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ISRAEL

Biden Administration’s Terrorist Pier in Gaza: The Trojan Horse For Terrorists to Take Over the Region by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20520/gaza-pier-qatar

Placing Qatar — rather than, say, the United Arab Emirates — in charge of the Gaza pier entrenches a terrorist-sponsoring Trojan Horse at Hamas’s beck and call. Qatar will use the pier to supply Hamas with more money and more powerful weapons. The port will also undoubtedly be used to smuggle Islamist jihadis from all around the world into the Gaza Strip to launch more massacres against Israelis.

Qatar has a long history of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist offshoots, but also Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah and the Al Nusra Front.

If Qatar really wants an end to the Israel-Hamas war, all it has to do is order its Hamas puppets immediately and unconditionally to release all the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas terrorists October 7 and held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, who are based in Doha, would not be able to refuse. Qatar is their lifeline.

The Qataris, however, are evidently in no rush to pressure Hamas: Qatar is clearly facing no pressure from the Biden administration. On the contrary, the Biden administration just agreed to extended Qatar’s ability to host America’s Al-Udeid Air Base, the headquarters of CENTCOM, for another ten years – for nothing in return.

“Congress must weigh in and cancel the 10-year extension of the military base in Qatar… The U.S. should seize assets tied to individuals and entities in Qatar for supporting terrorist groups, especially those tied to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism…. It’s time to put Doha on notice that they are jeopardizing their relationship with the U.S. by providing material support to designated terrorist groups. Qatar is clearly acting like a state sponsor of terror and should not be allowed to use the U.S. banking system to bypass existing, though not enforced, sanctions on funding Iran and its terrorist proxies.” — Former US intelligence officer Michael Pregent, The Hill, January 22, 2024.

The US should definitely start withdrawing from Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

Thanks to the Biden administration — which is also pressuring Israel not to eliminate the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah — Qatar and its Hamas pawns are having the last laugh. In light of the Biden administration’s decision to turn itself into an ally of terrorists and their supporters, such as Hamas and Qatar – instead of strengthening US relations with Israel and its allies in the Gulf who are fighting terrorism — it is a very long last laugh, indeed.

2024 artificially inflated Palestinian demography Yoram Ettinger

http://bit.ly/3IPDd5S

Palestinian demographic numbers are highly-inflated, as documented by a study, which has audited the Palestinian data since 2004.  For example:

*500,000 Arabs, who have been away for over a year, are included in the census, contrary to international regulations. 325,000 were included in the 1997 census, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and 400,000 in 2005, according to the Palestinian Election Commission. The number grows steadily due to births.

*350,000 East Jerusalem Arabs are doubly-counted – by Israel and by the Palestinian Authority. The number grows steadily due to births.

*Over 150,000 Arabs, who married Israeli Arabs are similarly doubly counted. The number expands steadily due to births.   

*A 413,000 net-emigration (since the 1997 first Palestinian census) is ignored by the Palestinian census, overlooking the annual net-emigration since 1950. A 23,445 net-emigration in 2022 and a 20,000 annual average in recent years have been documented by Israel’s Population and Migration Authority in all international passages.  

*A 32% artificial inflation of Palestinian births was documented by the World Bank (page 8, item 6) in a 2006 audit.

A new word to trick Israel Moshe Phillips

https://worldisraelnews.com/a-new-word-to-trick-israel/

A change from ‘demilitarized’ to ‘nonmilitarized,’ didn’t just slip through without anybody noticing.

Nineteen Democratic U.S. senators have called on President Biden to “recognize a nonmilitarized Palestinian state.” Until now, congressional supporters of Palestinian statehood have always used the term “demilitarized.” Why the sudden change?

There’s just no way it was an accident. Letters signed by U.S. senators are reviewed and revised by a large team of writers and public relations advisers. In this case, the staffs of nineteen different senators reviewed and approved this letter dated March 20. A change like this, from “demilitarized” to “nonmilitarized,” didn’t just slip through without anybody noticing.

Especially when “nonmilitarized” is such a peculiar term. Throughout modern history “demilitarized” has always been the conventional term. Somebody made a conscious decision to change the word. Here’s a theory as to why. It involves two reasons.

The first reason for the change is rhetorical. A major problem for advocates of “demilitarization” is that it has a long history of not working. The most famous example is the German territory of the Rhineland, which was supposed to be demilitarized after World War One—that is, until Hitler decided to remilitarize it. And the world stood idly by.

America’s abstention gives hope to Hamas:Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/americas-abstention-gives-hope-to-hamas/

All one needs to know about U.N. Security Council Resolution 2728 is that Hamas was pleased with its passage. Following Monday’s near-unanimous vote—from which the United States disgracefully abstained—the terrorist organization that openly aims to annihilate the Jewish state praised the UNSC for its decision.
In an online statement, the murderous regime that rules the Gaza Strip called on the United Nations to “pressure the occupation [its name for Israel] to adhere to the ceasefire and stop the war of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people.”

Never mind that Hamas carefully planned and proudly executed the Oct. 7 massacre, committing the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust. Forget that its foot soldiers chose the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which fell on the Sabbath, to go on a sadistic spree of sexual abuse, torture, arson and abduction of innocent men, women and children.

Ignore the fact that it still holds 134 hapless victims of its carefully planned rampage in brutal captivity. The simple truth, which Hamas grasps and uses as an additional weapon in its now-shrinking arsenal, is that the world cannot bear to see Israel fight back; certainly not against Palestinians or their Islamist backers in Tehran.
Imagine Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s dismay, then, when the Obama-cloned White House and State Department not only paid lip service to “Israel’s right to defend itself,” but put its money where its mouth was with a supply of arms to assist in the war effort.

America-Israel Rift Widens Following UN Security Council Vote on Cease-Fire to Which Hamas Objects By Benny Avni

https://www.nysun.com/article/america-israel-rift-widens-following-un-security-council-vote?lctg=1474934676&recognized_email=ruthsking%40aol.com&utm_source=MG&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Evening%20Sun%20%202024-03-25

A Monday United Nations resolution, largely dictated by America, demands a two-week cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war start immediately while all 134 Israeli hostages are released. America abstained from voting on the resolution, and even as Hamas refuses to accept a cease-fire, the Biden administration is putting increasing pressures on Israel to end major military operations in Gaza, as the rift between the countries widens.

As members of the UN Security Council rose in applause following the 14 votes in favor of the resolution and America’s abstention, Prime Minister Netanyahu canceled a government delegation’s trip to Washington that was scheduled for Monday. The Israeli government sees the American engagement at the UN as a new phase in President Biden’s pressure to wind down the Gaza war.

The Israeli delegation was to be led by Mr. Netanyahu’s close adviser, Ron Dermer. It had been invited by the White House to lean on the Israeli government to cancel a plan for a major operation at Rafah, Hamas’s last major stronghold. Four Hamas battalions and the terrorist organization’s leadership are holed-up there.

Israel is yet to commence the evacuation of more than a million Gazans from the Rafah area. It is therefore unlikely to start its assault in the next two weeks. And as Hamas is yet to accept a deal for releasing even some of the hostages, let alone all of them, the council’s resolution is unlikely to make much difference on the ground in Gaza or Israel.

The CIA chief, William Burns, returned to Washington from Doha over the weekend after Israeli negotiators there reportedly agreed to a deal for a temporary cease-fire and freeing 40 hostages and hundreds of terrorists in Israeli prison. Perhaps encouraged by America’s pressure on Israel, Hamas keeps amassing new demands.

“Releasing prisoners may have been the main Hamas demand a few months ago,” an Israeli activist who is known to occasionally speak with Hamas officials, Gershon Baskin, told Israel’s Channel 11 news Monday. “Now their top demand is to end the war and for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.”

The UN Security Council resolution demands a cease-fire lasting until the April 9 end of Ramadan, in tandem with the release of all hostages. The two-operational-paragraph resolution was initially proposed by France in the name of the 10 elected members of the council. Yet, American diplomats leaned on the sponsors to change the text.

The council “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs,” the resolution reads.

While the American mission at the UN exerted pressure on council members, including a last-minute word change to “lasting” from “permanent” cease-fire, administration officials and Washington lawmakers intensified the pressure on Israel to avoid a Rafah operation.

Vice President Harris told ABC News Sunday that she has “studied the map” of Gaza and concluded that Rafah refugees have no place to go. She declined to exclude the possibility of “consequences” if Israel fails to heed the administration’s dictate to avoid a Rafah invasion, such as denial of arms to the IDF. On CNN, meanwhile, Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez insisted that Israel is committing “genocide” at Gaza.

Her allegation — that Israel is deliberately starving Gazans and therefore is guilty of genocide — is fast taking hold around the world. It started when South Africa officially demanded that the International Court of Justice declare Israel in violation of its obligations under the anti-genocide convention.

Despite Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, its foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, announced on Friday that the Kingdom supports the South African ICJ motion. “The Israeli aggression on Gaza and its continued committing of war crimes against the Palestinian people and violating international law with impunity are responsible for the rising tensions witnessed in the region,” Mr. Safadi said.

Israel is facilitating the entry of hundreds of aid trucks a day into the Strip, and the IDF takes caution to avoid hitting civilians as it conducts its war against Hamas’s armed men. Yet, a group of Democratic American legislators, known as the “Squad,” insists that Israel is committing genocide. Election-year pressure from the party’s leftist base has moved Mr. Biden away from full support of Israel.

Separately, President Trump also seems to be calling for ending the war. “The world is turning on Israel, and that’s not a good thing,” he told the Israel Hayom newspaper in an interview published Monday. And so, he added, “you have to finish your war” and move toward peace.

Israel alone Weep for America Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/israel-alone?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

In my article here last week, I wrote that America was abandoning Israel. Today, the Biden administration wrote its name in the annals of infamy by openly joining the axis of evil against those defending civilisation.

The UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the remainder of Ramadan, and the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli hostages.

Breaking with its historic policy of vetoing hostile resolutions at the UNSC  to protect Israel against those working for its destruction and the defeat of the west, the US abstained today and so the resolution was passed. 

Even more appallingly (if that’s possible) the UK, the Biden administration’s poodle and whose Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, has been threatening Israel with an end to arms sales unless it does what he and the US State Department are demanding, actually voted for the resolution. 

So both the US and UK are now aligned with the west’s foes Russia and China against Israel, the sole defender of the west in the Middle East. What a disgrace.

The resolution is obnoxious because it fails to condition a ceasefire on the release of the hostages, thus destroying the chances of the latter actually occurring.

Last Friday, the US brought forward a draft resolution which said the UNSC “unequivocally supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages” (my emphasis). That resolution’s linkage between a ceasefire and the release of the hostages was the reason it was vetoed by China and Russia. On that occasion, America’s ambassador to the UN ambassador declared: 

We should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardises the ongoing [hostage] negotiations.

War – Israel versus Hamas: Sydney Williams

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

War is messy. It is cruel. It cannot be refined. It cannot be sanitized. Wars were once fought on battle fields. No longer. Civil War historian James McPherson has estimated that about 50,000 civilians died during that conflict, still less than 10% of all military deaths. That changed in the 20th Century. About half of all deaths in World War I were civilians. In World War II, twice as many civilians died as military personnel. Innocent people get hurt in modern wars, as residents of London, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Naples learned during World War II, and as residents of My Lai and Hué learned during the Vietnam War. And as people today in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, in Gaza City, Jabalia, and Rafah understand, and in the border villages of Israel’s north where residents have evacuated due to threats from Iran’s other proxy, Hezbollah. 

When the fight is between good and evil, a “proportional” response, as attractive as the concept sounds, is not an alternative. “The moral thing to do,” the columnist Moshe Phillips wrote recently in Israel National News, “is to destroy evil when it poses a ‘clear and present danger’ or likely will again.” Hamas presents to Israel such a threat. In September 1864, on the cusp of taking Atlanta, General William Tecumseh Sherman sent a telegram to President Lincoln: “War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. Other simple remedies were within their choice. You know it and they know it, but they wanted war, and I say let us give them all they want; not a word of argument, not a sign of let up, no cave in until we are whipped or they are.” When Hamas attacked the Kibbutz Nir Oz, during the Tribe of Nova music festival, on October 7, raping women, slaughtering babies and children, mutilating those they had killed and kidnapping those they had not, war was the choice they made. Now, the only way to end the war is for Israel to totally destroy Hamas. 

The battle in Gaza, like the American Civil War and World War II, is a fight between forces of good and evil. (In one sense, this is a civil war, as both Israelis and Palestinians descend from Abraham.) This is not to suggest that all Israelis are paragons of virtue and that all Palestinians are devils incarnate. But Israel, according to the Economist Groups Democracy Index, is the only democracy in the Middle East, while Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Britain. The people of Gaza bear some responsibility, as Hamas was elected in 2006 with 75% of the vote. Citizens of Gaza know that terrorists hide and store arms in tunnels beneath schools and hospitals. On September 11, 2001 there was dancing in the streets of Gaza. Ismail Haniyeh, former Gaza Prime Minister and Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau (and who now lives in Qatar), explained in 2020 why Hamas rejects ceasefire agreements: “We cannot, in exchange for money or projects, give up Palestine and our weapons. We will not give up the resistance. We will not recognize Israel. Palestine must stretch from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.” Commenting on the loss of civilian deaths in Gaza on October 26, 2023, Mr. Haniyeh said: The blood of the women, children and elderly […] we are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit.”

Biden’s Pier Is a Gift to Hamas Terrorists by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20513/biden-pier-gift-to-hamas

There are mounting concerns that the Biden administration’s pier plan could ultimately boomerang, especially, as Netanyahu himself has warned, if the US aid and the port itself end up in the hands of Hamas terrorists.

“This [Biden] administration betrayed its allies – the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Jordan – by handing the port over to Qatar, namely to Hamas….. What all anti-U.S. elements will take away from this tragic episode is not that America stands by its human values to support and care for the population of Gaza, but rather that America is weak and that this is why it is granting the port to Qatar and Hamas.” — Yigal Carmon, founder and president, Middle East Media Research Institute, March 20, 2024.

As Hamas ultimately controls most of the aid distribution networks in Gaza, the plans currently being drawn up by the US and Europe to expand aid deliveries could ultimately prove counter-productive in terms of ending the conflict, as Hamas terrorists have a long track record of exploiting foreign aid to strengthen their terrorist activities in Gaza.

If the Biden administration and its European allies are really serious about ending the conflict in Gaza, then they should give their unequivocal backing to the Israeli military in its battle to destroy the terrorist infrastructure Hamas has constructed in Gaza.

For it will only be when Hamas is completely destroyed, and no longer poses a threat to the Israeli people, that there can be any genuine prospect of lasting peace in the region.

Gaza: Razzia as Political Warfare by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20516/gaza-razzia-political-warfare

British and European Union leaders say the time has come to formally accept the creation of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, Major-General Ismail Qaani, chief of the Quds Force of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, promises to “rebuild Gaza stronger than before as an advance post against world Zionism.”

Claiming to be a “freedom fighter” shouldn’t mean a license to kill at will. Even the “oppressed” have certain duties and must observe some rules while, as history has shown, the tyranny of the underdog could be as deadly as that of the oppressor.

The question today is why, when no time limit is imposed on conventional war until a victor emerges, should war against an insurgent group be subjected to calendar-based shenanigans?

In fact, the origin of razzia is the Arabic word ghazwa, which means a sudden no-holds-barred attack on a single set of targets in the hope of knocking out an adversary… The 9/11 attacks of 2001 on the US were four coordinated razzias.

World War II produced over 30 million refugees, all of whom acquired new abodes within a decade. The partition of India produced 14 million refugees, again, seeing all of them re-settled in less than a decade. Since 1959, more than 10 million Cubans have been driven out of their homeland and settled in a dozen countries, notably the United States.

Does it make any sense to have refugee camps even in Gaza, which was free of Israeli occupation for two decades? Or in the West Bank, governed by the Palestinian Authority? Is it humane to turn being a refugee into a profession, with UNRWA as the franchise-holder?

The Biden administration is making a big mistake by implicitly upgrading Hamas to a legitimate partner through regional allies, thus creating the illusion that razzias like the October 7 one could still produce at least a lollipop for perpetrators.

Show the Video, Israel It’s time for Israel to show the 47-minute video of the October 7 attack to the world. By Michael E. Ginsberg

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/23/show-the-video-israel/

Across the globe, a critical mass of the ignorant, the brainwashed, the Islamist supremacists, and the evil is forming.

Just consider what a massacre of Jews on October 7 launched:

Downtown London has become a no-go zone for Jews every weekend.
Jewish teachers have been being chased by frenzied student mobs through the halls of New York schools.
Jewish university students have been barricaded in auditoriums and libraries by braying mobs.
Synagogues and Jewish hospitals in the US and Canada have become the targets of screaming protesters.
Jewish-owned restaurants and businesses have been vandalized, and their patrons have been threatened with violence.
Jewish artists have had their shows cancelled or protested.
Rallies featuring Nazi imagery and celebrating the events of October 7 have taken and continue to take place in Times Square and on the streets of New York City.

And all this has been in response to a genocidal attack on Jews on October 7.

October 7 was the final crank of a jack-in-the-Pandora’s-box of Leftist and Islamist antisemitism that has been bubbling under the surface for years.

The Hamas pogrom of October 7 is no longer just an existential threat to the Jewish state. It is an existential threat to every nation in the civilized world. And the civilized world, from academia to politicians to law enforcement, has proven incapable of or unwilling to forcefully stamp this evil out.

Which is why Israel must do what few others in power are able or willing to do: directly confront