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ISRAEL

Middle East at the Boiling Point—Israel Already Told: Don’t The West chooses dishonor, and gets war. P.David Hornik

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=8t06w&next=https%

Biden said to tell Netanyahu US won’t support Israeli response to an Iran attack (JNS.org)

“Let me be crystal clear…. If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.”

So President Biden reportedly told Prime Minister Netanyahu on the night of April 14—when Iran launched over 300 missiles and drones at Israel, an attack that was almost totally rebuffed by Israel and a coalition the US had put together to help protect it.

The New York Times report goes on:

Mr. Netanyahu pushed back hard, citing the need to respond in kind to deter future attacks. “You do this,” Mr. Biden said forcefully, “and I’m out.” Ultimately, the aides noted, Mr. Netanyahu scaled back his response.

Less than four months later and—surprise, Iran, possibly in tandem with Hizballah and other proxies, is believed to be preparing an even bigger attack than that of April 14. After all, it paid no price for the April 14 attack. Israel indeed “scaled back its response” with a single strike on an Iranian air-defense system on April 19. Netanyahu, who “cit[ed] the need to respond in kind,” was right that a much greater response would have been needed “to deter future attacks.” But it’s too late for that now, and we are where we are.

Both Iran’s April 14 attack and its presumed upcoming attack were triggered by Israeli assassinations of terror leaders. Iran is trying to establish a new normal: Israel had better remove this weapon—assassinations of major terror leaders—from its arsenal, because otherwise it will find itself each time under a vastly larger, potentially devastating attack. Such assassinations, however, have been an important weapon for Israel for decades.

U.N. Says Nine Employees Likely Involved in October 7 Attacks, Won’t Release ‘Confidential’ Report Jimmy Quinn

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/u-n-says-nine-employees-likely-involved-in-october-7-attacks-wont-release-confidential-report/

The U.N. said today that an internal investigation found that nine staffers of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East likely participated in the October 7 terrorist attacks — but that it will not release the details about what they did that day.

The organization revealed that it fired the nine staffers, some of whom it had initially terminated in January when the allegations first surfaced, and that one staffer fired that month had rejoined the scandal-plagued agency, which has used pro-terrorism textbooks in its schools.

While U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq, announcing the findings at a press briefing today, said the employees “may have been involved,” he confirmed that what the organization means is that it is likely or highly likely that the staffers joined the attacks.

After Israel initially told other governments and the U.N. that twelve UNRWA staffers had taken part in October 7, several of those countries, including the U.S., suspended their funding for the agency, and the U.N. kicked off two internal investigations.

Subsequent findings from Israeli intelligence reportedly hold that about 1,200 employees of the organization in Gaza are tied to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The ‘Moderate’ Genocidal Madmen of Hamas By Brittany Bernstein

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/the-moderate-genocidal-madmen-of-hamas/

Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks, a weekly column produced by National Review’s News Desk. This week, we look at more sympathetic media reporting on Hamas and cover more media misses.

Attention Reporters: There’s Nothing Moderate about Hamas

Israel’s latest attacks on Hamas will not permanently wipe the group out, the New York Times reports. Instead, the group may gather itself and come back “more radicalized.”

“The assassinations of two Hamas leaders may be a short-term setback, analysts say, not enough to prevent the group from re-emerging intact — and possibly more radicalized,” a subheading reads.

“Israel’s decades-long targeted killing campaigns against its Palestinian and regional rivals have a contested record: Critics have long argued the tactic has simply created room for new parties or leaders to emerge as Israel’s main foes — often with ever more radical forces replacing them,” the story goes on to explain.

How, exactly, this group could become any more radical than it already is remains a mystery. It’s been just ten months since Hamas killed 1,200 people and took nearly 250 hostages during its infamous October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel.

But the article continues a line of rhetoric seen in several recent obituaries of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who has been described by a handful of outlets as “moderate.”

Haniyeh was killed during a visit to Tehran. While no one has claimed credit for the attack, Israel is believed to have been behind the Hamas leader’s death. A separate New York Times report suggests Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device that was “covertly smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying.” The bomb had reportedly been stashed in the guesthouse two months before its detonation.

Reuters reported, “Tough-talking Haniyeh was seen as the more moderate face of Hamas.” But after receiving backlash, it amended the headline to read: “Who was Ismail Haniyeh and why is his assassination a blow to Hamas?”

What a ‘Free’ Palestine Would Mean Eugene Alexander Donnini

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2024/07/what-a-free-palestine-would-mean/

The claim that Islam is a religion of peace is a nicety invented by Western politicians so as either not to offend their Muslim populations or simply lie to themselves that everything might yet turn out fine. In fact, since its beginning Islam has been pretty violent.         
                                   —Douglas Murray, Islamophilia

Do Westerners who attend pro-Palestinian demonstrations really understand the ideology their support is empowering? I suspect many do not, that their support arises from a genuine humanitarian concern for the people of Gaza. What they don’t understand is that their compassion is being directed and manipulated by Islamic and other totalitarian forces whose primary objectives are not to improve the lives of Palestinians, but to bring about the destruction of Israel and its people, by any means necessary, including genocide. Do they know that Hamas, the current government of Gaza, in its 1988 original Charter (and the 2017 revised edition) advocates for these things (as reported by Bruce Hoffman in the Atlantic on October 10, 2023):

The covenant opens with a message that precisely encapsulates Hamas’s master plan. Quoting Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a constituent member (Article 2), the document proclaims, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” …

After some general explanatory language about Hamas’s religious foundation and noble intentions, the covenant comes to the Islamic Resistance Movement’s raison d’être: the slaughter of Jews. “The Day of Judgement will not come about,” it proclaims, “until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

The killing-the-Jews bit is a quote from Sahih al-Bukhari Book 56, Hadith 138, attributed to Mohammad, that is simply reiterating Allah’s instructions to Muslims. Here are a few of many examples: “Strike terror [into the hearts of] the enemies of Allah and your enemies.” (Surah 8:60) “Fight [kill] them [non-Muslims], and Allah will punish, [torment] them by your hands, and cover them with shame.” (Surah 9:14) “I will instil terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them. It is not ye who slew them; it was Allah.” (Surah 8:13–17)

You could say then that Hamas are carrying out Allah’s plan here below.

These kinds of mystic marching orders from Allah gave Hamas fighters scriptural and moral justification and authority on October 7, 2023, to behead children, rape women, and chop up, shoot and burn parents and grandparents while chanting Allahu Akbar! before proudly ringing Mum and Dad to tell them what a great job they were doing, taking a few hundred hostages with them as trophies, including several women, who they stripped naked, repeatedly raped, tied to the back of cars and dragged through the streets of Gaza where they were cursed, spat on and stoned by crowds until they were dead.

Palestinians ❤ Hamas by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20839/palestinians-love-hamas

By hailing Haniyeh as a “great leader,” Abbas and his Palestinian Authority cohorts are sending a message to all Palestinians that the murderous Hamas leader is their role model.

[T]he Biden-Harris administration and those who continue to talk about the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel…. must be reminded that Haniyeh, who is being praised by Abbas and the PA as a “great leader,” belongs to a group that has long been waging a Jihad (holy war) to murder Jews and destroy Israel – and that does not have the slightest intention of being “revitalized.”

Abbas and other Palestinian Authority leaders have once again demonstrated their preference to ally with Islamist terror groups such as Hamas rather than to secure a brighter future for their own people. Abbas and the PA have also once again served as a reminder that they share the same goal as Hamas: glorify terrorism and destroy Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) should have been happy over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas appears to have forgotten that Haniyeh represents a group that carried out a violent and brutal coup against his loyalists in the Gaza Strip back in 2007.

The Other Olympics, Where Israel Stands Out Winning more medals than students from all 57 Muslim countries put together. by Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-other-olympics-where-israel-stands-out/

Israeli athletes may not stand out in the Paris Olympics, which measures physical prowess, though it remains to be seen how many medals the tiny Jewish state’s athletes will be able to win, as compared to other competitors, such as those from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and a competitor called “Palestine.” But in the mental Olympics of Mathematics and Physics, the Israeli competitors were outstanding again this year, their results rivaling those of entrants from much larger countries, including the United States, Russia, and China. More on that competition, and the Israeli triumph, can be found here: “Israeli students win 11 Olympic medals in mathematics, physics,” All Israel News, July 25, 2024:

Israeli student national teams earned 11 Olympic medals in mathematics and physics in two separate events in July: The International Mathematical Olympiad in the United Kingdom and the European Physics Olympiad in the country of Georgia.

The Israeli math team won two gold, two silver and two bronze medals amid fierce competition from 609 participants representing 108 countries. The Israeli physics team secured one gold medal and four silver medals during the competition against 256 participants from 55 countries….

In April, an Israeli student team won gold, silver and bronze medals at the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in Slovenia. The female students won all three top slots in a competition with 214 participants from 56 countries.

Israeli students have also proven their skills in robotics competitions. In May, an Israeli high school team won first place in an international robotics competition held in Houston, Texas.

Two Assassinations and a Transformed War Israel just took out Hamas and Hezbollah leaders deep inside enemy territory. Now Iran is threatening to retaliate. What comes next? Jonathan Schanzer

https://www.thefp.com/p/two-assassinations-hamas-hezbollah-israel?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The past 48 hours have been the most dramatic and consequential of any since Hamas’s war against Israel began on October 7, 2023. More than that: they could reverse the momentum of this war which, until now, has been dictated by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies. 

Let’s review the news:

On July 30, as the sun began to set in Beirut, Israel launched a precision air strike on Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah military commander. The strike took place in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, which is Hezbollah’s stronghold in the city. Shukr was wanted for decades by U.S. authorities for his role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. military personnel. But the proximate reason for this hit was Hezbollah’s Saturday rocket attack in northern Israel, which killed 12 Druze children on a soccer field. Milad Bidi, an adviser to the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, was also killed in Israel’s strike. 

Less than ten hours later, more dramatic news came out of Tehran: Israel eliminated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, making him the highest-ranking Hamas official to be killed since the war began. Most significant was how and where he was hit. Haniyeh was taken out in his Tehran apartment in the middle of the night. Yesterday, veteran Israeli journalist Ehud Yaari reported the missile that felled Haniyeh was not launched from the air. According to a New York Times report, Mossad smuggled a bomb into Haniyeh’s home months ago, only to detonate it remotely when the time was right.

These were by far the most high profile of Israel’s strikes on Iranian-backed terror groups and their leadership since October 7. But these are not the only ones. 

Earlier this month, on July 13, the IDF struck Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s top military commander. Deif met his end in an air strike in Mouasi—an area along the Gaza coast—where he attempted to blend in with Palestinians seeking refuge from the destructive war that he himself directed. Deif is credited for transforming Hamas from a tactical annoyance into a terror group that has pushed the Middle East to the brink of a regional war.

So what does all of this mean? 

Guest Contributor The World Held Hostage, Day 300: Countering Kamala’s Condescension, Bibi Bombs Away Bob Maistros

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/08/02/the-world-held-hostage-day-300-countering-kamalas-condescension-bibi-bombs-away/

A tragic milestone is reached today: Day 300 of Iran Hostage Crisis II, as reflected on this site.

And developments are moving fast and furious, even if the end of the ordeal has not for five Americans and some 65 other innocent captives still presumed alive.

As the marker approached, dynamic Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an oration for the ages, and took bold, decisive actions that could accelerate a deal to return the women, infants, and men who continue as pawns in Hamas’ cruel machinations.

And dimwitted presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris delivered remarks for the aged (i.e., stepping into the place of her deposed, dementia-ridden boss) that threatened to set the captives’ homecoming back indefinitely.

“The war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and returns all the hostages,” Bibi boomed during his address before a joint congressional session. “But if they don’t, Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home.”

Yet why would Hamas’ blood-soaked Caesars wave the white flag and cash in their caches of human poker chips given Harris’ winking assurances in her first appearance as de facto diplomat in chief?

After meeting Netanyahu, whom she had already dissed by skipping his speech – and following a dutiful but disingenuous recitation of the usual homilies about supporting Israel – Ms. Harris laid bare where her real sympathies lie as she embarrassed her guest with a regurgitation of warmed-over Palestinian propaganda:

To wit: 

I also expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians. And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there, with over 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.

Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism If you insist that the Jewish state is the only one that should not be allowed to defend itself against terrorist attacks, you are probably an antisemite. David Benatar

An unqualified advocacy of two states, without adequate attention to Israel’s security, would very likely result in repeated threats of the kind Israel currently experiences from Hezbollah in Lebanon and from Hamas in Gaza. Advocating that inhabitants of the only Jewish state should expose themselves to such risks—especially if you would not expect that of any other country—is antisemitic in effect. Unless the political culture of the Middle East outside of Israel changes fundamentally, the likely effect of a binational, unitary, or even a federal state, would be to make things even worse for Israel’s Jews than they already are. As things stand, it is fantastical to suppose that a Palestinian state between “the river and the sea” would be any different from any of the states that currently surround Israel. If such a state were established, the results would be fatal to many Jews currently living in Israel. The events of 7 October 2023 provide ample evidence for this. Any Jews who survived the establishment of a Palestinian state would then be living in the kind of repressive regime that characterises the entire region, outside of Israel. In short, there is no plausible interpretation of “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” that could imply anything other than disaster for Israel’s Jews. If this is your plan to bring liberal democracy to Palestine, you are naïve at best. You may not be motivated by antisemitic prejudice, but your plan is antisemitic in effect.

Antisemitism: The Sinister Pattern The enemies of the Jews are the enemies of Enlightenment. Brett Hall (November 2023)

https://quillette.com/2023/11/01/antisemitism-the-sinister-pattern/

The enemies of Israel are the enemies of reason and civilisation, and of our traditions of criticism. Those of us who like to think of ourselves as defenders of reason have a responsibility to speak out on this here and now, at one of the darkest times in modern history.

There are 7.2 million Jews living in Israel—73 percent of the population. So, less than three-quarters of Israel’s population is comprised of Jews. But Israel is a Jewish state, a state that exists to protect Jews. This is required because there have been systematic attempts over thousands of years to exterminate Jews. And ever since there have been Jews, there have been Jews in Israel. The first Jews populated the land where Israel is today in around 2,000 BCE. In other words, they have continuously occupied the land for close to 4,000 years.

There are around 15 million Jews living on Earth and of those who live outside Israel, most are found in the US, which has a Jewish population of around 6 million. By comparison there are 2.38 billion Christians and around 2.1 billion Muslims worldwide. Jews comprise only 0.2 percent of the total global population. Christians make up approximately 31.6 percent, Muslims around 25 percent, and Hindus 15 percent—even Buddhists make up around 8 percent. There would be many more Jews but for the continued and sometimes almost successful attempts to exterminate them. There is an asymmetry here.

Mainstream Islam explicitly teaches its adherents that Jews deserve death simply for being Jews. We could illustrate this with many passages from Islamic scripture, but one typical example will suffice, from a Hadith by Ibn ’Umar, reported by Al-Bukhari:

I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saying: “You (i.e., Muslims) will fight against the Jews and you will gain victory over them. The stones will (betray them) saying: ‘O Abdullah! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.”

Mainstream Islamic scripture is riddled with Jew hatred. Muslim children are taught this scripture. Of course, not all Muslims are antisemitic, but, again, there is an asymmetry here. Jewish scripture does not teach Jews to hate Muslims—if only because, when the Torah was written, Muslims did not exist. The Hebrew Bible predates Islam by around 2,500 years.

Israel has a population of approximately 9.4 million. Compare this to Egypt’s more than 110 million, Iran’s more than 88 million, Syria’s 22 million and Jordan’s 11.5 million. While Jews comprise only 0.2 percent of the global population, they fill our news reports night after night, years after year, generation after generation. Because they are always under attack: for being Jews and for defending themselves.