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ISRAEL

Is Trump really turning his back on Bibi and Israel? Don’t bet on it Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/is-trump-really-turning-his-back-on-bibi-and-israel-dont-bet-on-it/

It doesn’t take a degree in political science to sense an ulterior motive in recent reports about a rift between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The effort to promote the alleged schism isn’t exactly covert, after all.

No, it emanates from two sets of extremists: isolationists in the Trump camp and anti-Netanyahu Israelis. The former consider the slogan “Make America Great Again” as an excuse for staying out of the world’s conflicts, as though battles abroad, even against radical Islamists bent on toppling “the Great Satan” and annihilating the small one, are of no concern to Americans.

These particular MAGA Republicans view anyone who supports the use of military force to defeat Iran and its proxies as a “neocon warmonger” willing to risk American lives on behalf of the Jewish state.

Antisemitic undertones aside, Israelis with separate false claims—among them that Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza at the expense of the hostages to preserve his coalition—are happy to echo the schism narrative. This group includes protest leaders and their parrots in the media who consider Bibi more dangerous than a nuclear Iran and its terrorist tentacles.

Though Trump’s confusing statements on what a deal with the Islamic Republic would entail—a complete dismantling of its entire nuclear program or only that which is enriching uranium for military purposes—have provided fodder for journalists jumping on the opportunity to publish havoc-wreaking accounts, nail-biters should take the storyline with a grain of salt.

The same goes for hysteria over his announcement on Tuesday of a truce with the Houthis. Since the Iran-backed terrorist group had “capitulated,” and promised to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea, said Trump, the U.S. would cease bombing in Yemen.

Europe’s Illegal Land-Grab: Part III by Karys Rhea

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21492/europe-illegal-land-grab-part-iii

The international community continues to conspire against the reality of Israel’s existence by testing the limits of its sovereignty and threatening the Jewish right to self-determination and self-defense.

The EU would never allow an external entity to abridge the sovereignty of one of its own member states in this way, nor would it endorse such behavior anywhere else.

“To think that the Palestinians are only enraged about settlements is also fatuous nonsense. Talk to the 15-year-olds. Their grievance is not just with Israeli settlements, but with Israel. Most Palestinians simply do not accept that the Jews have any authentic right to be here.” —Thomas Friedman, New York Times, October 31, 2000.

The progressive international public has fervently bought into the red herring of Jewish settlements while hypocritically remaining silent regarding settlement activity in Western Sahara, northern Cyprus, Ceuta and Melilla, Tibet, Kashmir and the Falkland Islands.

The mainstream media and cultural apparatus conveniently ignore the history of these Jewish “settlers,” many of whom are indigenous to the region but whose parents or grandparents were forcibly expelled from the West Bank or parts of Jerusalem in 1948 when Jordan seized and occupied territory. Instead of acknowledging them as descendants of refugees merely returning home…

Those who understand the scope of this have witnessed how the plan of former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is part of a much bigger strategy of illegal land use that extends to the Negev Desert in the south and to the Galilee in the north, all driven by a European-supported narrative that replaces Jewish history with the 20th-century fiction of Palestinian-Arab nationalism.

The international community continues to conspire against the reality of Israel’s existence by testing the limits of its sovereignty and threatening the Jewish right to self-determination and self-defense. Palestinian-Arab society, among the most antisemitic in the world (long before Jewish communities in the West Bank were part of the picture), in which Palestinian Authority government-controlled television, media, textbooks and mosques encourage violence against Jews, praise Adolf Hitler, characterize Jews as “apes and pigs,” and deny the Holocaust, use Jewish “settlements” as a smokescreen to distract from their real agenda based on a single belief held for centuries: Jews do not belong.

The indestructible myth of famine in Gaza Universalism’s falsehoods are protected by a doctrine of infallibility Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/

Yet again, the myth has been revived that there is a famine in the Gaza Strip.

This claim, which has done so much to incite attacks on Jews, has been promulgated repeatedly by mainstream western media during the past 18 months of war. It is a lie that distorts yet another lie.

Time and again, UN agencies and NGOs have warned that famine and starvation are imminent. But this has never happened. More food has been admitted to Gaza than people need.

The problem has been that Hamas took much of it to feed themselves and to sell it on the black market to finance their infrastructure of war.

Nevertheless, the Gazans have overwhelmingly remained conspicuously well-fed, while the people who really have been starved are the Israeli hostages they hold captive. Yet the media has continued to insist that civilians in Gaza are being starved to death.

Two months ago, with an estimated four months’ worth of food supplies remaining in Gaza, Israel instituted a blockade on further aid transports to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

The Israel Defence Forces will now oversee food distribution in southern Gaza in order to stop Hamas stealing it and to funnel civilians into those areas, isolating and weakening Hamas to enable the IDF finally to destroy it. The United Nations has refused to accept this plan, demonstrating that its aim is not to alleviate Gazan suffering but to aid Hamas in its war against Israel.

Stupefyingly, it is simply impossible to change the wicked media narrative that Israel is starving Gazan civilians to death. Facts and evidence get absolutely nowhere. Many believe that this is because of the false and obsessive belief that Israel is a colonial oppressor. But this embrace of revolutionary Marxist ideology is only part of the reason.

These lies have penetrated far beyond the keffiyeh-clad hordes of demonstrators. In Britain and elsewhere, it’s now the accepted unwisdom across great swathes of the professions, administrative class and business world that Israel is starving children and committing war crimes in Gaza.

When confronted with facts contradicting every one of these claims, such people ask incredulously: “Are you really saying that you are right while everyone else — the UN, the international legal tribunals, the entire humanitarian establishment — is wrong?”

Israel’s fight for civilisation Douglas Murray’s On Democracies and Death Cults is a vital account of 7 October and its aftermath. Cory Franklin

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/05/09/israels-fight-for-civilisation/

“Along with spiked’s Brendan O’Neill, Douglas Murray one of the two best writers in the English language about this conflict. As Murray writes, history is constantly being rewritten and that’s why this book is so important. In writing it, Murray has done the cause of democracy, and the victims of one of our century’s most unforgivable crimes, an important service.”

Douglas Murray’s new book, On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of the West is a must-read on the Israel-Hamas war.

After 7 October 2023, Murray spent the better part of 18 months in Israel and Gaza, documenting the Hamas attack on Israel and its aftermath. His account of what Hamas did is instructive, harrowing and tragic. There was indiscriminate rape and murder, including that of babies and the elderly. Families were burned alive when attackers could not breach their safe rooms and so set their houses on fire. And partygoers were gunned down at the Nova music festival.

Murray points out that, in contrast with the Nazis, who tried to hide evidence of their mass slaughter, Hamas fighters recorded and proudly broadcast their own crimes. Who could forget the notorious young terrorist who, on the day of 7 October, called his parents in Gaza and boasted:

‘Hi dad… Open my WhatsApp now and you will see all those killed. Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!… I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her and her husband. I killed 10! Ten with my own hands! Put mum on.’

His mother then expresses regret – only that she was not there with him to savour the moment.

Much of Murray’s focus is on the reaction in the West. He dismantles the myth that the world’s sympathy was with Israel in the immediate aftermath of 7 October, a solidarity which it supposedly forfeited with its subsequent invasion of Gaza. Nothing could be further from the truth. He reminds us of the immediate reaction on the streets of London and on Ivy League campuses in America. These protests were not entreaties for peace, but calls for the eradication of Israel. Within days of the massacre, student groups at Harvard issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with Hamas: ‘We, the undersigned student organisations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.’

Here on Island Israel, Bewilderment and Tough Questions It’s been a rough week and it’s not over yet. P. David Hornik

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/subscribe?

It was reported Thursday evening that Israel’s Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Economy Minister Nir Barkat, and heads of Israeli airlines were holding an emergency meeting on what to do about thousands of Israelis who have been stranded abroad since Sunday—the day a Houthi ballistic missile from Yemen penetrated both Israeli and American air defenses and hit the perimeter of the main terminal of Ben Gurion Airport, injuring six people.

Those Israelis have now been stranded all that time because the Houthi airstrike prompted almost all foreign airlines to immediately cancel flights to Israel. Many of them now say their flights to Israel will be suspended until at least mid-May; for British Airways, at this point, it’s until June 14.

The two Israeli ministers and the airline chiefs were discussing ways to help the far-flung, stranded Israelis get home; the option of the local carriers, for the time being, reducing ticket prices; and “emergency plans in case of another wave of cancellations.”

Since October 7, 2023, the feeling of being isolated on Island Israel is not new to Israelis; many of the international airlines had suspended flights to Israel since that day and only resumed them in March or April this year.

Indeed, there was something almost bizarre about what happened on Sunday. Since March 18, when Israel resumed fighting in Gaza, the Houthis had launched 26 ballistic missiles and several drones at Israel, and all had crashed into the sea before getting here or been shot down.

Yet Sunday’s missile, aimed at the airport, managed to evade both Israel’s Arrow defense system and the US THAAD defense system, deployed to Israel amid heightening tensions with Iran.

Why Hamas Wants To Control Gaza’s Humanitarian Aid by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21598/hamas-gaza-humanitarian-aid

Palestinians… say that if anyone is stealing the humanitarian aid and food, it is Hamas.

Videos posted on social media have shown Hamas thugs brutally beating Palestinians suspected of stealing food for their families.

A day earlier, Hamas announced that three Gazans will soon be slaughtered with knives for allegedly “collaborating” with Israel. Others will have their limbs hacked off with blades for supposed “theft” of food.

“Since October 7, I’ve said it without hesitation: Hamas is ISIS – only with better PR. And that PR machine runs on Qatari money, through media outlets that spin terrorism into heroism and wash blood with propaganda.” — Hamza Howidy, Gaza-born peace and human rights advocate, X, May 4, 2025.

“There is no government, no law, no order – just fear. And as Palestinians dare to speak out, Hamas hunts them down, kidnaps them, threatens their families and silences them by force… They offer no protection, no aid, no leadership – only guns, terror, and slogans.” — Hamza Howidy, X, May 3, 2025.

“Hamas relied on criminal elements to create pandemonium that generated mass looting events which provided some cover for the terror group to commit the organized theft of what remains of food supplies in Gaza.” — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza native and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, X, May 2, 2025.

This criminality is precisely why the international community needs to back Israel’s effort to prevent Hamas from monopolizing and embezzling humanitarian supplies sent into the Gaza Strip.

The international community should support any initiative aimed at ending Hamas’s rule over the Gaza Strip and destroying its military capabilities. Both Israel and the Palestinian people, who are paying a heavy price as a result of Hamas’s decision to commit the biggest massacre against Jews since the Holocaust, will only gain from this.

The Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has reconstituted its “Executive Force” as part of an effort to control humanitarian aid and “impose law and order” in the Gaza Strip.

The 5,000-strong force, originally established in 2006, has been entrusted with preventing the “theft” of food and “deterring thieves and thugs responsible for anarchy and lawlessness.”

Members of the “Executive Force” have been deployed throughout the Gaza Strip and given orders to “take all necessary measures, including the use of excessive force,” to restore security and stability to the coastal strip, according to Palestinian sources.

Greta Thunberg’s moral siege of Israel This is an armada of Israelophobic activists, not an aid mission. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/05/07/greta-thunbergs-moral-siege-of-israel/

Why isn’t Greta Thunberg sailing an aid ship to Sudan? Things are dire there. Two years of war have given rise to ‘catastrophic hunger levels’. The horrors dwarf ‘those in Ukraine, Gaza and Somalia combined’, reports Deutsche Welle. And yet the benighted Sudanese have failed to win the favour of the world’s best known eco-brat. Her boat is destined not for Africa but for the only strip of land that matters to the virtuous of the West: Gaza.

Sweden’s prophetess of doom is back in the news. She’s making waves with her plan to sail to Gaza. She and others from the turbo-smug keffiyeh classes had planned to sail on a boat called – wait for it – Conscience. Rumour has it they called it that because ‘Aren’t We Fucking Wonderful?’ was too long for the hull. But their moral expedition has been put on hold after a drone fired on their boat in waters off Malta, causing damage but no casualties.

Information is sparse. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) that’s organising this virtue-fest in the Med says 30 people were onboard at the time – the Maltese government says 16 were. Greta says Israel fired the drone, yet another ‘crystal-clear example’ that it doesn’t give a toss about ‘international law and human rights’; Israel is staying schtum.

Of course, no one wants to see Greta or her activist pals come to any harm. I’m glad that they haven’t. Yet it would be wholly wrong to describe this expedition as merely about delivering aid, as simply humanitarian. The aim of these seafaring Israelophobes is less to ‘help Gaza’ than to weaken Israel’s hold over the enemy territory it has seized in its bloody war with Hamas.

Democracies and Death Cults Douglas Murray emerges as Israel’s fiercest non-Jewish defender. by Mark Tapson

https://www.frontpagemag.com/democracies-and-death-cults/

As faux historians, faux conservatives, and former MMA tough guys vie with each other to be the biggest antisemitic influencers in the dank sewer known as social media, one pundit stands out as the fiercest, most visible non-Jew defender of Israel’s right to exist.

Bestselling author and journalist Douglas Murray, known for his incisive observations on the embattled West, his fearlessly pro-Israel stance, and his withering verbal takedowns of Jew-hating opponents, recently released a new book: On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization. It is both emotionally searing and intellectually rigorous, a meticulously reported deep dive into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, centered on the atrocities of October 7, 2023, and their broader implications for Western democracies. The book draws from Murray’s extensive on-the-ground reporting in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon, offering a firsthand account of the horrors perpetrated by the terror group Hamas and a trenchant critique of the West’s largely sickening response to the conflict.

Arguably the book’s greatest value is that it underscores the clash between a thriving democracy that celebrates life, and a savage ideology obsessed with death and with the eradication of Jews and their tiny Middle East state. Murray’s ability to convey the shocking horror of Palestinian brutality with understated language, combined with his warning about the dangers of the West’s perverse sympathy for Hamas, makes On Democracies and Death Cults a vital contribution to the discourse on democracy, morality, and the future of civilization.

Murray’s restrained prose manages to amplify the visceral impact of his reporting. Rather than resorting to sensationalism, he lets the grim facts of October 7 speak for themselves. The massacre, which saw Hamas terrorists and Palestinian civilians murder, rape, and abduct over 1200 Israelis in a meticulously planned assault, is recounted through the voices of survivors, victims’ families, and even captured perpetrators. Murray’s descriptions are spare yet haunting: a mother burned alive in her home, a child witnessing unspeakable brutality, a terrorist exulting in his murderous deeds.

Biden team sought to ‘get rid’ of Netanyahu for opposing its Gaza plans The apparent willingness of the Biden administration to consider ousting a sitting prime minister once more raises questions about U.S. interference in Israel’s internal politics. David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/biden-team-sought-to-get-rid-of-netanyahu-for-opposing-its-gaza-plans/

The Biden administration considered ways to “get rid” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he wouldn’t go along with their plans for the Gaza Strip, Channel 13’s weekly investigative news show HaMakor (“The Source”) revealed on April 27.

“The White House got tired of Netanyahu and started to roll around a revolutionary idea … : how to get rid of Netanyahu,” said Raviv Drucker, who hosts the hour-long Sunday show.

The April 27 broadcast, titled “All the President’s Men,” involved in-depth interviews with nine members of former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, including former U.S. ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides, former national security advisor Jake Sullivan, former White House national security communications advisor John Kirby, former senior advisor for energy Amos Hochstein and former senior Biden aide Ilan Goldenberg.

Worth noting is that the program was an apologia for the Biden administration, and that Drucker is a long-time critic of Netanyahu. The episode criticized the prime minister throughout, portraying him as ungrateful, as torpedoing potential hostage deals for political reasons and missing a chance to sign a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, among other missteps.

According to the program, the Biden administration became aggravated by Netanyahu’s refusal to discuss the end goal of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, specifically, who would take charge of the Gaza Strip after Hamas had been ousted.

The Biden team proposed handing security to a foreign force, which would then turn Gaza over to Palestinian control, Goldenberg told HaMakor.

Does The European Union Actually Expect Radical Islamists to Reform Themselves? by Nils A. Haug

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21586/eu-palestinians-islamists

The European Union’s decision to grant the Palestinian Authority (PA) a sum of $2 billion to assist them to “reform themselves” can only be the result of wilful blindness, cognitive dissonance and what by now can only be ascribed to a proud European tradition of Jew-hate.

Israel’s warnings of the PA continuing to seize Israel’s land by phases — as planned by the PLO 10-Point Program of 1974 and advanced by former PA Prime Minister Salman Fayyad’s plan — to “create facts on the ground” with illegal buildings — are largely ignored by the West. So far, the PA, with the funding from the EU, has built more than 97,581 illegal structures on Israeli land that is still to be negotiated.

The Palestinian Authority also full-throatedly incites terrorism in its education system and bountifully funds terrorist acts. The total so far disbursed as remuneration for the PA’s “Pay-for-Slay” program and acts of terrorism reportedly exceeds $1 billion. This transaction has been in place for decades.

The EU’s naiveté (to be kind) is already bringing disaster upon many of its member nations by allowing unlimited Muslim migration, presumably in an unconditional desire for every vote imaginable.

Israelis are understandably against an untenable two-state solution — which they accurately see as no solution at all.

The European Union’s decision to grant the Palestinian Authority (PA) a sum of $2 billion to assist them to “reform themselves” can only be the result of wilful blindness, cognitive dissonance and what by now can only be ascribed to a proud European tradition of Jew-hate.

The PA, despite claiming to be secular, is saturated with an Islamist mentality in support of jihadists. The PA plays the West by displaying a veneer of reasonableness, victimhood and the bogus claim that it would, in an ever-extending future, accept some kind of peace with the Jews. This fiction is supposedly backed by an equally bogus claim that it would be willing — under conditions which would always be suicidal for the Jews to accept — to establish a two-state solution in Israel’s ancestral homeland.

This romantic fantasy persists in the face of the Palestinian Authority’s elaborate, extremely concrete programs with the European Union to appropriate land which, according to the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords, must still be negotiated, as well as a continuing jobs program that the PA offers, similar to Murder, Inc. The PA’s “Pay for Slay” program lavishly rewards Palestinians who murder Israelis. The more Israelis they murder, the greater the sum. A 2024 report notes that the PA disburses more than $16 million each month to the Palestinian murderers and their families.