RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/global-empire-of-palestine

Polls showing that Palestinians in the West Bank as well as Gaza continue to celebrate and support Hamas, with nearly 75% backing the Oct. 7 massacre that killed 1,200 in southern Israel, would seem to dash U.S. policymakers’ hopes of gaining momentum toward establishing a Palestinian state.

But for the Palestinians, that’s irrelevant. Why should they bother with arduous negotiations leading to compromise over two non contiguous plots of land when they already have something far greater and much rarer? Empire.

The ongoing marches around the world to “flood” Western cities, college campuses, and government office buildings, and halt traffic on major arteries and thoroughfares in support of Hamas, are evidence that the Palestinians have managed to create something much loftier than a mere political arrangement of institutions and offices that would make them no different from the 193 members of the United Nations. With Oct. 7 representing the high-water mark of their long campaign against the Jews, and Americans, the Palestinians have called forth from the nations those who are ready to awaken and celebrate the new spirit of the age.

Since Oct. 7, pro-Palestinian protesters—Arab and Muslim immigrants joined by locals—have filled the streets of European and North American cities with crowds of thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands in Berlin, Washington, Stockholm, Paris, Toronto, Oslo, Chicago, London, Rome, Los Angeles, and others. In Glasgow last week, they shut down a Zara’s outlet because, according to pro-Palestinian activists, the retail giant’s advertising campaign featuring mannequins wrapped in white cloth resembled dead Gazans. Students at Harvard University can’t study in Widener Library or walk to class without being confronted by mobs calling for Israel to be emptied of Jews “from the river to the sea.” It’s as bad or worse at other elite universities.

By continually ‘revitalizing’ the Palestinians, the stewards of global affairs have engendered something that by definition cannot survive in nature on its own: a society that celebrates death as its highest value.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/381508

The prime minister of Canada recently blasted Israel for accidentally killing civilians in Gaza— even though the Canadians deliberately killed German civilians in World War II. 

    Hypocrisy? Cynical indifference to the historical record? Perhaps a little bit of both.

    The Canadian Royal Air Force was a participant in the Allies’ strategy of “area bombing” in World War II, the policy of attacking civilian areas in order to undermine the German public’s morale. Canadian bombers took part in some of the war’s most famous strikes on civilian targets—including the bombing of Hamburg in July 1943, which left 40,000 dead, and the attack on Dresden in February 1945, which killed tens of thousands more. 

    The bombings were reported in the Canadian press at the time, and nobody protested. The Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, for example, reporting on July 30, 1943 about one of the attacks on Hamburg, noted: “A great many Canadian bombers participated in this attack as they have in every Hamburg raid since the round-the-clock bombings began last week-end.” 

    And that’s not all.

    Canadian troops fought a storied urban battle in World War II that had more than a few similarities to the situation in Gaza today: enemy fighters holed up in underground tunnels, savage house to house fighting, booby-traps everywhere—and more than a few civilian casualties. 

https://www.thefp.com/p/miracle-in-hell-the-baby-twins-who

On October 7, Hamas terrorists stormed into the home of Hadar and Itay Berdichevsky in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the Israeli communities along the Gaza border. Hadar and Itay—both 30 years old—were butchered in their own home.

Miraculously, their 10-month-old twins survived. The babies were found—rescued by the IDF—14 hours later, crying in their cots. Their parents’ bodies lie in pools of blood around them.

Today on Honestly, we’re talking with the twins’ aunt and uncle, Maya and Dvir Rosenfeld, who are now helping raise their orphaned twin nephews. Maya and Dvir also survived the massacre on Kfar Aza that day. They hid in their safe room for more than 24 hours with their own baby boy—holding their hands over his mouth to keep him quiet—as they heard the terrible sounds of their neighborhood being turned into a slaughterhouse around them.

Maya and Dvir flew to L.A. last week to share their family’s story. They’re doing this—even in the midst of mourning the loss of family, even while trying to recover from this unspeakable terror and tragedy—because they cannot understand how there are people who either don’t know, don’t believe, or simply don’t care about what happened that day. Or about the over 100 remaining hostages in Gaza.

There are so many stories from October 7 that need to be told. We’ve told some of them on this show. And still, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what happened that day, of the thousands upon thousands of stories—individual, human stories of horror and tragedy—each one deserving of being shared with the world. 

This one today represents a little light in a sea of darkness. These innocent babies—who will not remember the terror of October 7—represent both senseless tragedy and unbelievable bravery. Both pain and hope. Both ultimate despair and miracle beyond belief. Both death. . . and life. 

Our full conversation is available on Honestly (click here to listen) or as a video, which we are embedding below. And underneath that is an edited excerpt. —BW

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-has-already-opened-the-northern-front-lebanon-hezbollah-iran-d4a6b62e?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Rosh Hanikra, Israel

Will Israel launch a military operation to clear Hezbollah from its northern border? Or is the war there already under way?

“We see a steady escalation in terms of the range and variety of munitions being launched by Hezbollah at Israel,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, international spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces, told a group of foreign journalists at a briefing in northern Israel on Dec. 18. “We can do the same, if we need to, against Hezbollah that we are doing against Hamas in the south. This may be the scenario that we will need to implement.”

The briefing took place at a deserted kibbutz called Rosh Hanikra. Only yards from the border with Lebanon, it once was a flourishing community of 1,400 people but was evacuated, along with 27 other communities, in the days following Hamas’s massacre on Oct. 7. Israel has withdrawn its civilian population 2.5 miles south from its border with Lebanon, obliging 86,000 people to leave their homes. The residents of these border communities have become refugees in their own country.

Amid the deserted houses, fields and farms, the IDF conducts its daily duel with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. More than 1,000 Hezbollah attacks have taken place since Oct. 7 as the Lebanese Shiite Islamist group seeks to maintain a controlled second front to aid its Sunni allies in the south.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-hailed-for-single-greatest-defense-of-israel-worth-three-minutes-of-your-time-101702960343411.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s exchange with Krystal Ball, where they discuss who is responsible for the tragic situation of Palestinians in Gaza, has gone viral

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s heated exchange with Breaking Points commentator Krystal Ball, where they discuss who is responsible for the tragic situation of Palestinians in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, has gone viral. The two spoke about the Palestinians’ plight, civilian casualties and other complications the ongoing conflict has caused.

The conversation spiralled into a heated exchange when Ball and Kennedy began debating the political logistics behind the conflict. They also went back and forth over how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handled the situation. “The Palestinian people are arguably the most pampered people by international aid organisations,” Kennedy said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Krystal Ball’s heated exchange

“Are you kidding me?” Ball said, shocked. “Even before this war, 78 percent of people in Gaza had not enough food to eat.”

“Why are you blaming Israel?” Kennedy asked, and Ball went on to cite the blockade on food. Kennedy then went on to say Hamas’ leadership stole international aid, becoming rich in the process. He accused Ball of making Israel look responsible for the poverty in Gaza.

“They have no control over their own territory!” Ball exclaimed. “Israel controls everything that comes in and goes out.”

“Why do you insist on blaming Israel?” Kennedy said. “Why not Hamas?”

https://www.jns.org/fetterman-tiktok-warping-young-peoples-views-on-israel-hamas-war/

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Wednesday told Jake Tapper of CNN that the popular social media app TikTok is distorting Americans’ perception of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Tapper, who is Jewish, had asked Fetterman—who is not, but has been one of the most vocal Zionists in Congress of late—about a New York Times/Siena College poll which found that 72% of registered voters aged 18 to 29 disapprove of the way U.S. President Joe Biden is handling the Israel-Palestine conflict. Why do so many younger people, especially Democrats, see Israel differently from the senator, Tapper asked.

“I really don’t know,” Fetterman replied. “I do know that a lot of people are getting their perspective from TikTok.”

“If you’re kind of getting your perspective on the world on TikTok, it’s going to tend to be kind of warped or not reflective of the history and actually the way things absolutely are,” said Fetterman. “Hamas started this, and they actually broke the ceasefire and they attacked and murdered babies, children, women—attacked a music concert and everything. It’s outrageous.”

He went on to say that “it’s been very clear that Israel would very much want there to be peace. But they’ve made it very clear that after Oct. 7, that’s just not possible so long as Hamas is allowed to exist.”

Earlier this month, Jewish TikTok employees reported experiencing antisemitism on the job and anti-Israel bias in content moderation. 
In March, Noa Tishby, the former Israeli special envoy for combating antisemitism, told JNS she regarded TikTok as the most hateful social media platform.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/gaza-hospital-boss-admits-hes-a-hamas-commander-used-medical-facility-as-terror-base/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

Ahmed al-Kahlout, the manager of the Kamal Adnan Hospital in northern Gaza, admitted during an interrogation with Israeli security forces that Hamas used the medical facilities to advance its military operations.

“I know 16 employees in the hospital — doctors, nurses, paramedics and clerks — who also have different positions in the Qassam Brigades,” Kahlout told Israel’s Shin Bet in a video clip released on Tuesday afternoon, referring to the military of Hamas. “They hide in hospitals because, for them, a hospital is a safe place.”

Kahlout, whose hospital is located in the Jabaliya neighborhood of northern Gaza, explained to Israeli security officials, “They [Hamas] won’t be targeted when they are inside a hospital.”

“That they will not be harmed when they are inside a hospital. Hamas has offices inside the hospitals. There are places for senior officials, they also brought a kidnapped soldier there. There is a designated place for interrogations, internal security, and special forces. Everyone has private phone lines inside the hospital,” Kahlout added.

The hospital manager also told Israeli officials that he’d been involved in the Palestinian terror group for over a decade and had risen through its ranks over the years. “I was recruited to Hamas in 2010 with the rank of Brigadier General. There are employees in the hospital who are military operatives of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades – doctors, nurses, paramedics, clerks, and staff members,״ Kahlout said, according to an Israeli military press release.