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The current pressure on Israel

*Since Israel’s establishment in 1948 – which was ferociously opposed by the State Department, and tenaciously realized by Israel’s defiant Founding Father, David Ben Gurion – The State Department has systematically pressured Israel to act against its own assessment of its own national security requirements.  In fact, in most cases, Israel’s compliance with State Department pressure undermined the US’ own interests, while a defiant Israel spared a major setback to the US’ own interests.

*Since the horrific Hamas terrorism of October 7, 2023, the State Department – which subscribes to a worldview, contending that terrorism is driven by despair, and therefore should be confronted diplomatically and financially, not militarily – has intensified the pressure on Israel to refrain from militarily preempting Hezbollah, the chief proxy of Iran’s Ayatollahs.

*In addition, the State Department has pressured Israel to switch from fighting – to negotiating with – Hamas, a proxy of Iran’s Ayatollahs and a branch of the Moslem Brotherhood, which is the largest Sunni terror organization in the world.  The pressure has been exerted, notwithstanding Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ commitment to fanatic, Islamic anti-US ideologies – which transcend financial and diplomatic benefits – mandating the toppling of all pro-US Arab regimes, bringing the “infidel” West, and especially “the great American Satan” to submission. Moreover, Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ ideologies are committed to the uprooting of the “infidel” Jewish state – which is deemed by them as the Middle East beachhead of the US – as evidenced in Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ school curriculum, mosque sermons and systematic regional and global terrorism, which extends to Latin America and the US homeland.

*The State Department pressures Israel into another round of negotiation with Iran-controlled Hezbollah and Hamas, despite the fact that all previous agreements were violated, intensifying terrorism, transforming these two terror entities into the most fortified above-ground and under-ground terror states in the world, and paving the road to the October 7 massacre and the current Iran-orchestrated Hamas and Hezbollah wars on Israel.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20741/big-lies-about-israel

For months, Israel has refuted libelous claims of famine in Gaza, as international organizations — especially the UN and the EU, the International Court of Justice and mainstream media alongside NGOs such as Human Rights Watch — pushed the false, malicious narrative that Israel was causing famine in Gaza and even using it as a “weapon of war.” Israel might have saved itself the effort. No one was listening.

In May, the World Food Programme (WFP) of the UN claimed, without a shred of evidence, that there was a “full blown famine” in Gaza.

Now, it turns out, it was all a big lie. There was no famine, there is no famine and Israel has not been using hunger as a “weapon of war.” In its report published on June 4, the UN’s IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] concluded that famine was no longer even “plausible” and had no “supporting evidence.”

By comparison, more than three million children in Sudan are acutely malnourished, and a quarter of a million more are likely to die in the coming months. By the UN’s own admission, the war in Sudan is “the war the world has either forgotten or ignored.” The irony of that statement has clearly been lost on the UN, which is probably the main reason that Sudan – and other conflict spots – is ignored: the UN focuses almost all its resources on Israel and Gaza.

The “made-up” famine is just the latest in a long row of fabrications demonizing Israel’s military operations in Gaza, which over the last months have been exposed as lies yet have received zero coverage in the media.

In early May, the UN effectively admitted that Hamas’s casualty figures were untrustworthy,…

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres led the incitement against Israel, as the UN almost always does.

Overall, 18 million people in Sudan face starvation.

For months, Israel has refuted libelous claims of famine in Gaza, as international organizations — especially the UN and the EU, the International Court of Justice and mainstream media alongside NGOs such as Human Rights Watch — pushed the false, malicious narrative that Israel was causing famine in Gaza and even using it as a “weapon of war.” Israel might have saved itself the effort. No one was listening.

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A report on Israel’s ynet (Hebrew)—drawing on a report in Asharq al-Awsat, an Arabic newspaper published in London—cites Hamas members both inside and outside Gaza who say the organization’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, is updated all the time on the ongoing Gaza war.

“[Sinwar’s] ability to stay hidden, alongside Israel’s inability to reach him, does not mean he lacks communication with [other Hamas leaders]”—including those outside of Gaza, primarily in Qatar.

Sinwar “remains updated especially on the negotiations [for a hostage deal], and looks into every initiative, ponders it, and gives his judgment.” 

The Hamas members further told the paper that only “a very small circle knows [Sinwar’s] location. No more than two or three people who provide for his needs and handle his communication with other [Hamas] leaders.”

Is it true, as widely speculated, that Sinwar has surrounded himself with Israeli hostages to keep himself safe? Is Israel’s failure to reach him due to concerns about those hostages, or to the fact that the Israeli (and American? British?) intelligence agencies have lost sight of his whereabouts?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20738/hamas-crimes-western-media

The Palestinian Authority and other Arab governments have been reminded in recent days of the reasons why entering the Gaza Strip after the war would be risky, if not impossible…

According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has murdered a number of Palestinians who it believed had indicated willingness to be part of a new government that would replace the terrorist group after the war.

Hamas, apparently, does not want food or medication to reach the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, particularly not via Israeli border crossings. This situation is most likely caused by Hamas’s desire to prolong and aggravate the suffering of the Palestinians and create a “famine” so it can place the blame on Israel.

“Why is the media ignoring what is going on in central and southern Gaza? Hamas is assassinating Gazans, particularly tribe leaders, in order to deter anyone other than Hamas from delivering humanitarian relief and participating in Gaza.” — Hamza Howidy, Palestinian social media influencer from the Gaza Strip, x.com, June 26, 2024.

Until the international community – and particularly the Biden administration – fully support Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas, unfortunately there can be no real discussion of “the day after” in the Gaza Strip.

Israel… will not be the only party to benefit from Hamas’s demise. A large number of Arabs and Muslims who oppose Hamas and other Iran-backed Islamist groups will also benefit, even though it is “politically incorrect” and immensely dangerous to say so.

In reality, those advocating for a “ceasefire” are asking for Hamas to be allowed to continue ruling the Gaza Strip, rearming, and gearing up to attack Israel — in their words, “again and again.”

A ceasefire will only ignite an immediate increase in terrorist attacks against Israel. Worse, Islamists worldwide will be incentivized to launch attacks not only against Israel but also against Europe. Islamists have already attacked US troops in the Middle East more than 150 times in the region since Oct 7.

By exposing the crimes of Hamas against its own people and raising awareness of these threats — instead of helping the terrorists cover them up — the international media can actually help to protect their own countries against steadily increasing terrorism. At the moment, terrorists over the world can only see their efforts as victorious, glorified and rewarded.

https://www.jns.org/has-israels-security-apparatus-learned-nothing-from-oct-7/

If Mohammed Abu Salmiya hadn’t filmed a couple of hate-filled videos upon his triumphant return to Gaza on Monday morning, the Shifa Hospital director’s release from Israeli incarceration would have remained under the radar.

But Abu Salmiya, one of some 50 Palestinian detainees let out of the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel and whisked back to the terrorist enclave from whence they came, was proud to highlight his ordeal.

t’s lucky he did. Otherwise, the fact that he’s now back in the business of using his illustrious license and position to store weapons and abuse hostages would have escaped notice—not only of the Israeli public, but of the very government that’s supposed to have learned a lesson or two on and since Oct. 7.

In his clips, Abu Salmiya failed to mention his own key role in Hamas’s atrocities, which involved aiding and abetting the perpetrators of the massacre and mass abductions. This isn’t mere speculation; all evidence of Shifa operations is fully documented, with footage, photos and Israel Security Agency Interrogations galore.

Naturally, this didn’t stop the Shifa chief, who was arrested in November, from accusing the “enemy” of criminal behavior toward the “hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical technicians” in Israeli prisons. Nor did it prevent him from encouraging the “resistance” to fight to free all Palestinian terrorists—or from having the nerve to call on human-rights organizations to visit them and see the “tragic” conditions under which they’re being held.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/r-i-p-to-a-fateful-metaphor-for-bidens-incompetence/

As Joe Biden’s campaign collapses, so, too, does the misguided Gaza pier.

As Joe Biden’s campaign collapses with all the force of a Red Giant star, there may not be much of a market out there for imploding-campaign metaphors. But for those of you whose demand for analogies along those lines is nigh insatiable, here’s hoping you didn’t miss the final days of the president’s ill-conceived Gaza pier.

Last Friday, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh revealed that Biden’s brainchild — a temporary dock extending from the Gaza coast into the Mediterranean, from which humanitarian assistance could be dispersed to local Palestinians — was defunct. “As we always said with the pier, it is meant to be temporary,” she said. “When the commander decides that it’s the right time to re-install that pier, we’ll keep you updated on that.”

Singh added that the pier was never going to be a “long-term solution or solve for land routes,” which is “the most effective way” into the Strip. But that was the point of the pier as a political argument. It was designed to embarrass the Israelis for failing to distribute humanitarian aid (716,000 tons and counting) to the Strip to the administration’s satisfaction. The Israelis did not publicly object to the slight, in part because it would further imperil Jerusalem’s relationship with the Biden White House and because it would make little sense to object to the administration’s offer to relieve the humanitarian burdens on the IDF. But the lack of a defined and achievable mission ensured that the pier would have to remain in operation indefinitely — at least, until the close of combat operations in the Strip.

The Biden White House surely didn’t intend for the pier to remain in service forever, but nor could they have possibly set out to engineer an embarrassment for themselves.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

If you want to be depressed by stories about violence, tragedies, and lies about Israel, there are many websites you can link to and email groups you can join.  But if you want the truth about the positive achievements of the only Jewish State, then Read It Here! Michael Ordman

Could not say it better! rsk

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Israel’s largest flag. (TY Yanky) 50 meters above Moshav Netiv HaAsara flies is probably the biggest flag in Israel at 17 meters wide and 12 meters tall. It is visible from Gaza, as a symbol of defiance to the Hamas terrorists who tried to overrun the Moshav on Oct 7.  https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/hyuhfkwl0
 
CAM-supported volunteers honored.  Members of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) received Presidential Volunteer Medals in Jerusalem for helping those impacted by Oct 7. They included Yahaloma Zechut (Ofakim Resilience Center), Racheli Tadesa Malkai (Ethiopians), and Wahid Alhuzeil (Bedouins).
https://www.jns.org/herzog-honors-cam-supported-volunteers-for-post-oct-7-response/
 
Volunteers learn resilience. Some 100 US college students just completed the Jewish National Fund-USA’s “Alternative Break” week, supporting families in southern Israel impacted by the Oct 7 attacks. They repaired houses, worked on farms, and made food packages for IDF soldiers and admired the spirit of all the Israelis.
https://www.jns.org/wire/college-students-volunteer-in-israel-on-alternative-break/
 
Cooking for soldiers. (TY Yanky) Yehudit and a group of volunteers make Shabbat food for IDF soldiers. An online order mix-up resulted in a donation to pay for the food. She blogged the story and got more donations. Soldiers love it when she brings the food to the bases. They are hungry for home cooking.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-jewish-mothers-way-to-the-soldiers-stomachs/
 
How does a comedian deal with Oct 7? (TY UWI) Israeli standup comedian Modi was flying to Paris on Oct 7 to perform to European audiences. In this interview on Israeli Internet TV channel I24 he relates how Jewish humor can give respite in times of crisis.  (see also Seinfeld below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wMmT0yygo
 
IDF rescue tortured Gazan donkey. The IDF found a donkey in Gaza that had been tortured and tied up and released it. Earlier in the war, the IDF rescued dogs, cats and exotic birds (see here previously). They even took care of a neglected lion from a Gazan Zoo.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-idf-rescues-tortured-tied-up-donkey/
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Taking research to heart. As cells age, they stop dividing. Our immune system removes them, but they build up as we age. Scientists say that all these “senescence cells” must be removed to prevent aging, but scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that those formed after heart injury are needed, to protect the heart.
https://www.israel21c.org/cellular-aging-mechanism-may-actually-heal-hearts/  
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44161-024-00493-1
 
Candida gets the blue-light treatment. Israel’s Zero Candida has developed a device to treat candidiasis – an infection that affects hundreds of millions of women per year worldwide. It uses high-energy blue light to destroy the fungus quickly and without side effects. The device has been patented in South Africa!
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/israeli-femtech-startup-patents-candida-treatment-in-south-africa/
https://zero-candida.com/
 
Cancer immunotherapy clinical trials. Israel’s Biond Biologics (see here previously) has begun multi-center trials of BND-35. It is already trialing BND-22. Both are immunotherapy treatments for solid tumors.
 https://nocamels.com/2024/06/novel-cancer-immunotherapy-drug-given-to-first-patient-in-trial/
https://www.biondbio.com/clinical-trials/
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06274437?term=BND-35&rank=1
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04717375?term=BND-22&rank=1
 
Shining light on pancreatic cancer. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to illuminate previously undetectable pancreatic tumors. They injected deuterium-enriched glucose into the bloodstream. The tumors eat the glucose and excrete lactate that MRIs can reveal.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/392102
 
Med-tech and fast response saves mother’s life. After giving birth to her second child in Israel, Nofer’s vital signs plummeted. Her midwife alerted emergency teams who found multiple blood clots and a heart defect. A cardiologist then used advanced ultrasound technology and minimally invasive surgery to save Nofer’s life.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-midwifes-quick-thinking-saves-mothers-life/
 
The youngest doctor? Doron (31) was only 25 years-old when he received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Technion in 2018. Today he is a fourth-year Technion medical student and intends to combine his expertise in mathematics with medicine to help people with mental illness. As a child, Doron “operated” on his toy animals.
https://ats.org/our-impact/doron-elad-the-young-technion-scholar-on-a-mission-for-answers/
 
Kidney exchanges save lives. (TY Nevet) Israeli Ronit and a kidney transplant recipient in Czechia (Czech Republic) underwent a kidney exchange thanks to Israel’s National Transplant Center. Ronit’s friend Yair donated his kidney to the Czech recipient, whose wife donated her kidney to Ronit. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-804396
https://www.gov.il/en/departments/units/transplant_center/govil-landing-page

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/

This may come as some surprise, but only three per cent of the residents of Rafah, in Gaza, were poorly fed in May, according to the United Nations. In Khan Yunis and the central town of Deir al Balah, that figure stood at six per cent. The biggest challenges were faced by those who had failed to evacuate from the north at the start of the campaign. There, 13 per cent were found to be hungry. The overwhelming majority of Gazans had “acceptable” quantities of food.

Now consider the situation before Hamas brought catastrophe to Gaza. Despite billions of dollars of aid money pouring into the Strip, 14 per cent of the population faced hunger in 2022, according to a contemporaneous study by the World Food Programme. So it appears that provisions are better now than they were when Hamas was in charge.

Not that you’d know it from the reporting. In its analysis, the UN grudgingly concluded that it was “unable to endorse” the classification made by the likes of the head of the World Food Programme, who had claimed that Gaza had entered a “full-blown famine”. Was there an apology? Nope. The new line, spun by the UN and amplified by the BBC and fellow travellers, was that Gazans faced “catastrophic levels” of hunger.

Without wishing to minimise the deprivations of war, here was an object lesson in propaganda in the age of mass media. 

Step eagerly forward the Guardian, which on Tuesday published an article headlined “The starvation of Gaza is a perverse repudiation of Judaism’s values”. The author, John Oakes, is a radical American intellectual, whose authority appears to rest on his book about the history of fasting. Whether he knows anything about the conflict or Judaism, or has ever met anybody from Gaza, is unclear. According to his website, his second book will be about the nature of intelligence.

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

Daniel Hagari, spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces, recently created a flap when he said that “Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people—whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong.”

Hagari added that Hamas would remain in control in Gaza unless Israel “develops something else to replace it.” 

The statement was widely cast as an admission that Israel was not really winning, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to reply that the Israeli security cabinet “has defined as one of the war goals the destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities…. The Israel Defense Forces is of course committed to this.”

It was a sensible rejoinder, implying that Israel did not actually aspire to vaporize Hamas from the face of the earth, but to break it as an effective military and political force.

Indeed, Nazi Germany was defeated, but almost 80 years since the war ended Nazism certainly still exists as an idea, as do a plethora of neo-Nazi organizations. ISIS was militarily devastated in Iraq and Syria, but still exists not only as an idea but as a terror group that in 2024 has inflicted mass-casualty attacks in Russia and elsewhere. Both entities were defeated but not annihilated.