority with the Government of Jordan." On August 22, 2019, Jerry Nadler, then Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General William P. Barr, asking that he "provide information regarding the current status of the DOJ's effort to overcome [Jordan's] objections" and that he "resolve this case swiftly." The series of Congressional letters culminated with a letter in April 30, 2020, addressed to the Jordanian ambassador, concluding that "seeing Jordan provide a professed bomber with legal impunity...amounts to a deeply troubling scenario."

There have been some indications of results from that pressure. On October 1, 2020, Nizar Tamimi, the husband of Ahlam Tamimi, was forced to leave the country when the government refused to renew his residency permit. He currently resides in Qatar, while his wife stays in Jordan.

Pressure on the Trump Administration was also evident last month, during the State Department Press Briefing on July 22nd. Mike Wagenheim, the senior US correspondent for I24 News, asked:

Number one, Justice Department officials held a discussion on Thursday with the parents of Malki Roth, the American citizen who was murdered with two others in the Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem back in 2001. The discussion centered around the possible extradition of Jordanian national Ahlam Tamimi. The Jordanians get a billion and a half dollars a year in foreign aid. Democratic and Republican administrations have skated by on this extradition issue for a decade and a half now at least. What’s preventing Secretary Rubio from pushing the Jordanians to finally go through with this extradition?

Spokesperson Tammy Bruce promised to get more information. Two days later, Wagenheim was back:

Last question for you. Hopefully I’ll drag an answer out of you on this one. I asked in Tuesday’s briefing about why Secretary Rubio is not pushing harder for the extradition of Ahlam al-Tamimi from Jordan. I was given a written answer by the State Department on that yesterday, after you guys took it back. It basically said we continue to impress upon the Government of Jordan to bring her to justice.

President Trump said on day one – his executive order – American citizens come first in American foreign policy, America and American citizens. Secretary Rubio put out his three questions. Every dollar spent, every program has to answer in the affirmative one of three questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous? I’m sure you have these memorized by heart. A billion and a half dollars of foreign aid to Jordan – how is it conceivable that Tamimi is still there and any of that falls under these dictates of what American foreign policy is supposed to be, with three dead Americans at Tamimi’s hands?

Deputy spokesperson Thomas Pigott responded that the US "has continually emphasized" to Jordan that Tamimi has to be held accountable and that the US "continues to impress" upon them that she should be brought to justice--not the kind of pressure Wagenheim was asking about.

But more concrete steps are being discussed. On July 17, the Roths met with Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, who plays a key role in extraditions, in a video conference. They have yet to meet with the Secretary of State in their pursuit of justice, though they did meet with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on May 13 during a private meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 13, when they presented him with a petition with over 30,000 signatures urging more pressure on Jordan.

August 9th marked the 24th anniversary of the Sbarro Massacre.

For years, Tamimi’s continued freedom has been a blatant symbol of impunity and a painful affront to the victims’ families. Lately, we are again seeing signs of pressure being applied to the Trump Administration. The recent involvement of the U.S. Attorney’s office, continued high-level meetings, and public pressure signal a possible shift and a re-energizing of the push to finally hold Jordan accountable for its obligations. It’s time to put aid on the line and force Jordan to choose between Tamimi and $1.5 billion.

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PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Johann Andreas Eisenmenger was a 17th century German figure who may have done more to influence antisemitism over the past half-millennium than anyone else.

He is best known for his work Entdecktes Judenthum (Judaism Unmasked), the original source for the false and out-of-context Talmudic and rabbinic quotes that remained popular in the 19th century, that the Nazis popularized and that still are used in neo-Nazi (and far Left) antisemitic rhetoric today.

Eisenmenger studied Jewish texts for many years. He was an expert in Hebrew and Aramaic. Some accounts say that he studied with rabbis under the pretext of wanting to convert.

Entdecktes Judenthum was the culmination of this work - a 2,000 page, seemingly scholarly treatise on Jewish sources, organized well.

Eisenmenger's quotes were accurate, but cherry picked - no counter-examples were given, snippets of discussion were yanked out of the full text, minority opinions were promoted as Jewish law. He intended from the start to create a work that appeared scholarly but his conclusions were decided before he wrote a word: all the quotes are intended to promote his thesis of Judaism as anti-Christian, dishonest, and morally corrupt.

While there were anti-Jewish works before, they were usually framed as theological or polemic, not scholarly. Eisenmenger opened up an entirely new field - antisemitism within the academy masquerading as scholarship.

Is there any difference between the methods of this German antisemite and, say, Amnesty International's report declaring Israel guilty of genocide?

Amnesty had lots of footnotes. Its quotes were accurate. Yet is was, in the aggregate, a huge lie.

Like Eisenmenger, Amnesty took quotes out of context. Like Eisenmenger, Amnesty picked and chose the facts they would present and not even acknowledge the many other quotes that disprove the thesis. And like Eisenmenger, Amnesty decided on their conclusions before writing their report, and therefore only chose the facts that fit their antisemitism. Like Eisenmenger, their published works are propaganda and incitement disguise as scholarship.

Since Eisenmenger, antisemitism has become a respected tradition in the academy. And he is quoted even today by antisemites to justify their hate - just as Amnesty is.

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Chris Martin and Gizmodo: how antisemites are successfully forcing everyone to "other" Israel

By now you have read about how Coldplay's Chris Martin greeted two young fans from Israel on stage:

In the viral video, Avia and Yael, as they identified themselves when asked by lead singer Chris Martin, said they were from Israel, prompting both applause and boos from the crowd.

“I’m very grateful that you’re here, as a human, and I’m treating you as an equal human on earth, regardless of where you come from or don’t come from,” said Martin with the fans still on the stage.

“Although it’s controversial, maybe, I also want to welcome people in the audience from Palestine. Because we have a belief that we’re all equal humans,” he added.

Coldplay has played in Israel and I don't think Martin is an antisemite in any way. What the incident shows is how the very mention of Israel is now automatically something to be singled out or apologetic about.

In other words, the antisemites have successfully managed to associate Israel with evil as a default position, forcing everyone else to address it when the topic comes up. Even people who have no problem with Israel feel compelled to point out that they are not either haters or lovers of Israel because the haters have made Israel a litmus test - even those who want to opt out of that framing are caught in it. This results in the successful "othering" of Israel by everyone, no matter what one's feeling are.

Martin should have handled it better, ignoring the boos and simply saying that it was great that the girls were from Israel - like he would have for any other country. He could have subtly addressed the boos by saying something like "we love all our fans so much!" But it is difficult to do that in the moment.

Instead, Martin acted the way Jerry and George did in the Seinfeld episode where people assumed that they were gay, and they denied it but quickly added "not that there's anything wrong with that" - thereby highlighting the very othering that they don't want to be accused of.

This is quickly becoming a default in every medium.

Gizmodo has an article on an Israeli networking company acquiring another Israeli AI company. And it cannot resist highlighting the Israeli aspect even while protesting that there is nothing wrong with it:

A tricky political backdrop

The fact that everyone involved in the deal is Israeli might not mean much to Wall Street, but it could give the deal a higher profile given the ongoing war in Gaza.

Israeli security firms, or tech of any kind from the country, have received heightened scrutiny by anti-war activists or institutions looking to divest from investments in Israeli communities.

Aim was founded 2022 by Matan Getz (CEO) and Adir Gruss (CTO), both alumni of the IDF’s elite Unit 8200.

Their backgrounds in and of themselves are not remarkable, because all Israelis are required to join the military at the age of 18. But the skills that many Israelis learn in the IDF, which has some of the most advanced technology in warfare and security in the world, have made them a popular draw for investors in technology firms.

If an American or European company was involved, then indeed it might attract the attention of anti-Israel protesters. But an Israeli company buying another? No one would protest that because neither company has any worries about optics of dealing with another Israeli company.

Gizmodo is emphasizing it because it feels compelled to add a disclaimer to any mention of Israel.

It reminds me of how British newspapers would emphasize when anyone arrested was Jewish.

Only Jews were singled out as criminals, even if their Jewishness was irrelevant to the sory.

But this is where we are at - the very mention of Israel is now forcing everyone to take a public position, even if that position is not to take a position. It is a brilliantly successful campaign of modern antisemitism, where any mention of Israel assumed to be controversial, and even those who don't want to play that game feel like they have to.

Once, “the Jew” was automatically tagged in police blotters. Now, “the Israeli” is automatically tagged in business and culture. What’s changed is only the excuse. In both cases, Jews are marked as the exception: not as normal, but as a category apart.

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

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Even according to the Gaza health ministry, fighting age men are by far the majority of those killed in Gaza in recent weeks

Gabriel Epstein has been crunching the numbers from the Gaza Ministry of Health.

We have been seeing that the percentage of deaths that are fighting age men have been increasing even according to the MoH in recent months. And since July 31, that has been 59.44%.

We know from the past that the "children" are overweighted for boys 16 and over. So if you call them fighting age as well, the percentage would even be higher.

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

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09/04 Links Pt2: Schrödinger’s terrorists – the genocide scholars who can’t see Hamas; Not “Independent.” Not “Journalism.” Just Propaganda

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: An alternative universe

This relativizing process has corrupted Holocaust memorialization and education, much of which now holds that there have been many holocausts and there was nothing special about the Jews as victims of the Nazis.

The key feature of the Nazi Holocaust—the intention to exterminate not just Jews as people but as a people and wipe them off the face of the earth—has been denied. Instead, the Holocaust has come to mean merely the intentional killing of a lot of people.

The same thing has happened to genocide, the term invented by the legal scholar Raphael Lemkin after World War II to describe the intentional eradication of an entire people.

Today’s anti-Zionists have shifted this definition to encompass occupation, Israeli sovereignty or even Zionism itself.

In a remarkable series of posts on X, Adam Louis-Klein, an anthropology Ph.D. student who researches antisemitism, Zionism and Jewish peoplehood, has shredded the prevalent thinking of academics in “genocide studies.”

They openly argue, he writes, that the legal definition of genocide needs to be discarded, stretched or reinterpreted—because they know it doesn’t apply to Israel and they aim to turn it into a weapon to use against the Jewish state alone.

Louis-Klein quotes Dirk Moses, editor of the Journal of Genocide Research, who has argued that when non-state actors commit what he calls “subaltern [lower rank] genocide” they aren’t committing a crime but engaging in a necessary and justified act of resistance. In other words, genocide from the right direction is righteous.

Moses has argued that the distinction between war and genocide is irrelevant because motivation isn’t important. “What does it matter to civilians if they’re killed by violence with genocidal or military intent?” he wrote.

This reasoning is morally bankrupt. Without intent, there can be no moral distinction between right and wrong, aggressor and victim. The absence of intent enables those defending themselves against genocide to be blamed for killing their attackers—precisely the obscene inversion the genocide scholars have achieved with Israel and Hamas.

As Louis-Klein has observed, genocide has thus been deployed not to prevent atrocities but to authorize them.

These genocide scholars have no more intellectual authority than a pack of snake-oil salesmen—in fact, rather less, since anyone can join the IAGS for a fee which can be as low as $30 and with no background checks being made. Members include human-rights activists, students, policymakers, artists and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all.

No media outlets that ran with the screaming “genocide scholars say Israel guilty of genocide” headlines bothered to check the credibility of these “leading scholars” and their claims.

It’s the same reason they eagerly swallow the poisonous lies of Al Jazeera’s terrorist “journalists,” or Hamas-compromised U.N. officials, or Gaza’s Hamas “health ministry.” They want to believe the narrative of murderous Israelis and innocent Palestinian victims.

The result is an alternative information universe of fake news, fake journalists, fake famine, fake genocide and fake genocide “scholars,” all pushing the narrative of fake Palestinians and fake Israeli war crimes—to create a fake Palestine state to destroy Israel, the real nation state of the real Jewish people and the lonely citadel of truth in a world of lies.

Wiki Wars

The Oversight Committee’s inquiry raises the stakes, since it will hopefully clarify whether this organized effort is the work of foreign individuals or on behalf of foreign states. Several leading Gang of 40 members appear to be foreign citizens, and at least one edits in a way that seems to be aligned with the interests of Iran.

According to an investigative project on these editors, Zero0000, who was warned in PIA5, is Australian mathematician and computer scientist Brendan McKay, who serves on the editorial board of The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics. McKay’s status as an administrator affords him the ability to block regular editors, delete edits, and remove content not aligned with his views.

The same project identifies Nishidani as Peter Nicholas Dale, also an Australian academic, and the author of a book titled The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness. In violation of Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policies, Nishidani made at least one edit to the book’s entry, specifically to a sentence about Dale. In my previous reporting, I noted that Nishidani worked with Zero0000 and another Gang of 40 member, Selfstudier, to successfully keep a photo of Palestinian leader Amin al-Husseini touring a Nazi concentration camp off of the article about al-Husseini.

Another prominent Gang of 40 figure, Iskandar323, has left a trail of edits that appear to display sympathy for, if not outright allegiance to, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iskandar has gone on “speed runs”—making dozens of edits in short bursts—to wholesale remove mentions of human-rights abuses by the Iranian regime. The article he has contributed more edits to than any other is the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, also known as the MEK, a resistance group that opposes the Iranian regime. Iskandar’s nearly 400 edits to the article demonize the MEK while whitewashing the Iranian government. Nine days before he received his topic ban, Iskandar deleted a sentence about Amnesty International claiming that Iran has engaged in an “ongoing campaign … to demonize victims, distort facts, and repress family survivors and human-rights defenders.”

Last year, a Wikipedia editor submitted a case to ArbCom alleging that Iskandar is part of a group that worked toward the “systematic removal of instances documenting human-rights crimes by Iranian officials on Wikipedia, accompanied by the addition of misleading information favoring the IRP (Islamic Republic Party).” The brief alleged that Iskandar removed “huge amounts of documented human-rights crimes by IRP officials.”

While egregious on its own, the Zionism article is part of a wider effort by the Gang of 40 to advance this very same narrative Levivich seeded in the lead: that Zionism is identical to ethnic cleansing and genocide. One high-profile example is the article now titled “Racial conceptions of Jewish identity in Zionism” (originally begun under a “Zionism, race and genetics” title). The two top editors on that page—Nishidani and Onceinawhile, both leading members of the Gang of 40—account for more than 74% of the article’s content by character count (59.6% and 14.6% respectively, per XTools).

The main thrust of the article, which was created by Onceinawhile in 2023, is to link early Zionist thought to 19th-century “race science,” a move that primes readers to view Zionism through a Nazi-adjacent lens. With the Zionism lead, they imported the central attack of the obscure, relatively recent article they created into the very top of the most important, and most visible, article on the subject.

It’s difficult to fully comprehend how Wikipedia got to this point. A generous explanation is that the Wikipedia system is so hobbled by internal dysfunction that, even with the best of intentions, it can no longer maintain even basic editorial integrity on the most contentious of topics. At worst, Wikipedia has been captured by ideological factions who know how to game the system and weaponize its rules.

After decades of brand storytelling and highly effective PR, the public still holds an implicit belief that, when it comes to Wikipedia, there is still an adult in the room. That may be the site’s greatest illusion. There are currently fewer than a dozen active arbitrators for a site with about 7 million articles. Just as a failing economic or political system breeds rampant corruption, so too does Wikipedia’s essential brokenness invite this kind of information corruption, and potential manipulation by foreign entities.

The Oversight Committee has requested “records, communications, or analysis pertaining to possible coordination by nation state actors in editing activities on Wikipedia,” as well as “records showing identifying and unique characteristics of accounts (such as names, IP addresses, registration dates, user activity logs) for editors subject to actions by ArbCom.” These records may shed more light on whether or how Wikipedia, like other digital platforms, has become another avenue for foreign information operations.

Whatever the underlying cause, Wikipedia now presents a version of Zionism that aligns with the most extreme anti-Israel narratives in academia. Google’s knowledge panel will pull from that statement, as will ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic, and most other major large language models. It is, for better or worse, as close to hard fact as we have in our always-in-flux, intertwined information ecosystem, in which Wikipedia is no longer the battlefield, but the weapon.

Yair Rosenberg: The MAGA Influencers Rehabilitating Hitler

Over the past few years, Tucker Carlson and his co-ideologues have begun insinuating anti-Semitic ideas into the public discourse. The former Fox News host has described Ben Shapiro, perhaps the most prominent American Jewish conservative, and those like him as foreign subversives who “don’t care about the country at all.” He has also promoted a lightly sanitized version of the white-supremacist “Great Replacement” theory that has inspired multiple anti-Semitic massacres on American soil. Candace Owens has accused Israel of involvement in the 9/11 attacks and the JFK assassination, and claimed that a Jewish pedophile cult controls the world. (Like many pushing such slanders, she has apparently discerned that replacing Jews with Israel or Zionists grants age-old conspiracy theories new legitimacy.) In March, an influencer named Ian Carroll—who has a combined 3.8 million social-media followers, and whose work has been shared by Elon Musk—joined Joe Rogan, arguably the most popular podcaster in America, to expound without challenge about how a “giant group of Jewish billionaires is running a sex-trafficking operation targeting American politicians and business people.”

Before America entered World War II, reactionaries such as the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and the Catholic radio firebrand Father Charles Coughlin inveighed against the country’s tiny Jewish population, accusing it of controlling America’s institutions and dragging the U.S. to war. “Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government,” Lindbergh declared of American Jews in 1941. “Why is there persecution in Germany today?” asked Coughlin after Kristallnacht. “Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted.” For these men and their millions of supporters, behind every perceived social and political problem lay a sinister Jewish culprit.

The 21st-century heirs of Lindbergh and Coughlin seek to turn back the clock to a time when such sentiments were seen by many as sensible rather than scandalous. These far-right figures have correctly ascertained that to change what is possible in American politics, they need to change how America talks about itself and its past. “The reason I keep focusing on this is probably the same reason you’re doing it,” Carlson told Darryl Cooper, the amateur Holocaust historian. “I think it’s central to the society we live in, the myths upon which it’s built. I think it’s also the cause of the destruction of Western civilization—these lies.”

Carlson couches his claims in layers of intellectual abstraction. Others are less coy. “Hitler burned down the trans clinics, arrested the Rothschild bankers, and gave free homes to families,” the former mixed martial artist Jake Shields told his 870,000 followers on X last week. “Does this sound like the most evil man who ever lived?” The post received 44,000 likes. (Shields has also denied that “a single Jew died in gas chambers.”) “Hitler was right about y’all,” said Myron Gaines, a manosphere podcaster with some 2 million followers across platforms, referring to Jews last year. “You guys come into a country, you push your pornography, you push your fuckin’ central banking, you push your degeneracy, you push the LGBT community, you push all this fuckin’ bullshit into a society, you destroy it from within.” These influencers are less respectable than Carlson, but their views are precisely the ones that more presentable propagandists like him are effectively working to mainstream. After Carlson’s guest last month suggested that the U.S. “should have sided with Hitler,” Shields reposted the clip.

Had Carlson and his cohort attempted their revisionism 20 years ago, they would have encountered a chorus of contradiction from real people who had experienced the history they sought to rewrite and know where its conspiratorial calumnies lead. But today, most of those people are dead, and a new generation is rising that never witnessed the Holocaust firsthand or heard about it from family and friends who did.

Late last year, David Shor, one of the Democratic Party’s top data scientists, surveyed some 130,000 voters about whether they had a “favorable” or “unfavorable” opinion of Jewish people. Hardly anyone over the age of 70 said their view was unfavorable. More than a quarter of those under 25 did. The question is not whether America’s self-understanding is changing; it’s how far that change will go—and what the consequences will be.

09/04 Links Pt1: BHL: Big Lies about the Israel-Hamas War; Video reveals Gaza boy, said to be killed by IDF, is alive; IDF: Drones Now Kill Most Terrorists in Gaza

From Ian:

Alan Dershowitz: Israel Has Proved that Jewish Blood Is No Longer Cheap

For centuries, Jews have been the victims of pogroms and racist violence. The murderers rarely paid for their actions. Jewish blood was cheap.

The murderers and rapists who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre seemed to think they'd get away with it. They took videos of the atrocities they committed and bragged about killing Jews wherever they could find them.

But this time was different. Israel fought back and made the perpetrators and their supporters pay a heavy price.

After Israel suffered the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, it sent a message to those who perpetrated the mass killing. It took extraordinary measures to kill every terrorist it could who had participated in the atrocities of Oct. 7, as well as their leaders.

Yet, it's unclear whether the Israeli policy will deter future massacres, because Hamas brags that it loves death as the Israelis love life.

Israel must treat Hamas and Islamic Jihad the way the Allies treated the Nazis and the imperial Japanese. These terrorists must be totally defeated, and only then should their cities be rebuilt, as German and Japanese cities were.

Just as peace wouldn't have been possible in 1945 if the Nazis and imperialists were allowed to survive and remain in control, so, too, Hamas and Islamic Jihad must not be allowed to survive.

The message Israel has sent to the world - that Jewish blood is no longer cheap, and those who shed it will pay a heavy price - is a historical imperative.

It is long overdue and made necessary by centuries of people around the world tolerating the shedding of Jewish blood without consequence.

Stephen Daisley: The Palestinians Must Want to Live in Peace with Israel for a Palestinian State to Be Sustainable

Palestinians ought to run their own affairs. But that goal cannot be achieved by unilateral actions such as recognizing a Palestinian state. The Palestinians have to accept Israel not only as a political or military reality but as a legitimate country, the nation-state of the Jewish people, the ingathering of an indigenous and exiled people to their historic and spiritual homeland. There is no alternative route.

This used to be doctrine among two-state solutioners. But substantive recognition has fallen out of fashion, along with other safeguards intended to secure a lasting peace. The only way the two-state solution paradigm can work is if there is a genuine and enduring truce between the two nations. A mere end to hostilities would be insufficient. The Palestinians must want to live in peace with Israel for a Palestinian state to be sustainable.

Palestinians went to the polls in January 2006 and duly elected Hamas in a ballot monitored by the Jimmy Carter Center. Hamas was not an unknown quantity at this point. It had been murdering Israelis for years and affirmed in its charter: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it." Call them a state, do whatever you like, but it won't change Palestinian national culture.

A state of Palestine that has not made its peace with Zionism cannot be relied upon to resist political forces pushing fresh confrontation with Israel. It is not enough to get rid of Hamas. Palestinian national culture must come to reject the impulses and prejudices that lead so many to support anti-Israel factions and to console themselves that Israel is a temporary entity and will one day, inshallah, be dismantled.

The international community could encourage this by penalizing extremism and rejectionism. By telling the Palestinians that the world stands ready to bring their plight to an end but won't wait forever for them to take the steps needed on their part.

Bernard-Henri Levy: Big Lies about the Israel-Hamas War

Foolish notions about Israel are being repeated morning and night, relayed by high international authorities. One is that Israel is reoccupying Gaza. True, two ministers in Israel's government have said, without shame, that they dream of doing so. But this isn't the strategy of the Israel Defense Forces or the position of the government.

Prime Minister Netanyahu told Fox News on Aug. 7 that he wants the IDF to drive out Hamas and take control of Gaza - but "without administering it" and handing it over to a "civil government" as soon as possible. "We do not want to keep Gaza, we do not want to govern Gaza." How could he be clearer?

Israel is using famine as a weapon of war in Gaza. Look at the hundreds of trucks that have passed inspection, waiting inside Gaza.

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. To say "genocide" means a plan - a deliberate, targeted initiative to destroy a people. That isn't what the Israeli army is doing. Who would do better in an asymmetric conflict when the enemy's goal isn't to minimize casualties on its own side but to maximize them, so that every martyr is a trophy?

A genocidal army doesn't take two years to win a war in a territory the size of Las Vegas. A genocidal army doesn't send SMS warnings before firing or facilitate the passage of those trying to escape. A genocidal army wouldn't evacuate, every month, hundreds of Palestinian children suffering from rare diseases or cancer, sending them to hospitals in Abu Dhabi.

How Many Irreplaceable Men Must Die Before Enough Children Die To Force The World To Stop Israel? by Mahmoud Zahar (PreOccupied Territory)

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How Many Irreplaceable Men Must Die Before Enough Children Die To Force The World To Stop Israel?

by Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas co-founder, senior official, semi-retired

Ankara, September 4 - When we embarked on this glorious Al Aqsa Flood operation nearly two years ago, the Resistance did not expect events to play out exactly as they have. We assumed that, as every other time the violence got too out of hand, the international community would compel the Jews to cease fire while we celebrated the Islamic victory inherent in causing Jews to suffer, regardless of the cost to us. But we do know the cost: the number of precious fighters we lose in the effort to put our kids in harm's way in sufficient quantity to spark international condemnation of the Zionists and get them to halt their operations without achieving anything decisive. And that cost, contrary to our assessments, has proved higher than anyone expected, and the losses may well affect our ability to govern effectively. Now we must ask: How Many Irreplaceable Men Must Die Before Enough Children Die To Force The World To Stop Israel?

Every other time, the images and stories of suffering women and children, most of them fabrications, met the requirements of the reflexive antisemitism of the West, giving them a pretext to threaten the Jews to pull back, and have nothing to show for their casualties and expenditures. Sometimes we even kept the hostages we took!

Not this time. Our allies betrayed us. Hezbollah failed to open a second front concurrent with our operation, and by the time they did, the moment had passed. We made less progress on the seventh of October than we had assumed we would - the Zionists are still not demoralized and fleeing! How many years of shooting ourselves in the foot will it take for us to win?

Of course we are not to blame. That would be shameful, and shame is for others. We do not admit error. Perish the thought of any change in assumptions, strategy, or, Allah forbid, values! Every failure must be because of betrayal, not through any shortcoming of ours! Thus the Nakba, the Naksa, and every catastrophe since. We will have our vengeance on those who force us to sacrifice more men than we intended, so that more of our children die than we expected, so that it takes longer for the world to force Israel to leave us alone so we can do October 7 all over again in a few years.

Maybe we should get our allies in the NGOs and UN to demand that Israel allow in replacement fighters.

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

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