https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/the-truth-about-the-hostages-and-the-israel-hamas-ceasefire-colonel-richard-kemp-atlnow-5539835?ea_src=author_manual&ea_med=related_videos
https://romirowsky.com/27373/red-green-alliance-against-west
The murderous Hamas attack on Israel can be described as a success only in a limited and horrific tactical sense: More Jews were murdered in a single day than at any time since the Holocaust. The surprise was achieved thanks to elaborate planning and lavish Iranian funding and to Israeli complacency on the part of the military and distracted political echelon. The price was immense and terrible.
But in a strategic sense, the attack was a failure and illustrates a truism of Middle Eastern history: The Palestinians, in this case Hamas, are their own worst enemies. Even their successes are, or will be, failures. Consider some of the unintended consequences of the Hamas attack. These range from local to regional to global effects.
To begin, Hamas has set back the Palestinian movement and destroyed Gaza. The Palestinian movement has long been characterized by two theoretically distinct but interrelated strands: Islamic rejection of Jews and a nationalist strand that played on contemporary concepts such as Third Worldism, liberation movements, and, most lately, decolonization. In practice, however, these were mutually reinforcing and in neither case contributed to the conception of a functioning nation-state. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas has run or can run a state.
The resurgent Islamic violence — the Oct. 7 raid was at one level a classic Muslim razzia of unconstrained violence, rape, and looting, in the tradition of Muhammad — proved again that Hamas, Islamic governance, and the Palestinian movement as a whole are addicted to violence. The reconfiguration of Gaza, using international aid money, into a gigantic base in which civilians existed only as human shields is another aspect of this failure. Add to this the complete collapse of Hamas on its own carefully prepared battlefield, which proved the ineptitude of its strategy, leadership, and field capabilities. The self-victimization of Gaza by Hamas, the intentional “martyring” of innocents along with terrorists, was a fundamental part of this plan. But the scale of destruction, apparently unanticipated, that has reduced northern Gaza to near-uninhabitable rubble proves the failure of that plan as well.
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/education/2023/12/palestine-pedagogy-and-protesting/
The plea published in The Age and the SMH by Melbourne-based teacher Farah Khairat arguing teachers have every right to advocate on behalf of the Palestinians in the Gaza war illustrates how teachers, instead of being balanced and impartial, are intent on indoctrinating students with radical, cultural-left ideology.
Khairat argues she is entitled to present a one-sided, highly emotional account of the war in Gaza to her students — an account where the Palestinians are the victims and Israelis the criminals and there is no mention of Hamas’s evil and barbaric attack killing Jewish women and children. Ignored are the Israeli women raped and abducted, the babies killed and mutilated. Instead, Khairat writes of “one Palestinian child killed every 10 minutes”, “dozens of teachers and school staff killed” and “children’s bodies covered in dirt, rubble and blood”. She also argues teachers should be allowed to politicise the classroom by “expressing solidarity with the Palestinian cause” and students allowed to wear a Palestinian scarf (keffiyeh) while at school.
In response to departmental directives not to discuss the Gaza war in the classroom, Khairat argues “As an educator, I question the appropriateness of feigning ignorance on such critical matters. How could I pretend not to be knowledgeable on this topic”. Confusing her personal opinion of Israel and her primary duty to educate students in a balanced and objective way, she writes “I refuse to stay silent because trying to sweep this under the rug is just another form of oppression. To be silent is to be complicit”.
Given Khairat is a member of the Teachers and School Staff for Palestine Victoria group, it’s understandable she has such a jaundiced and one-sided view of the Gaza war. What is inexcusable is that like-minded teachers have abrogated their responsibility as their students’ guardians. Rather than indoctrinating students with their personal political views and enforcing cultural-left mind control and groupthink, the role of the teacher is to educate students to be knowledgeable and able to evaluate arguments is a rational and balanced way.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/hamas-hezbollah-iranian/2023/11/30/id/1144266/
To this day, Hezbollah remains a powerful force in Lebanon and a dire threat to Israel, especially those living in the north.
At some point, the war between Hamas and Israel will come to an end.
A looming but important question: what’s next?
What comes next after an Iranian-funded terrorist organization manages to kill over 1,200 Israelis and take 240 of its citizens hostage into Gaza?
The future of the region must be addressed, and whatever resolution is generated must include increased security measures in volatile areas like Gaza, the West Bank, and the northern border with Lebanon.
Additionally, the U.S., and more broadly, the U.N., must give the Jewish State full autonomy and support in dealing with this dangerous conflict.
We are now aware that the Biden administration is putting pressure on the Jewish State to restrain its operations against Hamas by conditioning aid to Israel.
Not only is this giving Hamas exactly what it wants, it continues this long cycle of Israel listening to western influence and ultimately causing more harm to Israel and the Jewish people.
In a recent interview with the BBC, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett remarked that Israel’s biggest flub over the past 20 years was listening to the advice of Western nations rather than doing the job at hand.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/three-israelis-dead-13-injured-in-jerusalem-shooting-after-cease-fire-extended-another-day/
Just after Israel and Hamas agreed to extend the existing cease-fire by another day, two Hamas terrorists opened fire at a bus stop near Jerusalem, leaving at least three Israelis dead and 13 injured.
Israeli police received reports of the shooting around 7:40 a.m. local time Thursday when two individuals pulled up in a car armed with weapons and shot several civilians standing by a busy bus station. The gunmen were killed by Israeli security forces at the scene, according to authorities.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack later Thursday, saying it was carried out in response to Israeli soldiers killing two Palestinian children in the West Bank the day prior.
“As we mourn our martyrs, we confirm that this operation came as a natural response to the unprecedented occupation crimes” of Israel, the terrorist organization said in a statement, identifying brothers Murad and Ibrahim al-Nimr as the deceased perpetrators.
The mass shooting came shortly after the cease-fire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war was extended by another 24 hours ahead of the 7 a.m. deadline, allowing Hamas to release more hostages in exchange for Israel freeing its Palestinian prisoners and providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Unless another cease-fire extension is agreed upon, both warring sides will resume fighting by Friday.
https://www.thefp.com/p/douglas-murray-diary-israel-hamas-hostages-war?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
“What is life?” a child asks Oriana Fallaci at the beginning of her great 1969 book Nothing and Amen. As Fallaci wrote, the next morning she flew to the Vietnam War to find out.
I have thought about that question a lot in recent weeks, since arriving in Israel earlier this month to cover the war. I have seen plenty of wars before and they always throw up that question: “What is life?” To understand life you have to understand death, and to understand death you have to try to understand the worst thing that humans can do to each other: war.
Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 has left 1,200 dead. Nearly 240 hostages—children, women, grandmothers—were taken to Gaza. Over the past few days, about 81 hostages have been returned to their loved ones during the cease-fire.
I was at the children’s hospital in Tel Aviv when the first children and their parents were released. When the helicopters landed and the hostages got out, IDF soldiers blocked their faces with screens to protect them from the glare of the cameras. But I’d already been sent a single photo taken by the Arab press that showed some of the mothers with their children inside a bus when they were still in Gaza.
The terror on their faces. They looked as though they’d aged by decades.
But at this moment, there was joy. As the helicopters landed, traffic stopped, and people got out of their cars and broke into song. They clapped and their voices rang out as they welcomed back the hostages with songs like “Hevenu Shalom Alechem.” (“We brought you peace.”)
As it happened, 12 of the 13 returnees that night were from Kibbutz Nir Oz, the first place I visited on my trip to Israel. But for every returnee, you remember those still in Gaza. I thought especially of the grandsons of the man who showed me around the kibbutz during my visit. On the morning of October 7, the teenage boys were alone in the house. Their grandfather was on the phone with them trying to tell them how to hold the safe room door shut while avoiding being shot from the other side. The two boys struggled with a wound-up sheet, and held out a while, but they couldn’t fight back against two grown men, members of Hamas. They were taken into Gaza.
So was Kfir Bibas, a baby of ten months. So was his brother. So was their mother. Yesterday, Hamas said that they would not be released because they died in captivity.
Who knows if Hamas killed them, as they killed so many others, or if they are lying in order to torture those waiting for their return.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20189/hamas-also-slaughters-muslims
Awad Darwashe, 23, an Arab-Israeli paramedic, remained behind, refusing [on Octobet 7] to abandon the injured. “I speak Arabic. I think I can manage,” Darawshe said, supposing that he could reason with the terrorists. Perhaps he thought they would not harm a fellow Muslim Arab. He was wrong.
“I never felt that I’m deprived in any way….Stop the nonsense. It is empty whining. I don’t believe in that. Everyone here can get where they want. What – the country doesn’t let them study? Y’allah, be a lawyer, be a teacher. Does anyone stop you? Even in prayer. Does anyone stop you praying? We pray five times a day, five times no one stops us. Whoever wants to be successful can be successful. Whoever doesn’t want to be successful blames the country, the government.” — Ibrahim, a middle-aged man, “Is Israel an Apartheid State?”, YouTube, February 23, 2014
Where in the Middle East are Arabs thriving throughout society, not just in a privileged whirl of favors and nepotism? Israel.
“We are very proud of his actions…This is what we would expect from him and what we expect from everyone in our family — to be human, to stay human and to die human.” —
The family of Darwashe, the paramedic who would not abandon the injured, apnews.com, October 15, 2023
“People from all over the country come to hug and support the family. The entire nation is one family now.” — Ali Alziadna, whose four family members are currently held hostage, haaretz.com, November 13, 2023
Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated that it cares nothing for the well-being of Arabs and Muslims. From their luxury homes in the safety of Qatar and Turkey, its leaders give the orders to attack Israel and then sit back and let the world weep over the destruction they wrought upon their own people.
Perhaps the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should look at the Arab citizens of Israel and note how they enjoy democracy, freedom of speech and a free media. If the Palestinians wish to live well, like the Arab-Israelis, this is the time for them to get rid of Hamas and all the terror leaders who, for seven decades, have brought them nothing but one disaster after another.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-releasing-palestinian-prisoners-hamas-gaza-4d21a9b4?mod=opinion_lead_pos3
Hamas continued to release hostages on Wednesday, for a total of more than 100 so far, a bit more than a third of the estimated 240 civilians seized on Oct. 7. In return Israel has freed more than 200 Palestinian prisoners, but nobody should think these prisoners are at all morally comparable.
Hamas is releasing Israeli and foreign women and children abducted in illegal acts of war targeting civilians in their homes. The recently released include grandmothers in their 70s and 80s, Thai guest workers, and more than 20 children under age 12—including preschoolers and a toddler.
By contrast, the Palestinians Israel is releasing were in prison because they were arrested and awaiting trial, or were convicted of violent crimes. Of the 39 Palestinians released Saturday night, Haaretz reports that eight were convicted of attempted murder. Let us introduce you to a couple of them.
There’s Israa Jaabis, a Palestinian woman who in 2015—during a wave of other attacks in Jerusalem—attempted a car bomb that wounded an Israeli police officer. According to the Shin Bet security service, Jaabis yelled “Allahu Akbar” as the officer approached and detonated an explosive device.
Israel also released Maysoon Musa Al-Jabali, who was convicted of attempted murder for her 2015 stabbing of a female Israel soldier; Shorouq Dwayyat, who was convicted of attempted murder after she wrote on Facebook in 2015 of her desire to become a martyr and stabbed an Israeli man multiple times; and Aisha Afghani, who was convicted after an attempted 2016 stabbing attack on Israelis in Jerusalem.
All were adults when they committed their attacks, and all were released this week well before the end of their sentences. Most of the children Israel has released are teenage boys—age 14 and older—arrested or charged in recent years for making explosives or throwing stones or petrol bombs at Israelis.
https://vinnews.com/2023/11/29/thai-hostage-hamas-tortured-captive-jews-with-electric-cables/
A Thai hostage who was released by Hamas told Israel’s Channel 12 that the Jewish hostages with him were beaten with electric cables, and that all the hostages were denied adequate food.
Channel 12 also quoted the Thai hostage as saying that Jewish hostages were kept in worse conditions than others.
As reported by the Times of Israel:
“He says there was little to eat for the hostages — a pita a day, sometimes a tin of tuna to share between four, and sometimes a piece of cheese. Held for more than seven weeks, he says they were allowed to shower once.
“We were with Israelis, and they were guarded all the time,” he is quoted saying. “The Jews who were held with me were treated very harshly, sometimes they were beaten with electric cables.”
In addition, it has been reported that Hamas tortured children by forcing them at gunpoint to watch films of atrocities against Israeli civilians during the attack. It also kept some children alone for weeks, and denied hostages sufficient food, water, and sunlight.
Many hostages lost weight, and not unexpectedly, many of the children have shown signs of psychological trauma.
The Red Cross has not been allowed to visit the hostages, nor has it transferred medicines and other needed items to them. In fact, there is no evidence that the Red Cross, which has immense leverage, has made any serious effort to pressure Hamas to allow them in.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/11/the-aborted-war-in-israel/
Even if it were politically and psychologically possible to resume a war under the circumstances, how could Israel realistically win?
“I ask the question to remind us that, unless and until Israel’s enemies are decisively defeated, the thrum of eliminationist war and the periodic surges of jihadist terror will continue.”
I wish I could be optimistic about Israel’s ability to defeat Hamas in the aborted war, but I am more pessimistic than ever.
I’ve been a pessimist from the start. As Rich Lowry and I have discussed on the podcast, that’s because I’ve never believed Israel’s stated war aims were either politically feasible or reflective of on-the-ground reality — which is much worse than Israel or the Biden administration is willing to acknowledge.
Israel’s principal stated objective is to destroy Hamas. It has analogized this to the Trump-era American objective of destroying ISIS. There is something to this comparison. Contrary to his extravagant rhetoric, Trump did not actually destroy ISIS — it still exists and is a menace wherever it rears its head. Trump did, however, eviscerate ISIS’s capacity to hold territory as a de facto sovereign. This was a significant achievement. (Whether it was accomplished constitutionally is an interesting question.) Yet we shouldn’t overstate the achievement, because (a) terrorist organizations are more effective in pursuing their core competencies of insurgency and sneak attacks than in trying to govern territory, and (b) ISIS is a rebel sect broken off from al-Qaeda, which remains a major challenge, so ISIS would inevitably either fold back into al-Qaeda or rebrand as some new terrorist group — since what catalyzes jihad is the regional predominance of sharia-supremacist ideology, not any particular, transient organization.
The situation with Hamas is similar, and in some ways more vexing.
