RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-814137

Shortly after the Six Day War in 1967, the United Nations asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – a private Swiss organization that is the official guardian of the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) – for its opinion on the legal status of the territories that Israel had conquered, including Judea and Samaria, known as the West Bank of the Jordan River.

Unilaterally, the ICRC decided that Israel had violated international law (meaning the FGC) and declared the disputed areas to be Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). This decision was adopted by the international community as law. The basis for the committee’s decision, however, was, and still is, secret – as are many things in Switzerland.

The ICRC later claimed that its decision was based on the Hague Regulations (1907), particularly Article 42, which defines occupation. It chose to ignore Article 43, however, which stipulates that occupation occurs when “the authority of the legitimate power… passe(s) into the hands of the occupier…” Since neither Jordan nor Egypt were the sovereign legitimate powers in the territories, Israel’s claims are not illegal.

In fact, earlier decisions of the international community, such as the San Remo conference (1920), which supported the idea of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine, validate Israel’s claims.

A Palestinian state did not exist at the time, nor has one ever existed.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20853/hamas-politicians-terrorists

The fact that Sinwar was elected shows that Hamas’s political and military branches are the same. It also demonstrates that when it comes to Islamist terrorist organizations, there is no difference between a political and military leader. By electing Sinwar as its “political” leader, Hamas itself is stating that it does not distinguish between a politician and terrorist.

Has anyone ever considered referring to Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the heads of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS), as the “political leaders” of their respective organizations?

In addition to Haniyeh, Hamas’s “political bureau” consists of several figures such as Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashaal, Musa Abu Marzouk, Ghazi Hamad, and Taher a-Nunu who have long been advocating the armed struggle against Israel and glorifying acts of terrorism against Israelis.

“For the BBC, Ismail Haniyeh was ‘moderate and pragmatic;’ for the rest of us he was a monster,” commented British author and journalist Stephen Pollard. He pointed out that Haniyeh had recorded the following message to the Palestinians from his luxurious home in Qatar: “We need the blood of women, children, and the elderly of Gaza…so as to awaken our revolution spirit.”

“Haniyeh was indeed ‘moderate’. The total number of Jews murdered by Hamas does not come close to six million.” — Stephen Pollard, British author, thejc.com, July 31, 2024.

Now that Sinwar has joined Hamas’s inner circle of “political” figures, it is reasonable to presume that he too will be dubbed by the Western media as a “moderate” and “pragmatic” Palestinian leader.

What comes next? Will the Biden-Harris administration and other Western governments rush to discuss with the newly elected Palestinian leader and mass murderer the creation of an independent Palestinian state that will be used by the Iranian regime and its terror proxies, including Hamas, to destroy Israel?

The Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has chosen arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, atrocities against thousands of Israelis, as the chairman of its “political bureau.” Sinwar, who has been hiding in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas-led attack, will take over from Ismail Haniyeh, the former chairman of the group’s “political bureau,” who was killed in the Iranian capital of Tehran on July 31.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20844/israeli-warriors-in-political-game

[T]he Biden-Harris administration has not only been vacillating on military support for Israel, but also endeavouring to micromanage Israel’s war operation. A tragic outcome of these haphazard policies is that they are resulting in more deaths, prolonging the war and delaying Hamas’s release of the hostages.

The vacillation and political gamesmanship by the Biden-Harris team have only encouraged Iran to develop its nuclear weapons for what the mullahs apparently plan to be the destruction of Israel and ultimately the US.

Instead of deterring Iran, the Biden-Harris administration has been promoting a deal for Israel to surrender more of its already miniscule territory to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. Why Israel or any country would ever willingly agree to such stupidity is never asked.

“Since October 7th, Hezbollah has fired 7,000 drones, missiles, and rockets at Israel. Yet Israel is the one accused of ‘escalation.’ Israel may be the only nation on earth that would be accused of escalation after daring to defend itself against 7,000 mass murder attempts by the world’s most heavily armed terrorist organization. The absurdity of the double standard has become too glaring to ignore.” — US Congressman Ritchie Torres, D-NY, x.com, August 3, 2024.

Countless civilian deaths in both Israeli and Gaza have doubtless resulted from signals sent by the Biden-Harris administration that they are hostile to Israel, determined to have Hamas win, and still fund Iran.

In addition, the Biden-Harris administration has delayed weapons for Israel, and warned that “the U.S. will not take part in a counter-offensive against Iran.” Iran’s ruling mullahs could only conclude that the Biden-Harris administration was done with Israel and sending them and their proxies… a green light to escalate their attacks.

Although the US finally sent 12 destroyers to the region… in general, the Biden-Harris administration’s approach has been to undermine Israel’s efforts to defend itself and rescue its hostages — some of whom are also US citizens — and strengthen Iran’s and Hamas’s commitment finally to “wipe Israel off the map.” After all, why should they agree to a ceasefire if the US keeps insisting on a ceasefire that assures them they will win?

In addition, civilian deaths would have been dramatically reduced on both sides, and the hostages released. Instead, the US has been engaging in political games — as it is doing with Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia — all while people are being killed.

Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas clearly feel no pressure from the US to cease their relentless attacks. They are right: there has been none.

“Islamism has never ceased to threaten the West, and there have been numerous terrorist attacks—and thwarted attempts—in France, Belgium, and Spain in recent years… At what point in history did we decide that it is more important to protect the aggressor than the attacked?” — Itxu Díaz, Spanish author, tabletmag.org, May 23, 2024.

“They are fighting like lions in these alleys, under constant threat. They are heroes. This is not a simple war,” recalled Lt. Col. Almog Rotem, a battalion commander in the Israel Defense Forces, about what is faced by his soldiers in the Rafah campaign, in Gaza. “This was a severe event that should never have happened but did. We’re in a grueling, challenging war…. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen; we will… complete the mission…. Not a single soldier has said, ‘I don’t want to continue.'”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.