RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/hamas-unrwa-sex-crimes-and-international-womens-day/

Israelis don’t need further proof of the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 by Hamas, and fellow Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah savages. Testimony from survivors and forensic pathologists abounds.
As if eyewitness accounts weren’t sufficient, there are hours of audio and video recordings from cellphone, GoPro and CCTV cameras, much of which was taped and filmed by ecstatic terrorists boasting of their barbaric accomplishments.

Sadly, however, aspersions abroad make every new sliver of evidence necessary. Not that the two reports released on Monday are likely to make a dent in massacre denial.

Indeed, historical revisionism, of the sort surrounding the Holocaust, is already rampant—a mere five months after the genocidal assault on the Jewish state from the Gaza Strip. Still, both disclosures were particularly worthy of note due to their timing: the approach of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8. They were also unwittingly connected.

The first was the acknowledgment by the United Nations that sex crimes against women and girls were perpetrated on Oct. 7 by Hamas “and other armed groups.” This better-late-than-never realization was reached by a team of “technical experts,” led by Special Representative of the Secretary-General Pramila Patten, following a two-week mission to Israel last month.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/03/dont-fall-for-hamass-numbers-game/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

Lloyd Austin’s recent gullibility about Hamas casualty figures lays bare the terrorist group’s goal: to use lies and propaganda to turn the world against Israel.

At a press conference in the early days of the Israel–Hamas conflict, President Joe Biden was asked about casualty numbers coming out of Gaza. He responded that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.” The next day, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked the same question, and in turn explained, “We all know that the Gazan Ministry of Health is just a front for Hamas. It’s a — it’s run by Hamas, a terrorist organization. I’ve said it myself up here: We can’t take anything coming out of Hamas, including the so-called Ministry of Health, at face value.”

Fast forward to February 29, when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had no such qualms, parroting before Congress Hamas’s claim that “over 25,000” women and children have perished in Gaza. A few short hours later, the Pentagon walked back the secretary’s claim. Why? Because nobody has any idea — any honest idea — how many Gazans have died in the war that began with Hamas’s October 7 attack.

The only sources of data about casualties in Gaza are Hamas-controlled organizations. And despite a demonstrable record of manipulation designed to exaggerate the deaths of women and children (and minimize the numbers of men — the targets of Israeli military action), these numbers have become the data of record, used without qualification by the United Nations, its specialized agencies, the media, and, pace Joe Biden, one of the U.S. government’s highest officials.

As early as October, after false claims that 471 were killed by an alleged Israeli attack on al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Hamas’s credibility should have been shot. The “attack” turned out to be a misfired missile launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that damaged an area adjacent to the hospital, and most experts concluded that deaths totaled half that number or even fewer. But doubts about Hamas’s honesty soon dissipated, and much of the press returned to an uncritical repetition of Palestinian statistics.

There can be little doubt that many thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have perished. The IDF says that 12,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed — and presumably most, if not all, of these casualties are men. As a proportional matter, if 12,000 men have been killed, it is possible that roughly the same number of women (who are approximately 50 percent of the Gazan population), and almost as many children under 18 (47 percent of the overall population), have also died.

On the other hand, this is not the bombing of Dresden or the carpet-bombing of Vietnam. House-to-house fighting is generally aimed at minimizing civilian casualties, and the IDF has until recently conducted much of its campaign with air support for troops on the ground. Thus, we should assume that a proportional death toll in Gaza of men, women, and children is unlikely. However, Hamas’s penchant for c0-locating their operations with mosques, schools, and hospitals means higher risks for Palestinians who are young, elderly, or infirm.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/03/does-kamala-harris-know-the-administration-needs-an-israeli-victory/?utm_source=recirc-

Her equivocating remarks over the weekend left reason to wonder about the coherence of the White House’s strategy.

The Biden administration’s hopelessly confused approach to navigating the domestic politics of Israel’s defensive war against Hamas was reflected in Vice President Kamala Harris’s equally confused remarks on the subject over the weekend. In a speech that touched on the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, Harris tried to please all sides of the issue — and succeeded only in irritating all parties equally.

In calling for an “immediate ceasefire,” Harris first put the onus on Hamas. “There is a deal on the table,” she observed. “Hamas needs to agree to that deal.” That outcome would allow the reunification of “the hostages with their families” and “provide immediate relief to the people of Gaza,” Harris noted. Fair enough. But following this throat-clearing exercise, Harris devoted the remainder of her speech to castigating Israel over its conduct of the war that erupted with the October 7 massacre. In the process, the vice president strongly suggested the true obstacle to peace was not the terrorist entity that inaugurated this war but its victim.

“People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane, and our common humanity compels us to act,” Harris said of the horrors that prevail in Gaza today. “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses.” She went on to imply that the humanitarian disaster unfolding in formerly Hamas-controlled territory is an outgrowth of Israeli cruelty. To mitigate the disaster, Israel must “open new border crossings,” “restore basic services” to and “promote order in Gaza,” and avoid imposing any “unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid.”

To hear Harris tell it, you could be forgiven for believing (as, surely, most of her unwitting constituents do) that Israel has gone to great lengths to deprive Gazans of access to humanitarian relief. In fact, Israel negotiated an agreement with Egypt as early as October 18 to allow the transit of humanitarian-aid convoys through the Rafah crossing — and that agreement has been in effect since October 21. Additionally, Israel reopened the Karem Shalom crossing into Gaza directly from Israeli territory in mid December, and properly inspected aid has flown uninterrupted through that checkpoint since late last year, despite “threats of sniper fire, anti-tank missile shooting, among other threats to civilian life.” Since the outset of hostilities, the Israeli government maintains that 14,545 trucks have delivered 267,970 tons of humanitarian aid to Gazans.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20460/demilitarized-palestinian-state

[A]ny commitment to a demilitarized state by the Palestinian leadership would be legally worthless.

“Any treaty is void if, at the time it was entered into, it conflicts with a ‘peremptory’ rule of general international law (jus cogens) – a rule accepted and recognized by the international community of states as one from which ‘no derogation is permitted.’ Because the right of sovereign States to maintain military forces essential to ‘self-defense’ is such a peremptory rule, Palestine, depending upon its particular form of authority, could be entirely within its right to abrogate any pre-independence agreement that had compelled its demilitarization.” [Italics in original.] — Louis René Beres, professor emeritus at Purdue University, and an expert in international law and political science, jurist.org, December 23, 2023.

“Therein lies the jurisprudential core of the Palestinian demilitarization problem: International law would not necessarily require Palestinian compliance with any pre-state agreements concerning the use of armed force. From the standpoint of such authoritative law, enforcing demilitarization upon a sovereign state of Palestine would be sorely problematic.” [Italics in original.] — Louis René Beres, jurist.org, December 23, 2023

“Unhidden, both the Arab world and Iran still have only a ‘One-State Solution’ for the ‘Israel Problem.’ It is a ‘solution’ that eliminates Israel altogether, a physical solution, a ‘Final Solution.’ Even today, official Arab maps of ‘Palestine’ (PNA and Hamas) show the prospective Arab State comprising all of the West Bank (Judea/Samaria), all of Gaza and all of Israel. They knowingly exclude any references to a Jewish population and list ‘holy sites’ of Christians and Muslims only.” — Louis René Beres, jurist.org, December 23, 2023

No one can stop a future Palestinian state from becoming a lawless and militarized state. Such a state on Israel’s doorstep would pose a direct and grave threat to Israel’s existence and actually facilitate the mission of the Iranian regime and its terror proxies to murder more Jews.

As part of its effort to promote the idea of a “two-state solution,” the Biden administration has been talking about the need to establish a “demilitarized” Palestinian state next to Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reported to have asked the State Department for a “review of what a demilitarized Palestinian state would look like based on other models around the world.”

http://bit.ly/4c2GegI

Demographic reality contradicts conventional wisdom

*The number of annual Jewish births in Israel surged by 69% from 1995 (80,400) to 2023 (135,639), compared to a 17% increase of annual Arab births in Israel during the same period, as reported by the February 2024 Monthly Bulletin of Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS).

*The 2023 Jewish births (135,639) were 76% of total births (178,454), compared to 69% in 1995.

*In 2024 (based on the 2022 data), the Jewish fertility rate (3.03 births per woman) is higher than the Arab fertility rate (2.75), as it has been since 2016. It is higher than the fertility rates in all Muslim countries other than Iraq and the sub-Sahara Muslim countries.

*In 1969, Israel’s and Judea and Samaria’s (West Bank’s) Arab fertility rate was 6 births higher than the Jewish fertility rate. In 2015, both fertility rates were at 3.13 births per woman, reflecting the dramatic Westernization of Arab demography in Judea and Samaria and pre-1967 Israel, triggered by Arab modernity, urbanization, the enhanced social status of Arab women, older wedding age (24), expanded participation of Arab women in higher-education and the job market, a shorter reproductive time (25-45 rather than 16-55) and the increased use of contraceptives. 

*In 2023, there were 43,353 Israeli Jewish deaths, compared to 31,575 in 1996, a 37% increase, compared to a 43% increase in 2022 (while the size of the population almost doubled!), which reflects a society growing younger. In 2023, there were 6,108 Israeli Arab deaths, compared to 3,089 in 1996, a 98% increase, which reflects a society growing older.  

*In 2023, the number of Israeli Jewish deaths was 32% of Jewish births, compared to 40% in 1995 – an expression of a society growing younger. In 2023, the number of Israeli Arab deaths was 14.3% of Arab births, compared to 8% in 1995 – a symptom of a society growing older.

*Israel’s robust Jewish fertility rate is attributed to high-level optimism, patriotism, attachment to Jewish roots, frontier mentality, communal solidarity, high regard for raising children, and a declining number of abortions (34% decline since 1990, while the policy on abortion is liberal).

*In 2024, there is a potential wave of Aliyah (Jewish immigration) of some 500,000 Olim (Jewish immigrants) from the Ukraine, Russia, other former Soviet republics, West Europe, Argentina, the USA, etc., awaiting the Israeli government recognition of Aliyah as a top national priority (as it was until 1992), resuming a pro-active Aliyah policy. 

*Contrary to conventional wisdom, Israel’s Jewish emigration has declined since 1990, where there was an addition of 14,200 to the number of Israelis staying outside Israel for over a year. In recent years, the annual addition of emigrants has declined to an average of 7,000, while the overall population of Israel doubled itself from almost 5 million to almost 10 million. Thus, in 2020, there was an unusually high addition of 10,800 (probably due to  COVID-19 related travel restrictions), and in 2021 there was an addition of merely 1,400 (due to COVID-19).

https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2024/03/03/icc-language-indicates-bias-against-israel/

The International Criminal Court is examining Israel’s policies in what it calls the “occupied Palestinian West Bank.” But how can the court possibly render a fair verdict when that very term is a complete and utter falsehood?

For as long as any of us can remember, the phrase “occupied Palestinian West Bank” has been a regular part of the vocabulary used by the media, as well as the political and diplomatic world. The fact that those words have been around for a long time doesn’t make them true.

Contemporary American English includes all sorts of names and phrases that don’t mean what they actually suggest. “French fries” are not French. “Koala bears” are not bears. “Driveways” are for parking, not driving—and parkways are the opposite. That’s all great fodder for stand-up comedians who specialize in observational humor.

But the way the terms “occupation,” “Palestinian” and “West Bank” are used is no joking matter.

“Occupation” was accurate for a short period of time. But Israel’s “occupation” of the territories in question ended long ago.

The Israelis first occupied those areas in self-defense during the Six-Day War in June 1967. Between 1993 and 1995, however, that occupation came to an end. It was replaced by an agreed-upon division of the region between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Israelis withdrew from the parts where 98% of the Palestinian Arabs reside. There are no Israeli troops, no Israeli administration and no Israeli military governor there anymore. So who exactly is “occupying” it? The Palestinian Authority, of course.

The P.A. has its own armed troops (euphemistically called “security forces”), its own administration and its own governors. It runs the courts, the police, the schools, the news media and everything else that constitutes an occupation.

The only part of the area that Israel occupies is where Israelis reside. And that Israeli presence is stipulated by the Oslo Accords. Not that Israel’s right to the area is based on the Oslo agreement, of course. It’s based on 3,000-plus years of continuous Jewish inhabitation and many centuries of Jewish national sovereignty—not to mention international law and the Hebrew Bible. But the fact is that the P.A. agreed to it.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20450/independent-terrorist-state

Both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron reveal their simplistic, and somewhat imperialist, Western approach to a complex Middle Eastern situation, irrespective of the aims and intentions of the two parties chiefly involved: the radical Islamists of Gaza and the West Bank, and the State of Israel itself.

“They [Hamas] told us in all of their statements that their charter is to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jews. Other countries have said the same thing. It’s also in the Houthis’ charter. It’s in Iran’s direct messaging. I think that when they tell you they want to kill you, you should believe that. I think that’s the lesson.” — Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, ynetnews.com, February 24, 2024.

Realistically, the Palestinian claim to Gaza is based on tenuous grounds. Gaza is not the traditional homeland of the so-called Palestinian people. They are simply a collection of nomadic Arabs who forged that identity for political expediency. This arrangement was openly stated by the late PLO executive committee member, Zoheir Moshen, in an interview with James Dorsey for the Dutch newspaper Trouw, on March 31, 1977: “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak about the existence of a Palestinian people since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.”

Even if a political compromise were reached over Gaza, or, the “1949 Armistice Line” as in the revised 2017 Hamas charter, the violent struggle for control over the rest of Israel, particularly the West Bank — the “heart” of Israel — will persist.

Both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron reveal their simplistic, and somewhat imperialist, Western approach to a complex Middle Eastern situation, irrespective of the aims and intentions of the two parties chiefly involved: the radical Islamists of Gaza and the West Bank, and the State of Israel itself.

The hard truth is that for millennia, the land of Israel, whether occupied by Jacob’s tribes or others, has been the domain of countless generations of Israelites. The vast majority of Israel’s citizens, and many Jews in the diaspora, understand their rights to retain their homeland after escaping 400 years of slavery in Egypt. At its core, the debate over this tiny area of land is founded on three primary factors: spiritual, national, and political. In the result, the conviction of the majority populace is that not one square inch of the current boundaries of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) can belong to anyone who might harm them again, although people of peace are always graciously allowed to reside among them.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20415/us-abandoned-israel

“Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be.” — US President Joe Biden, October 18, 2023.

It did not take long, however, for the Biden administration to completely turn that promise on its head. The reversal began with US demands on Israel to scale down military operations, which were already scaled down….

“Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history…. Israel’s use of real phone calls to civilians in combat areas (19,734), SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to provide instructions on evacuations is also unprecedented.” — John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy West Point, newsweek.com, January 31, 2024

The only relevant country that has apparently not been invited to the “urgent” discussions [to reward terrorists unilaterally with a soon-to-be-militarized Palestinian State] is Israel.

Biden, clearly, seems not that intent on making Israel or the Free World a safe place again. At least not if it might compromise his reelection.

“I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone,” US President Joe Biden said right after the October 7 massacre by the terrorist organization Hamas of Israelis, Muslims, Americans, Europeans, Filipinos and Thai visitors enjoying a Saturday holiday in southern Israel. “As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone,” Biden continued.