RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/congressional-address-reinforces-us-support-for-israel-netanyahus-position-as-leading-statesman/?

Amid a disturbing leadership vacuum in the United States and international institutions, moral leadership from the Jewish state is as critical as ever.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress for the fourth time on Wednesday, one more than any other foreign dignitary, surpassing the record of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Netanyahu has reached this milestone for several reasons.

First, it’s due to the importance and strength of the alliance of two of the world’s most consequential democracies in the last 200 years. Second, such a distinction requires the longevity of a leader that has remained in power through the tenures of multiple American presidents. And lastly, a leader would not be invited to return time after time, unless that leader was an exceptional orator and statesman.

Enter Netanyahu.

He arrived amid unprecedented political chaos in the United States, days after President Joe Biden suddenly announced that he would no longer seek re-election and just two weeks after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt.

He also arrived during an unprecedented crisis in Israel, nine months after the horrific Oct. 7 massacre and an ensuing regional war the Jewish state has been fighting on seven fronts. As the conflict has raged on—and even as Israel has gone to extraordinary efforts in urban warfare to reduce civilian casualties to the barest of minimums—mainstream media and international institutions have attempted to delegitimize Israel and undermine American support for Israel, particularly among liberals with libelous claims of war crimes and genocide.

https://www.jns.org/the-icj-rejects-international-law/

What a pleasant thrill to see the most commonplace prejudices confirmed by the august body of the International Court of Justice. The United Nations’ top court—so noted for its love for Israel—just reached the single most unsurprising ruling in history: That Israel is the illegal occupier of the territory of a non-existent Palestinian entity.

The ICJ, which appears indifferent to the encouragement and collaboration it offers to global antisemitism, had already decided a few months before that Israel might be guilty of a genocide that the ICJ invented out of whole cloth. It must have taken enormous pleasure in offering Hamas a new and generous gift. The Palestinian Authority, of course, declared the ICJ’s decision a historic turning point. If it was referring to the total self-abasement of the “international community,” it is quite correct.

“Occupation” is a remarkable word. In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it means absolutely nothing. It is a buzzword that signals a self-granted if baseless moral superiority. By saying the magic world, one is suddenly a defender of the oppressed and dispossessed. You are in favor of self-determination, of course, though this elides the fact that, in this context, self-determination means Hamas’s “right” to determine itself on massacring civilians, taking hostages and digging tunnels beneath civilian areas—all with total impunity.

Indeed, the U.N.’s own Secretary-General António Guterres stood tall the day after Hamas’s genocidal attack on Oct. 7 to blame everything on “Palestinian suffering”—that is, the creation of the State of Israel.

That Israel’s existence is firmly based on international law means nothing to Guterres or anyone else in the “international community” because, despite their pious moaning, they do not believe in international law. For them, it is only a weapon they can use on behalf of Hamas—nothing more.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20810/hamas-and-genocide-in-israel

“Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such…” — Definition of genocide, The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, December 9, 1948.

Their genocidal aim, clear to the Hamas terrorists, was to murder Jews; others, such as Asians and Muslims, were also murdered. What is illuminating is how easily the civilized world, in this instance, accepted that as well as the abduction of 250 hostages. Those who slaughter and take hostages should be the subject of disgrace and condemnation. Instead, frequently, they were celebrated.

Israel, of necessity, responded to this massacre. Israel’s goals, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called by Andrew Roberts “the Churchill of the Middle East,” are “returning hostages from Gaza, eliminating Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, ensuring that Gaza will not constitute a threat against Israel and also returning displaced Israeli residents securely to their homes in both the south and the north.” Israel’s goal is not to destroy the Palestinians, Arabs or Gazan civilians.

The situation of displaced Gazans — temporary evacuations are allowed by Geneva IV, Article 49 — is certainly unfortunate; however, the main problem is the aggressive nature of Iran’s and Hamas’s totalitarian regimes. That is what has led to the October 7 massacre and is the seminal reason for the war and the Gazan casualties.

“Israel Implemented More Measures to Prevent Civilian Casualties Than Any Other Nation in History”; “Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare: Why Will No One Admit it?” — John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point; Newsweek, January 31, 2024, and March 25, 2024.

It is, in fact, Iran and Hamas that should be on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Hamas is a religious movement, and they are a raging religious movement against Israel. The mainstream media cannot say this because they are afraid to ignite a religious war. And what I say, it already is. They want to annihilate the Jewish people because they are Jewish people, because they are a Jewish state.” — Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, Fox News, October 23, 2023.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20796/a-big-win-for-israel

Reprinted by kind permission of JNS.

Following Israel’s recent strike on Houthi targets in Yemen, White House National Security Communications Advisor John F. Kirby said: “We did not participate in today’s Israeli attack on Yemen and did not help Israel.”

This is wonderful news. It shows to the Iranians, Arab states and others that Israel is an independent actor, not a “client state” of America. It also demonstrates that Israel is willing to go it alone against the advice or demands of the Americans.

It shows the Sunni Arab countries that Israel is a reliable partner against the Iranian regime because Israel will do what it must to protect itself and stop Iran and its proxies. As Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer often says, even if the Sunnis can’t have the 800-pound gorilla (the U.S.) to defend them against Iranian aggression, the 250-pound gorilla (Israel) has proved a reliable alternative.

What more can we learn from Israel’s attack on the (Shi’ite) Houthis?

First, the distance between Iran and Israel’s target in Hodeida, Yemen (about 2,000 kilometers) is beyond the flight range of the F-35 fighter jet. That means the Israelis had to refuel during the trip. Since America didn’t help them, the Israelis either figured out a way to do so by themselves or another country (Saudi Arabia, perhaps?) may have allowed them to refuel in or over their country or elsewhere. This is devastating news for the Iranians.

The flight distance between Israel and Hodeida is the same as between Israel and most of Iran. Tehran, for example, is only 1,200 kilometers from Israel. Thus, the strike is a serious warning to Iran. Iran’s government talks a big game, but given Iranian and Arab culture, when people brag about their abilities, they usually do so out of fear. They hope their enemy will be deterred. Thus, such braggadocio amounts to saying, “Hold me back because I’m afraid my enemy will destroy me.”

Israel’s raid and the damage it caused to the Shi’ite Houthis has allowed the Sunni Yemenis, who are the majority of the country’s population and formerly ran the country, to raise their heads in revolt. There are suddenly many more videos on X showing Sunnis revolting against the Houthis and Iran.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20793/palestinian-leaders-murderers-rapists

The Biden administration’s plan to “revitalize” the Palestinian Authority (PA) is being interpreted by Palestinian leaders as permission to form an alliance with the murderers and rapists of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas.

Instead of starting a “reform process” within the PA, as the Biden administration has demanded, Abbas and his top officials are still pursuing unity and reconciliation with Hamas, whose members carried out the October 7 atrocities against thousands of Israelis. It is hard to see how such an alliance between the two Palestinian parties would even begin to benefit the Palestinians or advance peace and security in the Middle East.

The Biden administration has so far refrained from demanding that the PA halt its efforts to form a partnership with Hamas, which is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist group.

Such statements show why there is basically no difference between the PA and Hamas. Both organizations believe that murdering Jews helps the Palestinians and advances their objective of preventing Israel and the Arab states from normalizing relations with each other.

The PA is lying when it states that it supports a two-state solution.

The PA has always stated that it prefers a one-state solution: a state of Palestine replacing all of Israel.

The Biden administration’s plan to “revitalize” the Palestinian Authority (PA) is being interpreted by Palestinian leaders as permission to form an alliance with the murderers and rapists of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas.

In November 2023, the Biden administration called for “revitalizing” the PA in the hopes that it would be able to oversee the Gaza Strip once the Israel-Hamas war ends.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US looks forward to working with the new PA government headed by Mohammed Mustafa, which was established last April, “to deliver on credible reforms.”

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/19/the-crimes-of-mohammed-deif/

There were not one, but two assassination attempts last Saturday. By far the best known was the bid to murder former US president Donald Trump. On the same day, however, Israel tried to kill two Hamas leaders.. It succeeded in killing one, but the fate of the other is less certain.

Thomas Matthew Crooks’s attempt to shoot Trump was a heinous assault on the democratic process. Crooks’s motivation may never be certain, but his action represented an attempt to deny the right of millions of Americans to vote for Trump. In contrast, Israel’s air strike on a compound in Khan Younis in Gaza was a desperate act in an existential war.

The targets were Mohammed Deif and Rafa Salama, two senior figures in Hamas, an organisation that has killed many Israelis and that has pledged to destroy the Jewish State completely. As it stands, Salama is almost certainly dead – even Hamas has confirmed it. But the fate of Deif, who has survived several assassination attempts in the past, is still unknown. Hamas maintains he is alive, but has provided no evidence. Deif is (or was) the head of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. Salama was the head of its Khan Younis brigade.

Anyone relying on the mainstream-media coverage of the attempted assassination would get a grossly one-sided view of what happened. It was widely reported that Israel killed at least 90 people in what was the designated humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis. The implication here is that the vast majority of those killed in the strike were civilians. This impression would have been reinforced by pictures on television, since camera crews in Gaza are not allowed to film Hamas casualties – something that Western media outlets do not often disclose.

The Western media also typically fail to ask the most blindingly obvious questions, such as why were senior Hamas leaders hiding among civilians? And doesn’t that mean they share at least some, if not all, of the responsibility for any civilian deaths? It seems like a textbook example of Hamas using the Gazan people as human shields.

In any case, the Israeli version of events is completely different. Israel says that Hamas’s leaders were surrounded by their associates in a fenced-off area within the villa. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had been watching the compound for weeks, waiting for Deif to turn up. When Israel did eventually launch its strikes, a large number of those killed were, in the Israeli account, Hamas terrorists.

So why has Mohammed Deif become so significant? Why has Israel made so many attempts to assassinate him? From the 1990s onwards, he was responsible for numerous lethal attacks on Israelis, including a wave of suicide bombings. He also played a key role in transforming Hamas from a small-scale terrorist outfit to a paramilitary force with land, sea and air capabilities. That made him one of the main architects of the 7 October pogrom in southern Israel, during which about 1,200 people, mostly Jews, were slaughtered.

Even those who doubt Israel’s account of its assassination attempt cannot question Deif’s murderous intent towards Jews. On 7 October, after declaring the start of ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Deluge’, Deif quoted the Koran in relation to what he called the ‘criminal enemy’ – in other words, Jews. ‘Kill them wherever you may find them’, he said.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20790/israel-response-to-terror

Hamas, designated a terror group by Western nations, is an Islamist fundamentalist group whose 1988 Covenant openly supports a Sharia law-based paradisical Caliphate free of non-believers and a world free of Jews (end of Article 7).

Despite Israel’s compliance with humanitarian concerns, rules of war, and attempts to avoid Palestinian civilian deaths, the perception remains that Israel should be the one to make concessions for a ceasefire, not Hamas, which should immediately release the hostages it took.

Hamas, like other Islamic groups from a different culture, does not accede to the West’s laws of war – this much is clear from their treatment of hostages. Freed hostages tell of “cages, beatings and death threats.” Hamas, in violation of the truce agreement, has not permitted the Red Cross to see the hostages. One can imagine how come.

The conflict therefore becomes one between a Western state, ultimately seeking peaceful coexistence and adhering to the ethics of a just war, assaulted by terrorist groups pursuing total conquest and seeming to be driven by an ideology of unquenchable animosity toward “unbelievers.”

Most Western leaders apparently desire to divide Israel, even further than it already has been divided, into two sectors: one for the Jews and one for the Palestinians — all in the name of human rights, social justice, and supposed fair play.

At its core, these proposals are anti-Zionist and in practical effect, anti-Semitic. For a start, more than half the land promised to Jews by the 1917 Balfour Declaration was reallocated by the British authorities to what is now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordon. Jewish rights to what remains of their historic land is continually denied, along with stupefying proposals that the Jews should be forced to be ruled by the very people desiring their extinction.

What accommodation, however, can there possibly be between two conflicting core narratives, in which one party seeks the ideal of martyrdom — “We love death as our enemies love life” — while the other desires to live in peace, without constant threats to its existence?

Israel is not only fighting to prevent long-term future attacks from Gaza, but also to defeat terrorists from overwhelming the Judeo-Christian values that have been achieved over centuries with much sacrifice.

Israel has actually been singled out for implementing “More measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history.”

Israel is the “only country in world,” the British journalist Douglas Murray pointed out, “who are never allowed to win a war, which is a reason why wars keep occurring.”

US President Joe Biden and his ministers of state try their utmost to impose unacceptable cease-fire agreements upon Israel. Fortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the Churchill of the Middle East,” will have none of it. Israel stands firm against prematurely ceasing military action: their ultimate aim is not only to destroy Hamas’s military capability and to rescue remaining hostages, but to defeat terror for the future of the Free World.

“It is left to little Israel to make the first stand against radical evil and the new axis of nations dedicated to the demise of the West. With resolve, courage, and dedication, but, alas, with much more sacrifice, Israel will show the way.” — Professor Leon R. Kass, aei.org, November 3, 2023.