Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

01/28 Links Pt1: Now that all hostages are back, Israel must finish off Hamas; PA Promised $200 Million in ‘Pay-To-Slay’ Payments After it 'Scrapped' Program

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Now that all hostages are home, Israel must open inquiry into October 7 massacre

A profound chapter in Israel’s national trauma reached a painful conclusion on Monday: the remains of St.-Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli held in Gaza after the October 7, 2023 attack, were returned to Israeli soil. After 843 days, the state can say that there are no more Israelis in captivity.

Gvili’s story comprises both courage and heartbreak. A 24-year-old police officer who put on his uniform on that horrific morning while on medical leave, he joined the defense of Kibbutz Alumim and was killed while fighting to protect others. That he ran toward danger and became the last to come home should echo throughout Israeli society.

Gvili’s return is rightly mourned and honored. Families gathered in Hostages Square. The symbolic clock counting the days since October 7 has been turned off. Yet closure brings its own burden: a country that has endured this scale of loss still needs to fathom how and why Israel was so catastrophically unprepared.

Government and military leaders also framed Gvili’s return as a statement of national duty. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told the family, “We will bring Ran home,” and added, “We will bring them all home.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said, “We kept our promise to leave no one behind,” calling it a moment the country “is excited about,” because Ran returned “to be buried in Israel.”

Across the political spectrum, voices have called for a state commission of inquiry into the gross failures of October 7. Many of those calls reflect anguish more than politics. Families who lost loved ones, freed hostages, reservists, and civilians want answers about intelligence failures, operational decisions, strategic assumptions, and the broader policy environment that left communities exposed.

At the same time, concerns raised by opponents of a sweeping inquiry deserve a fair hearing. Israel remains in a volatile security environment, and public hearings can affect operational freedom, intelligence sources, and national cohesion. Some also fear that an inquiry will turn into a political battlefield and deepen internal chasms and rifts at a time when unity still carries strategic value.

No retreat: Now that all hostages are back, Israel must finish off Hamas

Why it's time to finish off Hamas
In this war, two critical dimensions are unfolding simultaneously: the present and the future.

The insistence on returning all the hostages held in Gaza embodied the battle over the present – our moral, ethical, and existential duty to save lives here and now. Every moment in which our soldiers and civilians were held captive was an open wound in the heart of the nation, and every effort to bring them home expressed our commitment to the value of life.

At the same time, the insistence from here onward on the decisive defeat of Hamas embodies the battle over the future. A society that cannot defeat its enemies, uproot the threat of terror, and ensure secure borders for generations to come will remain trapped in an endless cycle of bloodshed and uncertainty. The dismantling and disarmament of Hamas is not only a military objective – it is a vision for a future of stability, security, and prosperity in the State of Israel.

The beginning of Phase II is an integral part of the war, and the determination to dismantle Hamas is not only part of the struggle for life, but also – and no less importantly – for the quality of life. Part of this war for life is the moral foundation that obligates us to do everything possible not to leave hostages behind.

The completion of the phase of returning the hostages from Gaza must serve as a lesson – not the first, but one that must be the last – that it is both a security and moral obligation to decisively defeat Hamas. As long as it exists, the threat of rockets, tunnels, and kidnappings will continue to haunt us, and any dream of civilian stability will remain fragile. The defeat of the October 7 perpetrators is therefore a necessary condition not only for survival in the present, but above all to ensure that no Israeli civilian or IDF soldier will again be abducted and held as an asset by Hamas in the future.

The prolonged war in Gaza and along Israel’s other borders – and especially the kidnapping of civilians and soldiers – has tested and continues to test Israeli society. It challenges us to understand that war demands painful prices and enormous economic resources. These reflect our choice to invest in building the tools necessary for our defense, rather than in monuments to our memory.

Andrew Fox: Why cutting military ties with Israel would cost British soldiers’ lives

Four retired senior British Army officers have reportedly urged the prime minister to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and to “cut all military collaboration with Israel forthwith”, including links with Israeli defence firms.

In the same political climate, the UK has also taken steps to prevent Israeli students from attending one of Britain’s flagship defence courses. You may agree or disagree with any Israeli policy, and you can hold Israel to any standard you believe is appropriate. However, a blanket attempt to sever military-to-military contact with the Israel Defence Forces is not a serious way to protect British troops. It is, in fact, a notable way to ensure that British soldiers die needlessly in the next war Britain cannot escape.

Here is the uncomfortable truth: when it comes to saving young men and women after they have been torn apart by blast and shrapnel, Israel has been learning, adapting and delivering at a pace and scale that the British Army simply has not had to sustain in recent years.

The IDF’s own combat medicine data from recent conflicts shows a steady decline in the “case fatality rate” (the proportion of casualties who die) across major operations, even as injuries have become more severe. That is what a learning medical system looks like when tested under fire.

Consider the first lesson: blood, not “drips”, saves lives. For decades, armies (and civilian ambulances) often reached for clear IV fluids first. Doctors call these fluids “crystalloids” – essentially sterile saltwater solutions used to increase circulating volume.

They are not useless, but they have a fatal limitation: they do not carry oxygen, and they do not contain the clotting components that stop catastrophic bleeding. In mass trauma, too much crystalloid can dilute the body’s ability to clot, cool the casualty, and worsen shock.

The IDF’s data indicates a significant doctrinal shift away from crystalloids and towards blood-based resuscitation. During the Second Lebanon War, 92.7 per cent of casualties receiving resuscitation fluids were treated with crystalloids. In Protective Edge (2014), that figure was still 83.3 per cent. In the current war (Iron Swords), only 29.8 per cent were treated with crystalloids, reflecting a clear move towards resuscitation centred around blood products, especially whole blood.

“Whole blood” matters because it is what the body actually loses: oxygen-carrying red cells, plasma proteins, and platelets that form clots. The challenge is not the concept; it is creating a system capable of delivering whole blood safely, repeatedly, and at scale. Israel has achieved this.

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

I used to read antisemitic comments online with a sort of grim detachment. The ugliness was real, but it felt like something I could observe from a distance—how people swallow stupid lies, how hatred hardens into certainty, how mobs form without ever meeting the people they condemn.

Since October 7, that distance has narrowed. Sometimes the hatred is no longer “interesting.” It hurts.

It hurts because Jews were butchered and raped—and the global reaction was not what any reasonable person would expect in relation to such atrocities. Victims became villains. Murderers and rapists were recast as “resistance.” And when the Jews defended themselves, they called it “genocide.” We were even told we were “occupiers,” as if an indigenous people can be said to “occupy” its own land. The moral inversion is sickening to anyone in command of the facts of October 7, and what has since transpired.

But it’s not all bad. When the haters peddle awful lies about the Jews, the rare thing that steadies you is a friend who speaks plainly—someone willing to describe reality without euphemism, and to risk doing so, even at a high cost.

Sometimes that friendship shows itself in a single gesture. Senator John Kennedy posted a brief message acknowledging the suffering of the Israeli hostages and their families, and congratulating Israel on the return of the last hostage from Gaza, Ran Gvili. At the same time, he acknowledged the suffering of the Israeli hostages and their families. The replies were a familiar torrent of moral inversion and cruelty. The contrast said more than the post itself ever could about the overwhelming hatred toward a people that were tortured, murdered, abused, and held captive—a people whose babies were burned alive.

The truth is, aside from my favorite senator, Israel has too few true friends today. One of them is Michele Bachmann. Bachmann served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota’s 6th District from 2007 to 2015 and was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. She previously served in the Minnesota Senate and is currently dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University.

When I heard an excerpt of Michele Bachmann’s remarks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit, I was touched, filled with gratitude for her honest, plain talk. Bachmann got it when so many do not. She saw everything that was bad about putting terrorists and businessmen with regional interests in charge of negotiations, and she was unafraid to say so.

Dean Bachmann asked the right questions. There was no sign that she cared about the risks of speaking the truth. Just a forthright laying out of the facts—trying, and at times failing—to restrain her passion for the subject of how the negotiations were going.

Keep in mind that the summit was held in October. So much has happened since then. Though some things remain unchanged. We still have two non-cabinet figures—Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—selling an imaginary peace that threatens Israel’s survival (she didn’t say it in those words—that was all me).

“We have a Secretary of State named Marco Rubio,” Bachmann said. “Why wasn’t he involved in these negotiations?”

She turned to Qatar, explaining something that everyone should know, but too many do not:

NEW @nytimes investigation: Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was the target of a Qatari influence campaign in which Qatar would invest in Witkoff real estate projects in order to gain entree to Trump’s inner circle. https://t.co/ZecRXuvICy
— David Enrich (@davidenrich) September 26, 2025

“Qatar is the number-one funder of terrorism in the world,” Bachmann said, painting a picture of a wealthy engine of political Islam and a patron of Hamas. She warned about the way money and access can shape foreign policy decisions, especially when those decisions concern Israel. That having Qatar shape the atmosphere around the talks could not be a good thing.

Trump’s chosen interlocutors, Witkoff and Kushner, do business with Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Yet they were put in charge of negotiations that come with direct consequences for Israel’s security and the safety of its people.

After watching an excerpt of her remarks, I reached out with some questions. I was honored when Michele Bachmann, graciously consented to answer my questions. It’s obvious that Michele Bachmann is a busy lady—someone with a full plate—yet always ready to take on more. It’s the reason I reached out to her.

Varda Epstein: In your remarks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit, you expressed concern about President Trump’s decision to involve Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in negotiations with Qatar, despite their business ties and Qatar’s role as a major sponsor of Hamas. More recently, Israel’s security cabinet has reportedly blamed Jared Kushner for the composition of the Executive Board for the proposed Board of Peace, which includes (rabidly anti-Israel) Turkish and Qatari representation and was, according to Prime Minister Netanyahu, "not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy."

Why do you think the president continues to rely on Witkoff and Kushner? Who stands to gain from this approach, and what risks does it pose for Israel?

Michele Bachmann: The President has full confidence in his envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. Their diplomatic portfolios have enlarged in the last year since they were dispatched at the President’s direction during his second term.

Neither envoy appears to be employees of the federal government. They are volunteers, according to press accounts.

Concerns have been raised over past and ongoing business relationships between Mr. Witkoff and Qatar, and Mr. Kushner and Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Mr. Witkoff was a former business partner with Qatar. Mr. Kushner’s investment company was in business, and remains in business, with Saudi Arabia and other Arab investors, all while Witkoff and Kushner are currently conducting U.S. foreign policy with these business partners.

The questions of conflicts of interest are obvious and concerning.

One question concerning these relationships, regards the level of Qatari and Saudi influence on American foreign policy decision making, in particular regarding Israel’s security.

Varda Epstein: In recent months, a number of prominent conservatives—including Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts and commentator Megyn Kelly—have publicly defended Tucker Carlson, even after his interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Why do you think this shift is happening, and what does it signal about the direction of the Republican Party?

Michele Bachmann: Tucker Carlson and other high-profile commentators have made controversial statements this year. These statements are vocal, intentional, and are dividing the pro-Israel Republican base. Grounded by pro-Israel evangelicals, the Republican Party historically supported strong support for Israel.

Tragically, the Democratic Party moved from an often pro-Israel party to holding a decidedly anti-Israel posture.

The anti-Israel embrace of the Democratic Party is now attempting to similarly turn, or at least divide pro-Israel support from within the Republican Party.

The Republican Party is pro-Israel and will remain that way unless it is taken over by an anti-Israel Presidential candidate. An event like that would certainly terminate a Republican candidate’s chances for electoral victory.

Varda Epstein: Given J.D. Vance’s isolationist worldview and his close relationship with Tucker Carlson—including employing Carlson’s son as a senior aide—what do you believe a Vance presidency would mean for Israel?

Michele Bachmann: A Republican Presidential candidate who does not value the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship to vital national security interests, will likely lose a general Presidential election. Pro-Israel support is a foundational value of the Republican Party.

If Israel is not America’s greatest ally, then which nation is? Which nation has served as America’s greatest partner advancing peace in the Middle East?

What other nation has offered more to America by way of intelligence assets? Weapons development? Innovation and technology development?

What other nation demonstrates similar moral clarity and commitment to advancing civilization and human rights than Israel? No other nation on earth compares to a demonstration of moral clarity more than Israel.

People need to consider where the United States would be without our partnership with Israel. As Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “Israel is what is right with the world.”

Varda Epstein: After watching your Summit address, many of my colleagues and readers remarked how much they miss your voice in government and your staunch support for Israel. How do you see your own role in public or political life going forward?

Michele Bachmann: I use my mind to learn all I can about our world and how humankind benefits from following the truths and precepts of the Bible.

History, Sociology, Economics, Astronomy, Anthropology, Archeology, Biology, Physics, etc., all reflect and demonstrate the truths given to us from the pen of Moses, David, Solomon, and the Prophets.

We, finite humankind, live in a world created by the infinite God. My job is to know Him more, obey Him more, and communicate His love and truth to others.

***

In her Summit remarks, Bachmann argued that Israel was nearing decisive victory against Hamas when diplomacy intervened and stopped it cold. Israelis well recognize this pattern. A war Israel did not choose becomes a war Israel is not allowed to win. The hostages are used as leverage. And a terror organization is encouraged to negotiate.

When Israelis speak about friendship, they are not being sentimental. Friendship means clarity under pressure. It means refusing to sanitize those who finance terror because they also broker lucrative deals. It means understanding that Israel cannot outsource its security to assurances offered far from its borders.

That is why Bachmann’s voice is important. She speaks as someone who understands that Israel is an ally. Not a problem to be managed, but an ally whose survival is nonnegotiable.

Israel has too few friends right now. And Michele Bachmann is indeed a friend—one who understands the wider implications of negotiating with terrorists, not just for Israel, but for the entire world.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Columbia U to screen film praising a Jew-hating, terrorist loving liar as a heroic doctor

Coming soon, to Columbia University:

"A State of Passion" is about Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a British-Arab plastic surgeon who is described as "a face of Palestinian resistance" from his activities in Gaza during wartime.

The film will not discuss Abu Sittah's penchant for making up lies about Israel. Nor will it discuss his antisemitism.

During the Gaza war, for example, Abu Sittah claims that he - and he alone - saw photographs taken by Al Jazeera that he says proved that Israeli doctors "expertly" removed organs from living Palestinian prisoners. This is a blood libel; it is absurd to think that any such photographs exist yet they weren't publicized where doctors worldwide could confirm it. Al Jazeera colluded with Abu Sittah - because they know that he will say anything to condemn Israel, no matter how far from the truth it might be.

He has a history of doing exactly that.

I found an Arabic language interview where he claimed that Israel had targeted every Palestinian Red Crescent hospital in the first days of the 1982 Lebanon war.

It was a lie.

He further claimed that Ben Gurion said "I cannot bear to think that we will have to live in the same country as these people." Another lie.

He further alleged that when Israel arrested Shifa hospital director Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, "They broke his arms. They made him walk on all fours with a chain around his neck. They made him eat from a plate on the floor in front of the other doctors, because he refused to go on TV and say that the Israelis were right."

Salmiya himself never made any such claims when he was released and gave a press conference, and his arms were clearly not broken. It was a lie.

Abu Sittah also is a fan of terrorists who attack Jews, retweeting one who said “We congratulate our brothers in Hamas and our comrades in the Popular Front on the anniversary of their inception.”

He also praised the PFLP terrorist who bombed a cinema in Tel Aviv in December 1974, killing two.

Beyond his lies and love of murderers, Abu Sittah is also a rabid Jew hater.

He has repeatedly compared Israel to Nazi Germany, for example calling Gaza a "Final Solution."

Abu Sittah also falsely claimed that 66% of Israelis are allergic to olive tree pollen, linking to a study that says no such thing. It was only looking at people who already had allergies and who lived near olive groves. Allergies are correlated with exposure. Lebanese people with allergies are more likely to be allergic to cedar and cypress pollen.

When a doctor misrepresents a medical paper to push an antisemitic theory, it casts doubt on his competence as an activist as well as his medical credentials.

Abu Sittah is not a hero. He is a contemptible, antisemitic terror supporter.

Maybe Jews of New York should take a page from Abu Sittah's fans and hold a protest outside the Lenfest Center for the Arts on February 10. There is an excellent plaza right in front tailor made for people chanting and holding signs. Call the media ahead of time asking for comments from the Center for Palestine Studies, sponsoring the event, asking them if they support a doctor who praises terrorists and spins antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Palestinians trust Hamas more than any other group

The latest Arab Barometer poll of Palestinians has been released, the third one since the Gaza war.

On most questions, the answers are roughly what they were in previous polls, but there is one major difference: West Bank Palestinians now trust Hamas more than any other Palestinian group.

Trust in Hamas went up from 18% to 46% from those surveyed:

This is higher than the percentage who trust the legal system (34%,) civil society organizations (38%) and religious leaders (25%.)

Another interesting result is that misogyny is increasing. The percentage of those who agree that men are better suited as political leaders rose from 63% to 75%. Also, the share who believe men should have the final say in family matters rose from 44% to 57%.

Which makes this sign accurate in the opposite way it was intended.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Kanye West's Fake Apology

On Monday, Kanye West bought a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal saying he is apologizing for his antisemitism and other topics.

Here's the full text:

To Those I’ve Hurt:

Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the right frontal lobe of my brain. At the time, the focus was on the visible damage—the fracture, the swelling, and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed.

Comprehensive scans were not done, neurological exams were limited, and the possibility of a frontal-lobe injury was never raised. It wasn’t properly diagnosed until 2023. That medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.

Bipolar disorder comes with its own defense system. Denial. When you’re manic, you don’t think you’re sick. You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you’re seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you’re losing your grip entirely.

Once people label you as “crazy,” you feel as if you cannot contribute anything meaningful to the world. It’s easy for people to joke and laugh it off when in fact this is a very serious debilitating disease you can die from. According to the World Health Organization and Cambridge University, people with bipolar disorder have a life expectancy that is shortened by ten to fifteen years on average, and a 2x-3x higher all-cause mortality rate than the general population. This is on par with severe heart disease, type 1 diabetes, HIV, and cancer - all lethal and fatal if left untreated.

The scariest thing about this disorder is how persuasive it is when it tells you: You don’t need help. It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight. You feel powerful, certain, unstoppable.

I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst. You endured fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to have someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.

In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it. One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments - many of which I still cannot recall - that led to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body-experience. I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.

To the black community - which held me down through all of the highs and lows and the darkest of times. The black community is, unquestionably, the foundation of who I am. I am so sorry to have let you down. I love us.

In early 2025, I fell into a four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life. As the situation became increasingly unsustainable, there were times I didn’t want to be here anymore.

Having bipolar disorder is notable state of constant mental illness. When you go into a manic episode, you are ill at that point. When you are not in an episode, you are completely ‘normal’. And that’s when the wreckage from the illness hits the hardest. Hitting rock bottom a few months ago, my wife encouraged me to finally get help.

I have found comfort in Reddit forums of all places. Different people speak of being in manic or depressive episodes of a similar nature. I read their stories and realized that I was not alone. It’s not just me who ruins their entire life once a year despite taking meds every day and being told by the so-called best doctors in the world that I am not bipolar, but merely experiencing “symptoms of autism.”

My words as a leader in my community have global impact and influence. In my mania, I lost complete sight of that.

As I find my new baseline and new center through an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise, and clean living, I have newfound, much-needed clarity. I am pouring my energy into positive, meaningful art: music, clothing, design, and other new ideas to help the world.

I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.”

With love,

Ye

I have been working on my Derechology framework based on Jewish thinking, and I have been spending time examining how repentance works.

This isn't it.

Repentance is not performative and it is not merely an apology. It is a change in one's life, a clear difference of actions. Have we witnessed anything new from Kanye West? For example, when his song "Heil Hitler" was played at the Florida nightclub Vendôme for neo-Nazis, did he issue a public statement distancing himself from his far-Right fans? Not that I could find.

In my framework, I assume that a person's "derech" - their moral and behavioral trajectory - remains constant throughout one's life unless there is a rare case of real teshuva, repentance, that upends one's entire being. That is rare, but it happens. Without any evidence beyond a paid ad, we have nothing indicating that West has truly changed. Which means we must search for a deeper consistent pattern that covers both his antisemitism, this apology, and his other outrageous acts like his disrupting the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009.

So what has Kanye West consistently done? He has pursued attention, fame and money. When the backlash threatens his career or public image, he crafts a new persona, a new justification, a new name, sometimes even a new diagnosis. The pattern is consistent.

That derech fits both the initial harm and the apology. The swastika shirts and the antisemitic remarks didn't appear out of nowhere. They followed the exact pattern: escalate, provoke, dominate headlines. The apology follows the same logic: reposition, reframe, re-enter public legitimacy through a therapeutic lens. This is just a rebranding maneuver wearing the clothing of regret.

And speaking of clothing, at the bottom of the ad it gives his clothing website, Yeezy-Official.com. Needless to say, that site does not host this letter. The ad is a clothing ad disguised as an apology.

Beyond that is the absurdity of Wesr's main point. If someone claims their past behavior was the result of mental illness, and that the illness compromised their judgment, then what makes us believe their current moral clarity is more reliable? The apology claims bipolar disorder made him act destructively. But then it claims that, now that he is stable, his remorse is true. He self-diagnosed using groups on Reddit. Why is his apology any more credible than his infractions? Unless he offers external proof - not just that he feels regret, but that he is acting in sustained alignment with a new moral framework - the apology stands on no firmer ground than his many offenses over the better part of two decades. A full page ad in the Wall Street Journal is significantly less expensive than the Super Bowl ad where West promoted the website that was selling the swastika T-shirt.

Keep in mind that West had claimed to apologize to Jews before, in 2023,. Yet he marketed the swastika shirts and wrote Heil Hitler after that "apology." Also, in Vanity Fair, West was interviewed about this ad but declined to answer several questions, including where his antisemitic sentiments may have originated from and why, and how he feels about neo-Nazis dancing to “Heil Hitler.” If he really cared about doing the right thing as he claims, he would first face these sorts of questions honestly. After all, not all bipolar or manic people spout antisemitism - most of them don't. So in the end, even his excuses aren't an explanation. It is more likely that his derech always included antipathy towards Jews.

Without a visible change in behavior, all the therapy-language in the world is just a rebranding strategy. And when that rebranding happens on a Wall Street Journal ad page, in the service of someone who has used outrage to sell for decades, his derech speaks louder than his words.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/27 Links Pt2: Herzog: Denying Jewish self-determination is antisemitism; Bondi Chabad rabbi: Antisemitism must not become what defines us; Meet the Proud Nazi Spawn Raising Money for Democrats

From Ian:

Ceremonies held worldwide to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Candles flickered at dawn Tuesday at the vast Holocaust memorial in Berlin as people across Europe and beyond paused to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, reflecting on Nazi Germany’s murder of millions of people and its attempt to completely wipe out Jewish life on the continent.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed across the world on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation by Soviet forces of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the Nazi German death camps. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2005 establishing the day as an annual commemoration.

At the memorial site of Auschwitz, in an area that was under German occupation during World War II, former prisoners laid flowers and wreaths at the Execution Wall, where German forces murdered thousands of people, most of them Poles. Later in the day Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki will join survivors for a remembrance ceremony at Birkenau, the vast site nearby where Jews were transported from across Europe to be exterminated in gas chambers.

Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, most of them Jews, but also Poles, Roma and others.

Commemorations on the anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation by the Red Army on January 27, 1945, were also taking place across Europe on Tuesday, as well as at the United Nations.

Germany, the nation that inflicted war and genocide on its neighbors, is holding a commemoration in the Bundestag, the parliament, on Wednesday.

Candles burned and white roses were placed at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a field of 2,700 gray concrete slabs near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, which honors the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. The vast site in the heart of the capital underlines Germany’s remorse.

Herzog: Denying Jewish self-determination is antisemitism

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day by warning that antisemitism is once again spreading worldwide, and equated the denial of Jewish self-determination with hatred of Jews.

Speaking at the Second International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, Herzog said, “To deny the Jewish people—and only the Jewish people—the right to self-determination in their national home is antisemitism, even if you are the mayor of the city with the most Jews outside of Israel,” the latter being a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Herzog linked his remarks to the return on Monday of the body of Israel Border Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili from Gaza, calling it “a significant turning point.” He said, “For the first time since 2014, not a single Israeli citizen, living or dead, is being held as a human bargaining chip in Gaza.”

Reflecting on the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Herzog said the world is “failing to meet our vow” of “Never Again” as Jewish communities face rising hostility in cities around the world, from London to Sydney.

The conference was hosted by the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry, led by Minister Amichai Chikli, and attended by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and other international figures.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the first day of the event on Monday, warning that antisemitism has reemerged as a global threat, and urging governments to confront it as an assault on “our common civilization.”

US envoy warns Jew-hatred ‘rages anew’ during UN Holocaust remembrance

Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, warned that the global body, created in the aftermath of the Holocaust, “must do far more now to confront this ancient poison” of antisemitism “to fulfill its founding promise and to protect every people, including the Jewish people.”

Waltz spoke at the U.N.’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day observance on Tuesday, recalling the atrocities American soldiers discovered and documented while liberating Nazi concentration camps in World War II.

The vow of “Never Again” must be put into action, the U.S. envoy said.

Waltz added that antisemitism “rages anew,” citing sharply rising levels of Jew-hatred in the United States and around the world.

“This wave of hate has left synagogues under siege. Jewish students, once again, hiding their identity. Whole communities living in fear,” he said. “I mean, what, are we back in 1933? This is absurd, and we have to call it out.”

While commending the United Nations for holding the ceremony, Waltz decried the growing reality of “Holocaust denial, its distortion, its rehabilitation in these historic narratives of Nazi collaborators, its the manipulation of history right here at the U.N. and elsewhere.” He linked that phenomenon to recent acts of violence, including the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre in Sydney on Dec. 14 and the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Elie Wiesel once hoped that antisemitism perished in Auschwitz, and sadly, he lived to see its horrific resurrection,” Waltz said. “We cannot wait for another liberation.”

Waltz emphasized the importance of education and commemoration as critical tools in combating antisemitism, calling for greater efforts to elevate the voices of Holocaust survivors.

“You did not become a lifelong victim. You move forward and educate the next generation so that this can never happen again,” he said, addressing survivors in attendance.

01/27 Links Pt1: The Hostage Crisis Is Over. So What Has the World Learned?; Netanyahu: Israeli soldiers lost their lives in Gaza due to Biden-era arms embargo; PIJ knowingly fired faulty rockets in Gaza, killing 'a thousand' Palestinians

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Hostage Crisis Is Over. So What Has the World Learned?

Much like Hamas’s strategy of operating from civilian homes, hostage-taking is part of what Palestinian terrorists see as Israel’s chief vulnerability: that it cares about the life and dignity of every individual. In other words, the conflict we see today is, zoomed out, a Palestinian war to exploit Israel’s humanity. Why anyone thinks a conflict that is set along these lines can or will be solved by turning artificial borders into official ones is beyond me. No one who kidnaps babies is interested in real estate.

And second: what Avera Mengistu’s story revealed. Apparently grief-stricken over the loss of his brother, and undergoing periodic mental-health treatment, the 28-year-old climbed over a border fence and into Gaza in 2014. He was returned in 2025.

Who holds a grief-stricken, mentally ill person hostage for a decade? Hamas does.

Nor is the danger of such aimless walking limited to Gaza. Here’s a headline from late December: “IDF escorts Israeli woman out of Palestinian West Bank town she entered.” There really wasn’t much more to the story. A military statement read: “After IDF troops scanned the area, the forces located the civilian and extracted her safely out of the village.”

When did headlines about Israelis having to be extracted from Palestinian neighborhoods become so dog-bites-man?

Here’s one from a week earlier: “Mentally ill Israeli extracted safely from Hebron overnight after wandering for hours.” Jews are only permitted in about 20 percent of Hebron. If one enters the other 80 percent, it makes headlines no matter what happens to them.

This one’s from less than two weeks ago: “Israeli and PA forces extract Jewish man seen wandering in West Bank city of Qalqilya.” Sounds dangerous; what happened? “An initial investigation has found that the man entered the city to go to a car repair shop.”

Another from late December: “Troops extract 2 Israelis who entered West Bank’s Area A near Hebron, Nablus.”

The case of Avera Mengistu highlights the fact that still, after all these decades of “peace” negotiations, the Judenrein nature of Palestinian Arab towns is simply accepted to the point where nearly every headline about an Israeli leaving such a town alive contains a version of the word “extraction.”

The October 7 hostage crisis is over. But has the world learned any of the lessons that have been on display since it began?

Jonathan Sacerdoti: How Israel did the impossible – and brought the hostages home

To outside observers, these goals sound impossible. But bringing back all the hostages was dismissed as impossible, too. Israel did it. These promises may sound arbitrary, idealistic, even performative, but to Israel, nothing is too dramatic. It is a country whose history has read like a thriller from its earliest days, whose survival has defied odds at every turn. A people whose annihilation has been attempted repeatedly by armies larger, better armed, and more numerous, often backed by far broader coalitions.

It is tempting to reach for biblical or spiritual explanations. Perhaps they have their place. Not everyone’s taste runs in that direction. What can be said, without mysticism, is that human beings united by purpose, driven by pain and fury, and threatened by brutality can achieve things that appear impossible from a distance.

Anyone in doubt can look at a map and trace a finger to that narrow sliver of land so many have sought to erase. It is still there. It does not get everything right. It argues, stumbles, fractures. Yet it persists, and it fights to defend its existence. Yesterday, it delivered on one impossible promise. The second now waits.

This is where the American role becomes decisive, and often misunderstood. The US initiative on Gaza should not be read as a naïve development plan or a humanitarian fantasy. Its headline promises of employment, reconstruction and futuristic redevelopment are not about realism. They are about framing.

Washington has placed a maximal, almost utopian offer on the table precisely because it expects it to fail. The point is to force a binary choice. Either Gaza, and Palestinians more generally, move decisively away from armed jihadist governance, towards demilitarisation and external oversight, or they absorb the consequences of continued war and isolation. The message is blunt: everything is being offered. Rejection transfers responsibility.

This strategy buys time. Even a temporary pause delays large-scale fighting, reduces Israeli casualties, and allows further consolidation of the diplomatic case against Hamas. It exposes bad faith. It drains sympathy. It reframes the conflict as one of Palestinian political choice rather than Israeli obstruction. Or so the US may hope.

Governance proposals emerging from Washington reflect this pragmatism. There is no search for a morally pure Palestinian leadership. Any figure with local standing will carry factional history. The aim is a technocratic authority operationally reliant on external backing, financially constrained, and removable if it drifts towards Hamas. Disarmament is the price of reconstruction. According to the agreements signed at least, there is no flexibility on that point. Israel will wish to hold the US to that promise.

Demilitarisation remains the true red line. If Hamas refuses, the strategy should shift. Opening the border with Egypt functions as a pressure valve: population movement reduces Hamas’s ability to embed itself behind civilians. Israel gains greater freedom of action, with fewer civilian entanglements and clearer international justification.

More broadly, Gaza itself is not the central strategic theatre. Iran remains the core concern, with Turkey hovering uneasily on the edge of hostility and opportunism. The American military posture signals as much to Tehran as to Gaza. That many European states have chosen to stand on the sidelines and scoff at President Trump’s plans, even as atrocities unfold elsewhere in the region, only underscores how marginal they have become.

What is clear is this: Israel has delivered on one impossible promise. The second is now being tested, under harsher conditions, with fewer illusions. Whether demilitarisation can be achieved will determine not only Gaza’s future, but the credibility of every promise made since October.

History offers no guarantees. It rarely does. But it does record moments when nations, bound by pain, pressure, and purpose, achieved what seemed implausible. Israel has reached such a moment again. What follows will not be symbolic. It will be decisive.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: The moral link between Kristallnacht and October 7

International Holocaust Remembrance Day arrives this year with the return yesterday of the Ron Gvili's body from Gaza, fulfilling one major goal of the Gaza war.

IHRD is often hijacked to make offensive analogies between how Jews were persecuted by the Nazis and how Israel is acting when it defends itself. But there is a real analogy that we can make between the October 7 pogrom and the pogrom that was in many ways the beginning for the Holocaust: Kristallnacht.

Kristallnacht is often remembered visually: shattered glass, burning synagogues, smashed shops. But the psychology behind it and in the days afterwards is startlingly familiar to what we've seen since October 7.

The Nazi regime justified the pogrom by pointing to the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a Jewish teenager whose family had been expelled by the Germans. It was an excuse, not a reason.

Similarly, Hamas pretended the October 7 massacrewas a reaction to Israeli crimes, notwithstanding that more goods were coming into Gaza than before Hamas took over the enclave. The attack was planned, the justification was an excuse.

In both cases, the attacks were not isolated events. They were planned as the sparks for what came afterwards - the collective blame of Jews, the inversion of history and the weaponization of the fact that attacks on Jews prompts more antisemitic acts, not less.

Here is a news story describing how the Nazis blamed the Jews collectively for their own victimhood - and used Kristallnacht itself as an excuse to punish the entire Jewish community, forcing Jews to pay to clean up the debris from destroyed synagogues and confiscating their insurance claims.

Jewish suffering was no longer treated as morally relevant. It was treated as self-caused. Germany was reframed as the victim. Jews were reframed as the problem. The violence was not denied; it was morally laundered.

The violence of Kristallnacht itself was only the beginning of the persecution.

On October 7, Hamas planned and executed a mass atrocity. But Hamas had planned not only a kinetic attack, but a propaganda war as well. The inversion of the Jews from victims to criminals happened within hours of the attack - just as in Germany in November 1938.

The killings were explained as “resistance.” The victims were dehumanized into "settlers" and "occupiers" and "oppressors." The crime was reframed as consequence. Responsibility was shifted from the perpetrators to the existence of Jews themselves.

Attacking Jews was correctly understood by both the Nazis and the Islamists as the most reliable way to increase antisemitism, not decrease it.

After October 7, Jews worldwide were harassed, attacked, and told to answer for crimes they did not commit. Synagogues were vandalized. Jewish students were threatened. Jewish mourning was treated as propaganda. Jewish fear was dismissed as manipulation.

The brief world sympathy for Israel evaporated - just as Hamas knew it would. And guess who else made the same observation after Kristallnacht?

Joseph Goebbels mocked the world for its protests, saying that if they love Jews so much, let them allow Jews to immigrate. he predicted that the protests would die down - and he was right.

Both the Nazis and Hamas know that they can rely on latent antisemitism to support their aims worldwide. They both knew that they could count on Jewish victimhood not counting outside performative gestures. And they both had control of their media to shape what the world would see.

If Holocaust memory is to mean anything, it must train us to recognize the moment when violence against Jews becomes morally invisible, when Jews are no longer allowed to be victims, only causes.

That moment has come before. And we have seen where it leads.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Human Rights Watch issued a report condemning Palestinian suicide bombings during the height of the second intifada in November 2002. HRW created a bizarrely high bar for evidence of PA payments to terrorists, essentially discounting anything less than a signed letter from Arafat authorizing such payments directly to someone he provably knew was a murderer.

Even so, HRW was clear: "Under international law, those who assist, aid, or abet crimes against humanity are individually responsible for the resulting crimes."

But that was the last time the supposed human rights organization addressed the issue. Even after 2004, when the PA officially created the Palestinian Authority Martyrs' Fund, HRW did not say a word.

That's over 23 years since HRW even mentioned it.

But even that is infinitely better than Amnesty International. Amnesty has never written a word about "pay for slay."

While both groups are keen to condemn any evidence of money that might help Israel fight Hamas, or might help a Jew live in Judea, when it comes to direct financial incentives to murder Jews, these "human rights organizations" are completely silent.

Palestinian Media Watch has proven just this week that the Palestinian Authority has never stopped pay for slay, even as they have insistred that they no longer do that.

Recipients of Palestinian Authority terror stipends residing in Jordan reported over the last three hours that their monthly payments had been deposited into their bank accounts. According to multiple firsthand accounts, the sums transferred were identical to those received previously, suggesting that the payment scale remains unchanged. Reports further indicate that dozens of transfers were processed through recognized banking institutions.

As bad as these NGOs are in what they say and their obsessive hate for Israel, often the real story is what they choose not to condemn. And the biggest incentive for Palestinians to attack Jewish civilians does not merit a negative word from HRW and Amnesty.

They must not think that Jews should have any human rights.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/26 Links Pt2: Don’t mourn the Holocaust while supporting the genocide of living Jews; NYTs becomes megaphone for NGO propaganda in Gaza

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Plot Against the Holocaust

Why? Because you cannot have both the “Israeli genocide” and the “Nazi genocide”; they are incompatible and can’t coexist within a single category. So it appears enlightened Westerners are choosing the former and dispensing with the latter.

Accusing Israel of genocide is not merely an attempt to isolate the Jewish state diplomatically; it is part of an effort to erase the Holocaust from history.

Educators who want to continue marking the Holocaust are facing increasingly vicious resistance. Olivia Marks-Woldman, CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, told the Telegraph that some teachers say they feel unprepared for what to do if (increasingly, when) attendees try to make the lesson about Israel’s supposed crimes. “But then there are people with their own agenda who want to use HMD to attack the memory of the Holocaust,” Marks-Woldman said. “We have had people write to us saying they will only commemorate HMD on certain conditions, for example, if we put out a letter condemning Netanyahu.”

Marks-Woldman told the Telegraph that Holocaust education “should not be conditional on anything.” Which is exactly right, of course. Unfortunately, in some sick sense, anti-Zionists agree: They are essentially pushing to retain Holocaust education as long as it is made entirely about Jewish crimes. When someone says “Holocaust,” these sociopaths want people to think Gaza.

It would be naïve to think this isn’t already progressing here in the U.S. as well. First, because it’s the exact same movement running with the exact same propaganda. Second, because according to some reports, it’s already happening.

The Jewish Journal reports that at UC-Irvine, the student government prepared a resolution for Holocaust Memorial Day. Jewish groups joined the others in backing the resolution, which originally said: “the world continues to witness a troubling rise in antisemitism, Holocaust denial, hate speech, and violence, both globally and within local communities, which reinforces the urgent need for education, historical understanding, and active resistance to all forms of discrimination.”

The student government apparently removed the Jewish sponsors and the particularist Jewish details, essentially confiscating the Holocaust from its victims. “What was originally a thoughtfully crafted Holocaust remembrance statement was fundamentally altered by ASUCI senators questioning established history, erasing Jewish authorship, and ignoring Jewish student voices,” one UC junior told the Journal.

Unless this trend is reversed, Holocaust Remembrance Day may soon have nothing to do with the actual Holocaust at all.

Jonathan Tobin: Don’t mourn the Holocaust while supporting the genocide of living Jews

The cost of universalizing
The universalization of the Holocaust and the way students are taught a slimmed-down summary of this chapter of history—in brief lessons crammed into the school year—has had unforeseen consequences. It has led to something that survivors, whose numbers are fewer and fewer every year, never envisioned when they began the campaign to spread knowledge of their experiences.

The Holocaust has become a metaphor for anything that people dislike. The predilection to treat anyone with whom we strongly disagree as if they were Hitler is not just a product of the hyperpartisan tone of 21st-century politics or the extreme polarization of the Donald Trump era. It is also the result of the way it has been universalized to the point where many, if not most, ordinary people think it was just a bad thing that happened a long time ago—not the specific result of millennia of Jew-hatred and the powerlessness of nearly an entire people.

Equally unfortunate is the way much of the educational establishment has embraced toxic leftist ideas like critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism. So-called “progressive” teachings have largely captured primary, secondary and higher education to the point where a generation of Americans has been indoctrinated into believing not merely in concepts that exacerbate racial divisions, but ones that promote the idea that Jews and Israelis are “white” oppressors.

This movement produced the pro-Hamas campus mobs that have targeted Jewish students for intimidation, discrimination and violence since Oct. 7 at universities around the world. Participants are shockingly ignorant of the history of the Middle East, even as they chant slogans endorsing Jewish genocide (“From the river to the sea”) and terrorism against Jews everywhere (“Globalize the intifada”). What they have also done is to appropriate the word genocide, which Holocaust survivor and lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined to describe the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people.

Their claim that Israel’s just war of self-defense against Hamas terrorists is “genocide” is a blatant lie. If applied to any other conflict, it would mean that every war that has ever been fought, including the one waged by the Allies against the Nazis, would be considered genocide. That not only drains the word of its actual meaning. It is, like the libelous efforts to smear Jews as Nazis, a classic trope of antisemitism.

Yet many on the political left, which has embraced this lie about Israel, are also prepared to join in mourning the Holocaust. Some, including that small minority of Jews who, for distorted reasons of their own, join in these antisemitic denunciations of Israelis and their supporters, even claim that they are inspired by the history of the Shoah to speak out against Israel now. Some even support efforts to eradicate the Jewish state—a result that could only be accomplished by the sort of genocidal war that Hamas and its allies are waging.

Our answer to them and others who are either silent about the misappropriation of the Holocaust or join in the blood libels against living Jews while lamenting the fate of dead Jews must be unequivocal.

Prioritize the defense of living Jews
We must tell those, like Walz, who misappropriate the memory of the Six Million, or utter such falsehoods about genocide, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and others on the intersectional left wing of the Democratic Party, that Holocaust commemorations should be off-limits to them.

The same applies to global organizations like the United Nations, which in 2005 voted to establish International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945. These agencies that claim to speak for human rights and justice for all countries in the world have become cesspools of antisemitism and engines of the war against the Jewish state.

For too long, too many members of the Jewish community have treated the promotion of Holocaust education or ceremonies honoring the dead as more important than efforts to defend the living.

It’s also true that, as important as teaching young Jews about the Shoah is, it must be linked to learning about the importance of Israel, as well as the life-affirming nature of their heritage and faith.

Above all, we must stop allowing the memory of what happened 80 years ago on Europe’s soil to be used by those who support or are neutral about those seeking to carry on the Nazi project of Jewish genocide. The failure to call an end to this misuse of Jewish history will only contribute to more tragedy.

‘I understand antisemitism because I was born in Russia’

Today Tabarovksy is the world’s leading expert in Soviet anti-Zionism but for a considerable time, in America, where Jews did not expect antisemitism to come from the left, her ideas were not taken as seriously as they should have been.

“I did acquire a following for the endless articles I was pumping out, but many people didn’t really understand how things I was warning about were relevant to them.

“I felt like a Cassandra,” she says, referring to the Greek figure whose prophesies were not believed.

“But the truth is that the antisemitism that has exploded across the world since October 7 is exactly as I predicted. I warned that any time a society is taken over by anti-Zionist ideology, you can be sure that antisemitic outcomes will follow.

“Jews who grew up in the USSR could now tell you this. Once the institutions become anti-Zionist, all Jews become suspect. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Zionist or not. They don’t even understand what Zionists are. When they speak about Zionists they mean Jews.

“We have an exceptionally well-documented history of Soviet Jews being discriminated against under an anti-Zionist regime and that is exactly what is happening to American Jews now. It’s crashing all around them, and it’s devastating to see.”

01/26 Links Pt1: IDF recovers remains of final hostage Ran Gvili; What the final Israeli hostage’s return really means; Kanye West apologises to Jews

From Ian:

NYPost Editorial: What the final Israeli hostage’s return really means

Israel soon responded in a campaign to rescue the captives and ensure Hamas could never do this again, ideally by wiping out the barbarians, root and branch.

Every sane nation should’ve cheered that mission — yet many instead compounded the pain, turning on Israel as antisemitism surged around the globe.

Yet ending Hamas’ existence should still be the guiding principle as Trump and his Board of Peace work to secure a true, long-term end to hostilities in Gaza, and maybe beyond.

At the least, the terrorists must lose their arms and any political or administrative power.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump agreed to give Hamas until March to lay down its weapons, with the prez threatening “hell to pay” if it didn’t.

Yet several of its leaders have vowed never to disarm, and the group has been jockeying for some continued political role in Gaza.

What do you think? Post a comment.

Gvili’s return ends a chapter, but clearly the full story of the Oct. 7 massacre won’t truly be over until, as Bibi has put it, Gaza can never again threaten Israel.

Pray that day comes soon.

David Horovitz: With Ran Gvili’s return, Israel’s leadership fulfills sacred obligation to the nation it failed on Oct. 7

Formally, the recovery of Gvili’s body completes the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s broader peace plan for Gaza, and ushers in the next phases, under which Hamas is supposed to relinquish its weapons, the Strip is to be demilitarized, the IDF is to gradually withdraw, and a new, non-threatening Gaza is to be eventually constructed.

Most imminently, Ali Shaath, the former Palestinian Authority deputy minister appointed to head the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, announced on Thursday that the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt would open within days in both directions. And Netanyahu, who is deeply wary that any such concession will be abused by the still potent Hamas, reluctantly went along, to the fury of his far-right coalition partners. His office on Sunday night conditioned reopening the crossing on the completion of the search for Gvili’s body — a condition now successfully met.

Hamas, it should not require stressing, has not wavered from its goal of eliminating Israel. Rather, it evidently concluded that releasing, first, all 20 remaining living hostages and now, finally, the last of the 28 deceased hostages, has paved the best path to avoiding ongoing, potentially intensified US-backed Israeli military pressure. Still controlling almost half of Gaza, it believes it is creating conditions under which it will be able to fudge the issue of what exactly becomes of its arms, rebuild its personnel and resources, continue to benefit from the support of a world full of Israel-haters and fools, await more conducive US leadership, and resume its “resistance” to the Jewish state.

Israel had two clear goals for a war it had no choice but to fight against Gaza’s terrorist government in the terrible aftermath of October 7: destroy Hamas, and get all the hostages back.

The first goal is not completed; the war in its current form is over, but Hamas is not destroyed.

But the second, mercifully, has now been accomplished. Israel’s political and military leadership has cleared a critical hurdle in rebuilding its relationship with the citizenry it so catastrophically failed to protect 843 days ago. The hostages have been returned. To the very last one.

In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," a key piece of evidence comes from the watchdog failing to make a sound. "The dog that didn't bark" became a well-known meme.

Often the real story is what doesn't happen. And yesterday, when a neo-Nazi ranted about Jews during an Australia Day rally, there was a notable noise not heard in the video.

The fact that the hate speech laws were pushed by the Jewish lobby groups in Australia. They, they are behind it all! They're behind it all. The Jews are our greatest enemy to this nation. They always have been an enemy of western civilisation. And for thousands of years Christians and Anglos, the white man, has known that the Jew is our greatest enemy. Free Joel Davis. Hail White Australia. And hail Thomas Sewell."

The police arrested the man.

The crowd can be heard cheering when he makes his antisemitic statements.

And not one boo is heard.

The organizers distanced themselves from the neo-Nazi comments, but they didn't remove the (multiple) speakers who uttered them. The crowd might not all have cheered but none seemed too disturbed.

Everyone in the mainstream right sand left claims to be against blatant antisemitism, but when it is staring them in the face from their own "side," they don't seem to get too worked up about it.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)