RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.newsweek.com/zone-disinterest-oscars-opinion-1878405

When a British writer-director accepted an Oscar Sunday night for Zone of Interest, a fictional movie set against a backdrop of the very real Holocaust, he showed that his own grasp of reality is dangerously lacking.

In repugnant, victim-blaming remarks, Jonathan Glazer said, “We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of Oct. 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza.”

Note to Glazer: No one is hijacking your Jewishness or the Holocaust. That idea is an antisemitic myth popular among some deluded people who call themselves “progressive.” It’s a myth that fuels terrorism and attacks on Jews all over the world.

The differences between the real world and the imaginary one that Glazer described could not be more stark. In his imaginary world, an “occupation” somehow “led to” the October 7 terrorist attacks. In the real world, Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, and the Palestinian Authority has long controlled Palestinian areas of the West Bank. Hamas, backed by Iran, carried out the most unimaginably evil terrorist attacks of modern times because years of brainwashing children in UNRWA-backed schools and training them to seek Jihad have created a radicalized population that celebrates the slaughter of Jews with candy and fireworks.

In Glazer’s imaginary world, the Holocaust is “hijacked.” In the real world, Jews (the people of Judea) have spent centuries trying to return to Israel, their indigenous homeland that they were expelled from by empires—long before the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were killed. The largest population in Israel is made up of Jews who had to flee Arab nations (not Europe) for their lives, losing everything.

https://www.thefp.com/p/bari-weiss-the-holiday-from-history-is-over?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

EXCERPT:

Like everyone paying close attention to this war, I am thinking about the future or death of the two-state solution. I am thinking about Hezbollah in the north and when that front might explode. I am thinking about the impossibility of a nuclear Iran. I am thinking about the Red Sea and Rafah and the young men setting out to those places. I am thinking about the innocents killed in Gaza. I am thinking about the women and children trapped there by terrorist leaders and the kidnapped Israelis still held there—all of them hostages. 

But the questions that echo inside me since I returned home—flying from a country living inside history to a country where many people believe we are still outside of it, immune to it—are more basic ones.

Questions like: What would I do? What would the people I know do if we were thrust into a near-death experience? If we had to fight for homes and our families, and the homes and families of our fellow citizens? The kind of seriousness I saw in ordinary Israelis—where does it come from? Does courage emerge spontaneously out of necessity? Or is there a quiet wellspring inside some people or some cultures waiting to be tapped? Do we have that here in America? Would we answer the call if it came? Or would we be like the Americans in this recent poll who admitted that they would flee rather than fight? 

Those are questions whose relevance grows more urgent by the day for those of us living in the free world.

I asked Haviv Gur if he thinks that a similar waking-up moment will come for America and Americans.

“When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, there was a long period of time when there was nothing in the Pacific that could have stopped a Japanese landing in California. And that sense of vulnerability created what Americans still today think of as the greatest generation,” Gur said. “Everyone should feel safe all the time. But crisis is a powerful and profound and often extraordinarily positive influence on our lives.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20481/palestinian-authority-revitalized-hamas

For [Palestinian] leaders, revamping the Palestinian Authority means forging an alliance with Hamas by inviting the terror group to be part of a new governing body that would rule the Gaza Strip in the post-war era.

From Biden’s perspective, it is as though Netanyahu and the Israelis are responsible for the devastation in the Middle East since Hamas’s October 7 carnage, and not Iran, and Hamas’s main sponsor, Qatar, whose “protection money” evidently came “without protection.” As such, it would be no surprise if the Biden administration were to welcome a “Palestinian unity” agreement between Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas – a deal that would be no doubt presented to the world as the US-made revitalization plan; in reality, just a tee-up for the next war.

Would the Biden administration like to stop the war this week?

All the US would have to do is to inform Qatar that it was cancelling the agreement the Biden administration signed in January — in return for nothing -– to extend for another ten years America’s use of Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of CENTCOM, and move it to a Middle Eastern country that does not, as Qatar does, have record of supporting Islamic State (ISIS/Da’esh), Hezbollah, al Shabab, the Taliban in Afghanistan and al Qaeda as well as Hamas.

In addition, the United States could simply tell Qatar that, regrettably, the US has no choice but officially to change Qatar’s designation from “major non-NATO ally,” which it is not, to State Sponsor of Terrorism, which it is. The US could have the war over and all the hostages — not just the Americans — released in a minute.

The Biden administration — or simply concerned citizens — could also demonstrate with placards advertising Qatar’s support for terrorism, a public relations campaign it might not relish.

By stationing its forces at Al Udeid Air Base, the US is doing Qatar a monumental favor, not the other way around. Without the US airbase, Qatar is just a rich, extremely vulnerable sandbar, as its rulers are undoubtedly aware.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/03/biden-revises-history-to-shame-israel/

Trying to pressure the Jewish state into ending its war on Hamas by appealing to America’s experience in Iraq and Afghanistan is breathtakingly cynical.

For the better part of a month, Joe Biden’s anxious Democratic allies had indulged the fantasy that the president could shore up his ailing support among what should be his base voters if only he did more interviews. The president took their advice over the weekend. But in sitting down with Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart, even for the tightly edited ten-minute interview NBC News released, Biden demonstrated why he is better off sticking with the teleprompter.

Rich delved into the president’s self-abasing effort to walk back the strongest moment of his State of the Union address — an ad lib in which he displayed a small measure of the passion shared by the millions of Americans for whom the migrant crisis over which Biden has presided has become intolerable. And Phil identified the incoherence in Biden’s attempt to placate the unappeasable rabble for whom the exercise of Israel’s right to self-defense is anathema. But it’s also worth pointing out that in trying to reconcile his desire to see Hamas defeated with his desire for Israel to stand down before that objective is achieved, Biden descended into a historical revisionism that serves only to indict the country that made him president.

In his insistence that Israel’s effort to neutralize Hamas has gone too far, Biden has presented himself as the Jewish state’s best friend — devoted only to dispensing “tough love” to America’s wayward ally. In his interview with Capehart, Biden noted that his advice is a product of America’s experience in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

“Don’t make the mistake America made,” Biden began. “We went after Bin Laden until we got him, but we shouldn’t have gone into Ukraine – I mean, we shouldn’t have gone into the whole thing in Iraq and Afghanistan. It wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t necessary. It just caused more problems than it erased — than it cured.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/how-the-gaza-ministry-of-health-fakes-casualty-numbers/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

The Jewish publication Tablet has a feature from Abraham Wyner, a professor of statistics and data science at the Wharton School, digging into why the Hamas-compromised Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers are highly suspect. Even for the innumerate English major (such as myself), Wyner’s work is digestible, incrementally working through what data are available. Perhaps best of all, he makes no claims as to what the casualty numbers might be in actuality (Netanyahu’s figures suggest 1–1.5 civilian deaths per Hamas militant killed; for reference, there were 15 million combat casualties and 38 million civilian casualties in WWII) and instead focuses on his area of expertise to enlightening effect.

Wyner writes:

Recently, the Biden administration lent legitimacy to Hamas’ figure. When asked at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week how many Palestinian women and children have been killed since Oct. 7, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the number was “over 25,000.” The Pentagon quickly clarified that the secretary “was citing an estimate from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.” President Biden himself had earlier cited this figure, asserting that “too many, too many of the over 27,000 Palestinians killed in this conflict have been innocent civilians and children, including thousands of children.” The White House also explained that the president “was referring to publicly available data about the total number of casualties.”

Here’s the problem with this data: The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters.

https://worldisraelnews.com/senator-fetterman-blasts-hamas-cowards-hiding-behind-ramadan/

Pennsylvania Democrat says Hamas ‘must be destroyed,’ gives backing to Israel’s counter-terror campaign.

Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on a Jewish holiday on Oct. 7—50 years and a day after a group of Arab nations launched a surprise attack on the Jewish state during the High Holiday of Yom Kippur.

Many world leaders, including in Washington, are saying that Israel should halt attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is not one of them.

Sharing a Wall Street Journal article titled “Hamas bets on Ramadan to help it survive Israel’s assault,” Fetterman wrote, “Of course. Hamas cowards hide in tunnels, hospitals, schools and refugee camps. Now, behind a holy time.”

“Hamas must be destroyed, and Sinwar brought to justice or eliminated,” he added, of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. “I fully support Israel’s campaign to achieve this.”

David McCormick, a Republican candidate for the other Pennsylvania senate seat, agreed with Fetterman. “He’s right,” McCormick wrote. He added of his opponent, “It’s past time for Bob Casey to agree.”

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, also responded to Fetterman’s post.

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

Israel is at war on the ground with terrorist barbarians and virtually with a hostile media, international academies and ignorant and hypocritical protesters.

Thanks to Michael Ordman we learn about the real Israel which gives the lie to the narrative of the vile cretins who have made an art form of libeling and bashing Israel. Please read it all. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR

Gap-year students mentor displaced kids.  Israeli high school graduates in a pre-army volunteer program are supporting children evacuated due to the war. 60 joined NGO Bakehila (see here previously) mentoring Jewish and Arab kids relocated from Kiryat Shmona to Haifa. Others helped at Bakehila’s Jerusalem’s communes.

https://www.israel21c.org/gap-year-israelis-mentor-kids-impacted-or-displaced-by-war/

Son of Chabad emissary surprises parents. (TY Sam Kramer) Chabad emissaries, who thought that their son was fighting in Gaza, were overjoyed when he was invited to join them on stage at a dinner in Florida.  Join Israel Good News Only WhatsApp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LH48ij0tIvFHnxg0hL8f8T

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386270

Residents of Shlomit return. (TY WIN) Residents have returned to the Israeli village of Shlomit, just a few kilometers from Gaza, five months after having been evacuated following Oct 7. They are building a daycare center, funded by JNF-USA., to show that life has restarted and give strength to all the families in the region.

https://israfan.com/2024/02/29/homecoming-to-shlomit-a-communitys-resilient-return-amidst-ongoing-struggle/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPMs4yIcrwU

Regrowing Israel. Prior to Oct 7, the 40,000 hectares of western Negev agricultural land supplied 70 percent of Israel’s fresh produce. Regrow Israel (see here previously) intends to help farmers rehabilitate the land. It has support from the VIP non-profit, Israel’s Volcani Center, Ben Gurion University. and the MIGAL Institute.

https://www.israel21c.org/farms-deliberately-destroyed-by-hamas-to-get-long-term-rehab/

Aid for the war wounded. After Oct 7, Israel’s largest volunteer organization Yad Sarah went into war mode. It filled container loads of equipment and relocated them outside hospitals where Yad Sarah didn’t have a branch. It then opened “The Soldier Rehabilitation Unit” to aid disabled soldiers physically and socially.

https://www.israel21c.org/war-testing-israels-biggest-medical-aid-volunteer-group/ 

Massive land purchase discounts to IDF veterans. IDF soldiers leaving the war can qualify for a discount on the land in the Galilee or Negev regions to build a home.  A soldier who does not own an apartment will receive a 90% discount and a combat veteran will receive a 95% discount – making it almost free.

https://worldisraelnews.com/idf-vets-to-receive-massive-land-purchasing-discounts/

Ohad goes to Wembley. (TY Yanky) Freed hostage Ohad Munder (see here previously), who spent his 9th birthday in Gaza, travelled to Wembley to watch his favorite UK team, Liverpool, play Chelsea in the cup final. He also met Israeli international and Tottenham striker Manor Soloman.

https://www.thejc.com/community/released-hostage-ohad-munder-gets-to-watch-his-football-heroes-yvne4rgh

So many heroes. The Middle East forum mission to Israel met a country of heroes. They included Nova massacre survivors who were in uniform a week later to help clean up houses, feed pet fish, find missing cats and dogs, and empty refrigerators and freezers of rotting food. And the resilience of Israelis was everywhere.

https://www.jns.org/israels-heroes-will-ensure-victory/

Saved by paramedic who trained in his methods. Yonati is CEO at Extreme Solutions that trains elite units and emergency organizations to handle extreme emergency situations. On Jan 8, in Gaza, he was hit by six bullets, one piercing his lung. Luckily, IDF medic Litav had taken an Extreme course and saved Yonati’s life.

https://5townscentral.com/2024/02/26/ceo-saved-by-idf-paramedic-who-trained-in-his-own-lifesaving-methods/

https://www.city-journal.org/article/no-ramadan-ceasefire

As the March 10 start of Ramadan nears, international pressure has significantly increased on Israel to reach a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. While the idea of advocating for a ceasefire with a genocidal terrorist organization is fundamentally misguided, the notion that Israel should halt its military efforts to respect Ramadan is even more perverse.

Historically, Palestinian terror groups have used Ramadan as a bargaining chip to pressure Israel into making concessions in exchange for calm—a ploy that the Biden administration has bought wholeheartedly. Those who support Israel’s making such concessions argue that failing to appease Palestinians during Ramadan might incite further terror.

The data, however, don’t align with that contention. As Hill Frisch from the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security wrote in 2023, “Almost none of the most tumultuous periods of Palestinian violence occurred during the month of Ramadan.” Frisch even argued that “A reading of the data strongly suggests that the dangers [of disproportionate violence during Ramadan] are grossly exaggerated, if not entirely false.” In other words, according to Frisch’s research, American and Israeli officials’ concerns about Palestinian terror during Ramadan are at least overstated.

While Frisch’s research suggests that Palestinians are not more likely to commit terror acts during Ramadan, that doesn’t mean that such attacks never happen. Historically, such Ramadan-tied incidents typically follow Palestinian leaders’ prolonged incitement efforts, which culminate in their exploiting the holiday for a preexisting political objective. This time, that objective would be Hamas’s survival.

https://www.jns.org/is-israel-taking-ramadan-restraint-too-far/

“Israel’s policy has always been, and always will be, to safeguard freedom of worship for all faiths,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday at the start of a special session with cabinet members and security chiefs to prepare for the imminent month-long Muslim holiday that begins this year on March 10-11. “This is what we have also done during Ramadan, and this is what we will do now.”

He went on: “We will do everything to safeguard freedom of worship on the Temple Mount, while appropriately taking into account security and safety needs, and will enable the Muslim public to mark the holiday.”

This was a reference to the location of the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a house of prayer that doubles as a base of violence. Because radical Islamists around the world have turned it into a dual symbol of victimhood at the hands of the “infidels” and victory over them, it is always an incendiary hotspot.
It is especially so during spikes in Palestinian terrorism and Ramadan, which usually go together. This is bad news for Muslims who treat the holiday—one of the Five Pillars of Islam—as a period for spiritual contemplation and self-discipline.
It’s far worse, however, for the Jews targeted by those who consider the 30 days of fasting and feasting an opportune time for waging jihad. Not that the latter need Ramadan or Al-Aqsa as an excuse.
Indeed, they’re just as happy to commit mass murder on Jewish and Christian holidays. Hamas’s genocidal Oct. 7 massacre on Simchat Torah and a Shabbat morning is only the most recent example.
But it was the casus belli of the current war in Gaza. Yes, Israel realized on that day five months ago that it had no choice but to destroy the terrorist organization that perpetrated the rape, immolation, decapitation, maiming, slaughter and abduction of hundreds of innocent men, women and children.

https://www.jns.org/palestinian-hate-crime-hoax/

Statistics show that antisemitism is on the rampage, while Islamophobia is minuscule. And that’s bad for the Palestinian cause.

The Vermont man charged with shooting three Palestinian-American college students on Nov. 25 was a defender of Hamas, The New York Times has belatedly acknowledged—and with it, the No. 1 example of an “anti-Palestinian hate crime” has completely crumbled.

For the past three months, the Times and other major news media have portrayed the incident in the city of Burlington as proof that Palestinians are victims of hate crimes in America. Whenever somebody points to the outsized number of recent antisemitic incidents, Arab advocates cite the Vermont shooting as evidence that Arabs and Muslims are just as much victims as the Jews.

It’s reached the point that when some universities announce they are forming a committee to investigate antisemitism, they also announce one to investigate Islamophobia—as Harvard recently did. Even the Biden administration, after unveiling its U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, then announced it is preparing a national strategy to counter Islamophobia, too.

But it turns out that Exhibit A of “anti-Palestinian hate” apparently was nothing of the sort.

As early as last December, local media in Vermont reported that the alleged shooter’s social-media accounts included pro-Hamas statements.

The major news media ignored this myth-busting news—until now. The New York Times Sunday Magazine, in its March 3 edition, included a long essay by Rozina Ali, formerly a Cairo-based journalist who now teaches adjunct at New York University. She is writing a book on “the recent history of Islamophobia in the United States.”