Monday, March 18, 2024

Sinwar's hideout: IDF commander describes operation to control Hamas compound - Eve Young

 

by Eve Young

In the search for Hamas leadership, IDF uncovers opulent hideaways. IDF commander Elichan leads the mission through luxury homes turned terror hubs.

 

Soldiers show damage to tank from an explosive charge - Gaza (photo credit: EVE YOUNG)
Soldiers show damage to tank from an explosive charge - Gaza
(photo credit: EVE YOUNG)

For IDF Lt.-Col. Elichan, searching senior Hamas leadership’s hideaway apartment, was “another day at the office.” The 36-year-old battalion commander described the mission in which they discovered the apartment and its trap door to the Hamas tunnel system.

“We kept advancing, scanning houses,” described Elichan. “We knew that there were houses with terror infrastructure and terrorists,” he said, adding that the houses in the neighborhood that Elichan describes as “luxury” were nice and full of nice furniture, as well as stocked with ammunition, weaponry, or Hamas uniforms.

“There isn’t a house you would go into that didn’t have grenades or ammunition, or Hamas uniforms, or something about Hamas,” he said.

Elichan was part of the IDF push to take control of the Hamas leadership command center. The compound included a network of tunnels that connected hideaway apartments and offices of senior Hamas officials, the military said.

But “one tunnel was different than the others,” Elichan said, explaining how they knew they had found an apartment used by senior Hamas officials such as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. “The tunnel was in the basement, covered in ceramics. When we pushed on it, a trap door opened, and there was an elevator that came out of the ground and went down 20 meters to tunnels below,” he said.

IDF sits where Sinwar and Deif planned October 7 massacre

“The division commander came to see the tunnel, and I told him we should sit in a nearby apartment that was in better shape,” said Elichan. “He said, ‘This is where Sinwar and [Mohammed] Deif sat and planned the massacre,’ and that there is where he wanted to sit.

 Soldiers in Gaza (credit: EVE YOUNG)Enlrage image
Soldiers in Gaza (credit: EVE YOUNG)

“It was a statement of values,” explained Elichan. “I want to sit here even though it is in bad condition because this is where they sat.”

Elichan’s battalion and Special Forces explored the tunnel thoroughly while they were in that area, he said. When they left, they destroyed the tunnel and its entrances.

The battalion met challenging conditions, with a large amount of enemy engagement. “In the last month, we had four or five encounters with the enemy. Some of our soldiers were hurt, and two were killed by RPG fire,” he said.

“We had another very complex encounter, with enemy engagement for over 48 hours. Whenever you encounter an enemy, you tense up. The battalion worked well, but we got used to taking fire,” its commander said.

When he isn’t on reserve duty, Elichan owns and runs a chain of pizzerias spread around the country. Pizza Story has 60 branches, only three of which closed during the war because they are located in Israel’s South. All three branches have since reopened, he said—even the branch in Sderot that was closed when it was hit by a rocket.

During the war, Pizza Story supplied pizza to soldiers in the field, which was donated both by the chain and by individuals who would drive to the shop, load up 200 pies, and bring them out to troops in the field, the restaurateur said. “I was even in the field and got delivered one of my pizzas,” he quips.

Elichan will return to reserve duty next week after two months at home. “It isn’t easy; we all tried to go back to normal, but it was hard, especially knowing we would be coming back,” he said.

“There is a mission. It is important, and we need to do it. This is our part in the big picture.”

When asked how Pizza Story would fare with him returning to reserves, Elichan didn’t sound worried. “They managed without me for three months with no preparation; they will be OK for a month and a half when they can prepare.”


Eve Young

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-792364

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Shifa Hospital: Head of Hamas' Internal Security Operations Directorate eliminated - Israel National News

 

by Israel National News

The IDF says Faiq Mabhouh was eliminated in an encounter with the troops while armed and hiding in a compound at the Shifa hospital, from which he operated and advanced terrorist activity.

 

Shifa hospital
Shifa Hospital                                                                                          Majdi Fathi/TPS

Following IDF and ISA intelligence indicating the presence of senior Hamas terrorists in the Shifa hospital, IDF and ISA forces conducting precise operational activity in the compound eliminated Faiq Mabhuoch, head of the Operations Directorate of Hamas' Internal Security.

He was also responsible for the coordination of Hamas terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF says Faiq Mabhouh was eliminated in an encounter with the troops while armed and hiding in a compound at the Shifa hospital, from which he operated and advanced terrorist activity.

Numerous weapons were located in the room adjacent to where he was eliminated.

The IDF overnight (Sunday) launched an operation in the Shifa Hospital based on intelligence information indicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists to conduct and promote terrorist activity.

The IDF reported that troops identified terrorist fire toward them from a number of hospital buildings. The forces engaged the terrorists and identified several hits.


Israel National News

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386929

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‘Hezbollah terrorist’ caught at US border wanted ‘to make a bomb’ - JNS

 

by JNS

Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, was nabbed by Border Patrol agents on March 9 near El Paso, Texas.

 

Thousands of migrants seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, Dec. 21, 2022. Credit: Ruben2533/Shutterstock.
Thousands of migrants seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, Dec. 21, 2022. Credit: Ruben2533/Shutterstock.

A Lebanese migrant caught trying to infiltrate into the United States told border authorities he belonged to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization and had planned to commit a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, The New York Post reported on Sunday.

Basel Ebbadi, 22, was nabbed on March 9 near El Paso, Texas. He told authorities he aimed to reach New York and was “going to try to make a bomb,” according to an official document cited by the report.

Ebbadi confessed to training with Hezbollah for seven years and guarding weapons sites for another four years, internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) documents indicated. His mission focused on “jihad” and killing those who are “not Muslim,” said the report.

He was placed in isolation and referred for interrogation by the Tactical Terrorism Response Team (TTRT) for making “terroristic threats to personnel.”

U.S. border agents recorded 172 encounters with terror-watchlisted individuals in the 2023 fiscal year that ended Sept. 20. Fifty-nine such individuals were apprehended in the first four months of 2024, according to federal data cited by the report.

Hezbollah launched a low-intensity conflict against Israel in support of Hamas following the Palestinian terror group’s Oct. 7 invasion and massacre of 1,200 Israelis.


JNS

Source: https://www.jns.org/hezbollah-terrorist-caught-at-us-border-wanted-to-make-a-bomb/

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Trump documents case: a judge wonders - Mike McDaniel

 

by Mike McDaniel

A "novel legal theory" might consist of applying a vicious dog ordinance to someone who owned only a parrot that could bark like a dog.

 

“Novel legal theory,” a term applied in whole or part to every case, criminal and civil, lodged against Donald Trump. That term is best understood as using the law in ways it was never intended to be used, and/or never has been used, most specifically for political purposes. A "novel legal theory" might consist of applying a vicious dog ordinance to someone who owned only a parrot that could bark like a dog.

During my police career, professional officers were careful never to use the law in that way. If there was a law on the books that had never been applied to anyone, they wouldn’t use it either. If there was the slightest hint of political bias in an arrest or prosecution, police supervisors, or failing that, prosecutors, would dump the case. They would do the same for even the appearance of selective prosecution. But that was before Donald Trump and the fierce necessity of saving “our democracy,” a tyranny of the majority. Now it seems at least one judge might be returning to the ethics of those thrilling days of yesteryear. 

https://www.americanthinker.com/images/bucket/2024-03/252841_5_.jpg

Graphic: X Screenshot

The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Florida case questioned during a Thursday hearing why he was the only president who has been charged over his handling of classified material, according to multiple reports.

During a hearing to consider various motions Trump filed to dismiss the case, Judge Aileen Cannon noted no former president had similarly faced criminal charges over the handling of classified material, according to NBC News. Trump’s attorneys brought up special counsel Robert Hur’s report finding evidence President Joe Biden willfully kept classified documents, but declining to charge him, according to CNN.

“Even with other former presidents, there was never a situation remotely similar to this one,” prosecutor Jay Bratt told Cannon, according to CNN.

Bratt is not conceding the issue, but arguing that unlike every former president who kept classified materials, Trump did far, far worse. He obstructed justice and…other stuff.

How did he obstruct justice? The Presidential Records Act, adopted in 1978, allows presidents to declassify and keep anything they chose. It defines no formal process for declassification. Only presidents have this authority, and any arguments under the Act are a civil, not a criminal, matter. Trump’s lawyers were continuously negotiating with the National Archives, and the materials were under constant Secret Service protection in a single place, unlike Joe Biden, who never had authority to have such materials and kept them for 40 years(?!) in as many as seven, unsecured places to which innumerable, unknowable people had access.  Trump even gave the FBI full access, personally told them to let him know if they needed anything else, and added an additional lock when they later asked for one. The DOJ also has a policy never to prosecute a political candidate during an election, but this case is different because Trump. It’s rather hard for the rational person to see how that constitutes obstruction of justice, but Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers see things differently than the sane.

Bratt is right about one thing, however: never in history has the FBI raided a former president’s home, denied his lawyers access to the raid, staged photos to try to convince the public Mr. Trump left classified documents lying about on the floor, surrounded the home with long gun-armed and body-armored agents and rifled through a former First Lady’s dresses and underwear.

Two more recent cases illustrate the “novelty” of the Trump case. Hillary Clinton kept private servers in her home for the express purpose of avoiding federal transparency laws, on which classified documents were kept. She actually obstructed justice at every turn, and at her direction, evidence was destroyed. Former FBI Director James Comey admitted she violated multiple laws, but gave her a pass, something he had no authority to do. Joe Biden, who like Clinton never had authority to keep classified materials, kept them, unsecured, for 40 years. Prosecutor Robert Hur admitted Biden too violated multiple federal laws, but wouldn’t prosecute him because he’s too senile and just so darned loveable no jury would convict him.

Hur is probably right no DC jury would convict him, but because he’s a Democrat, and in DC, Democrats are immune from such trivial things.

Graphic: X Screenshot

The documents case against Trump should never have been filed, and it’s possible Judge Cannon will dismiss it on the grounds that concern her. However, the process is the punishment, and the timing of the prosecutions—no coincidence—is clearly designed to hurt Trump politically, and to help lovable, senile Joe.

That’s novel too.


Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/trump_documents_case_a_judge_wonders.html

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Israel can refuse UNRWA access to Gaza, says ex-agency legal adviser - Etgar Lefkovits

 

by Etgar Lefkovits

“Some donor nations, probably led by the U.S., could defund and in whole or in part end UNRWA,” says James Lindsay.

 

From left, MK Sharren Haskel, former UNRWA legal adviser James G. Lindsay, Mindset-PCS managing director Ophelie Namiech and University of Reading Professor Rosa Freedman at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024. Photo: Courtesy.
From left, MK Sharren Haskel, former UNRWA legal adviser James G. Lindsay, Mindset-PCS managing director Ophelie Namiech and University of Reading Professor Rosa Freedman at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024. Photo: Courtesy.

Israel can prevent UNRWA from operating in the Gaza Strip, and should be using this time of international spotlight on the U.N. aid organization due to its terror ties to plan for its closure, a former legal adviser to the agency said on Sunday.

James G. Lindsay’s unequivocal remarks made at a Knesset session discussing alternatives to UNRWA came as Australia joined Canada, Sweden and the E.U. in lifting funding freezes on the main Palestinian aid agency even before the U.N.’s own investigation of the organization is completed.

“This current time of maximum pressure on UNRWA should be used by both donor nations and host nations to demand reforms of UNRWA and prepare plans for its eventual dissolution,” Lindsay, a former legal adviser and general counsel to UNRWA, told a special session of the bipartisan Knesset Caucus: UNRWA: The Day After.

He said that while the agency “will not disappear overnight,” the chances of seeing that happen are greater now than at any time in the past, and need to be seized upon.

“The window of opportunity is beginning to close, cautioned Knesset member Sharren Haskel. “More and more countries will resume their funding to UNRWA if the Israeli government does not act.”

Haskel has been a leading parliamentary voice in calling for UNRWA’s dissolution and chairs the caucus, which hosted a variety of international aid experts to discuss alternatives to the organization.

“Many countries around the world agree that UNRWA is no good, and we need to show them what the other alternatives are,” she said.

A bombshell Israeli intelligence report, shared with the U.S. administration, showed that dozens of UNRWA employees actively participated in the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, and that the agency has 450 “military operatives” from Hamas and other terrorist groups on its payroll.

The intel prompted 18 nations, led by the United States and Germany, UNRWA’s biggest donors, to suspend contributions to the agency totaling $438 million, or more than half of this year’s expected funding.

However, several countries, voicing concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, have since resumed their donations. The U.S., which provides about 30% of UNRWA’s budget, has frozen its donations, something that may become permanent in the wake of congressional legislation.

The ideas raised at Sunday’s Knesset hearing included working with a variety of other international humanitarian aid organizations on the ground in Gaza, reforming UNRWA and replacing it altogether.

MK Sharren Haskel (second from left) chairs the Knesset Caucus: UNRWA: The Day After hearing in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024. Photo: Courtesy.

UN pushback

Lindsay, who worked at the organization between 2000 and 2007 after serving as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, said that reforms he had proposed a decade and a half ago, including vetting UNRWA’s staff and beneficiaries for terrorists and eliminating antisemitic and anti-Israel materials from its educational curricula, fell on deaf ears.

“Fifteen years later, the reforms I and others have urged on UNRWA are still unwelcome and UNRWA is unfixed,” Lindsay said.

He noted that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who is leading the defense of UNRWA, has reportedly told other U.N. organizations—including the World Food Program and UNESCO—that they should refuse to accept any funding or responsibilities that would come at UNRWA’s expense.

“The secretary-general, apparently fearing UNRWA’s imminent demise, is asking other UN organizations not to help Palestinians in order to force donor nations to fund UNRWA, or let Palestinians suffer,” Lindsay said.

The organization’s former legal adviser cited three ways to shutter UNRWA—a U.N. General Assembly decision, which, he said, was in practice a non-starter; an end to international donations, likely led by the U.S. and several key nations; and for Israel as the host nation to refuse UNRWA access to areas under its jurisdiction.

Lindsay noted that while many countries which froze their aid will likely resume it amid UNRWA assurances of corrective actions, the U.S. position is critical in closing down the agency.

“The possibility exists that some donor nations, probably led by the US, could defund and thus, in whole or in part end UNRWA, particularly if alternative ways to provide aid to needy Palestinians can be found,” he said.

Zlatko Zigic, who served as a senior official at the U.N. Migration Agency from 1997-2017, including as chief of diplomatic mission in Moscow and regional coordinator for Central Asia, told the Knesset members, “Contrary to the position of the U.N. secretary-general, UNRWA is very much replaceable and it is absolutely essential to replace UNRWA.

“We have to do it now because the window of opportunity [to make such a change] is closing,” Zigic said.


Etgar Lefkovits

Source: https://www.jns.org/israel-can-refuse-unrwa-access-to-gaza-says-ex-agency-legal-adviser/

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Trump: ‘No question’ Biden, Schumer telling Israel how to act - Akiva Van Koningsveld

 

by Akiva Van Koningsveld

"If he [Biden] were supportive of Israel, the Iran nuclear deal would have never been signed and Israel would have never been attacked," Trump said.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump prays at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, May 22, 2017. Photo by Mendy Hechtman/Flash90.
U.S. President Donald Trump prays at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, May 22, 2017. Photo by Mendy Hechtman/Flash90.

There’s “100% no question” that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the Biden administration are telling Israel how to run its government, former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday.

“The Democrats are very bad for Israel. Israel sticks with them. I guess Israel’s loyal maybe to a fault because they stick with these guys,” the presumptive Republican nominee told Fox News’s Howard Kurtz.

In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday that Schumer described as a “major address” on a possible two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, the Democrat labeled some of Netanyahu’s senior Cabinet members as “bigots” and “extremists” and called for an early election.

Schumer claimed that he was speaking on behalf of “mainstream Jewish Americans” to represent their views on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He suggested that Washington consider conditioning or cutting off military aid to Jerusalem unless a new government is formed. 

According to Trump, if the Democrats had been good to the Jewish state, Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist massacre of 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, in the northwestern Negev would never have happened. 

“If he [Biden] were supportive of Israel, the Iran nuclear deal would have never been signed and Israel would have never been attacked,” Trump told Fox News, adding: “I’ll bet you I would have had Iran in the Abraham Accords.”

Asked about Schumer’s charge that the “Israeli war campaign” has killed many innocent Palestinians, Trump stated: “Well, they [Israel] lost a lot of people on Oct. 7, too. People have to remember that.”

“He doesn’t forget it—he looks at where do I get more votes. And I guess he’s seeing the Palestinians, and he’s seeing the marches, and they are big. And he says: ‘I want to go that way instead of Israel.’ I don’t know how Israel stays with these people,” Trump said of Schumer.

“He just said essentially that Bibi Netanyahu should take a walk, right?” added the presidential candidate.

The Israeli Prime Minister on Sunday slammed Schumer’s demand for early elections in the Jewish state as “totally inappropriate,” telling CNN that the legislator is opposing the will of the Israeli people.

“The majority of Israelis support the policies of my government. If Senator Schumer opposes these policies, he’s not opposing me—he’s opposing the people of Israel,” Netanyahu told CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

“It’s like after 9/11, you’re in the midst of fighting the war against Al-Qaeda, and an Israeli would say: ‘You know, what we need now is either new elections in the U.S., or if your system doesn’t allow it, then President Bush should resign and we should have an alternative leader. … You don’t do that to a sister democracy, an ally,” the premier charged.

Netanyahu reiterated that Israelis should decide when an election should be held while praising both Biden and Trump for their support.

According to a survey published on March 10, even Israelis who do not trust Netanyahu’s leadership continue to back some of his key war policies, including his opposition to the two-state solution and his insistence that the Israel Defense Forces defeat Hamas in Rafah.

Almost three in four Jewish Israelis believe that U.S. support for Israel has dwindled following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, the poll found.

Some 44% of Israelis want Trump to win November’s election, compared to 30% who would prefer Biden to secure a second term, according to a separate survey published last week by Channel 12.

Earlier this year, in his victory speech after winning the Iowa caucuses by a landslide with 20 delegates, Trump vowed to solve the conflict with Hamas quickly should he be voted back into office.


Akiva Van Koningsveld

Source: https://www.jns.org/trump-no-question-that-schumer-and-biden-are-telling-israel-how-to-run-its-govt/

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Schumer just guaranteed Netanyahu’s re-election - Joseph Frager

 

by Joseph Frager

Prime Minister Netanyahu does better when he is being attacked. Senator Schumer just kicked off Prime Minister Netanyahu’s campaign.

 

There is a basic law in physics that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. I don’t think that Senator Schumer was a standout in physics. His critique of the Prime Minister created a firestorm still going strong. I don’t think he anticipated the degree and level of the reaction.

Israel is in the midst of a war for its very existence. October 7th was not just another day in the life of a country in a bad neighborhood. It was Pearl Harbor and 9/11 in spades. Senator Schumer said in front of 600,000 people on November 14th, 2023, ”Let us not forget history.”He pointed out that Israel was almost destroyed in 1967 and 1973. “We cannot, we must not let that happen again.” “When Hamas says ‘from the river to the sea’, they mean that all of present-day Israel should be a Jew-free land.” “We in America have your back. America feels your pain. We ache with you.”

Five months into the war that Senator Schumer felt was fully justified, he reversed course and decided on March 14th to tell the world that, “I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”

Why a person like Senator Schumer would one day say “We in America have your back” and on another day call for the replacement of the Democratically elected leader of Israel in the middle of a war where soldiers are fighting and risking their lives for the prevention of October 7th ever happening again is beyond the pale. Senator Schumer crossed every red line by not only interfering with a sovereign nation’s legitimate democratic rights but also making the heart sink of every fellow Jew fighting on the frontlines against an evil and cruel enemy. This was not the time to make political statements for political reasons as Israel is in the middle of a war for its very survival.

The criticism of Senator Schumer’s inappropriate and uncalled-for comments came swiftly and spot-on from all corners. Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader said that it was “grotesque and hypocritical” for Americans “who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of the democratically elected leader of Israel.” “The Democratic Party doesn’t have an anti-Bibi problem. It has an anti-Israel problem.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, ”We want to speak very clearly and concisely to say that this is not only highly inappropriate, but it is also just plain wrong for an American leader to play such a divisive role in Israeli politics while our closest ally in the region is in an existential battle for its very survival.” “We have to stand with and support them right now. But what you’re seeing from the White House and clearly the Senate Democrats, is really the opposite.”

Even Benny Gantz said, “Israel is a strong Democracy and only its citizens will determine its leadership and future. Any external intervention in the matter is incorrect and unacceptable.”

The reaction to Senator Schumer’s remarks I am sure must have surprised him. It fired up all of Israel’s supporters worldwide in an unprecedented way just as his remarks were unprecedented. There was certainly an equal and opposite reaction. The laws of physics apply. But the most important reaction will be the Israeli People re-electing their longest-tenured Prime Minister Minister ever. Prime Minister Netanyahu does better when he is being attacked. Senator Schumer just kicked off Prime Minister Netanyahu’s campaign and I think guaranteed him his re-election.

 
Joseph Frager

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386925

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Mendacity and Corruption in the Judiciary - Clarice Feldman

 

by Clarice Feldman

The legal system in the U.S. is seriously losing its way.

 

Something is seriously wrong with American law schools and the disciplinary outfits that are supposed to monitor corrupt conduct of practitioners. You can see the effects of this degradation in the outrageous behavior of government prosecutors and in the judiciary, which ignores its responsibility to decide fairly and without bias. We are churning out dishonest, corrupt lawyers and judges who are more than willing to look the other way at such behavior, condoning the most obvious selective partisan prosecutions. As the awareness of the failure of the judicial system grows, the consequences will be enormous -- respect for the traditional way of resolving disputes and obeying the law are fundamental aspects of a civilized, prosperous nation. Once that is lost, other less tenable means will be employed.

The focus this week was on the absurd case in Georgia, where D.A. Fani Willis is criminalizing Donald Trump’s challenge to the integrity of Georgia’s presidential election in 2020.

In the hearings, we learned of the prosecutor’s illicit affair with someone she then hired for almost three-quarters of a million dollars, a man whom evidence indicated committed perjury in his divorce case. Worse, both Willis and her lover and deputy, Nathan Wade, appeared to commit perjury about when their affair began. (Something the judge elided in a too-facile stroke.) The defense argued that the prosecutors must be removed for conflict of interest. Judge Scott F. McAfee, who is hearing the case, once worked for Willis, and both he and his wife contributed to her campaign for the office of district attorney. On Friday he issued his decision in the case (days after his own previously uncontested reelection bid suddenly was opposed). 

In relevant part he ordered:

An outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist. The testimony introduced, including that of the District Attorney and Wade, did not put these concerns to rest. During argument, the Defendants’ focus largely pivoted from the financial concerns to disproving the testimony of the District Attorney, namely that her romantic relationship actually predated the November 2021 hiring of Wade. On that front, the Court makes a few brief observations. First, the Court finds itself unable to place any stock in the testimony of Terrance Bradley. His inconsistencies, demeanor, and generally non-responsive answers left far too brittle a foundation upon which to build any conclusions. While prior inconsistent statements can be considered as substantive evidence under Georgia law, Bradley’s impeachment by text message did not establish the basis for which he claimed such sweeping knowledge of Wade’s personal affairs. In addition, while the testimony of Robin Yearti raised doubts about the State’s assertions, it ultimately lacked context and detail. Even after considering the proffered cellphone testimony from Defendant Trump, along with the entirety of the other evidence, neither side was able to conclusively establish by a preponderance of the evidence when the relationship evolved into a romantic one. However, an odor of mendacity remains. The Court is not under an obligation to ferret out every instance of potential dishonesty from each witness or defendant ever presented in open.  For that reason, the Court finds it unnecessary to reopen the evidence to consider the testimony of Cindi Yeager or Manny Arora, as proffered by Defendants Shafer and Latham respectively. (Shafer Doc. 106, 3/4/24); (Latham Doc. 83, 3/4/24). p. 17 Page 17 23SC188947 court. Such an expectation would mean an end to the efficient disposition of criminal and civil proceedings. Yet reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it. Ultimately, dismissal of the indictment is not the appropriate remedy to adequately dissipate the financial cloud of impropriety and potential untruthfulness found here. See Olsen v. State, 302 Ga. 288, 294 (2017) (“Dismissal of an indictment is an extreme sanction, used only sparingly as a remedy for unlawful government conduct.”) (quoting State v. Lampl, 296 Ga. 892, 896 (2015)). There has not been a showing that the Defendants’ due process rights have been violated or that the issues involved prejudiced the Defendants in any way. Nor is disqualification of a constitutional officer necessary when a less drastic and sufficiently remedial option is available. The Court therefore concludes that the prosecution of this case cannot proceed until the State selects one of two options. The District Attorney may choose to step aside, along with the whole of her office, and refer the prosecution to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council for reassignment. See O.C.G.A. § 15-18-5. Alternatively, SADA Wade can withdraw, allowing the District Attorney, the Defendants, and the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case. 

Will Chamberlain takes issue with this resolution as do I, because it defies logic:

He found, factually, that the "District Attorney's prosecution is encumbered by an appearance of impropriety" and that it came about as result of "specific conduct, and impacts more than a 'nebulous' public interest because it concerns a public prosecutor." 

He also found that "an odor of mendacity remains" and that "reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA testified untruthfully... further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety."

McAfee also held that an appearance of impropriety can warrant disqualification of individual prosecutors, BUT not the prosecutor's office as a whole, and further held that removing Wade would "cure" the appearance of impropriety.

I just don't think this last legal holding can survive appellate scrutiny. The appearance of impropriety implicates BOTH Willis and Wade. There are reasonable questions about whether Willis testified truthfully and about whether she financially gained from the prosecution. Those questions don't just go away if Wade withdraws.

Further, the cases Judge McAfee cites for the proposition that an appearance of impropriety doesn't require the whole office to be [disqualified] are cases where it was the line prosecutor who had the conflict issues, not the elected district attorney. When it's a line prosecutor, sure, it's easy enough to just replace that specific prosecutor and cure the issue. But when it's the elected DA who has the conflict -- well, every prosecutor in the office reports to the elected DA. There's no way to remove the "odor of mendacity" without removing the entire office.

Professor Jonathan Turley sees in the Georgia case a broader, nationwide problem, ”the odor of selective prosecution.”

Turley discusses a number of cases in support of his view that the selective prosecution of persons and views on the right has become intolerable.

There’s the contrast in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s decision not to prosecute Joe Biden who for four decades “serially violat[ed] laws governing classified documents” including reading from one of them to his “non-cleared ghostwriter” with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Donald Trump for retaining classified documents in a locked room at Mar-a-Lago, a facility under watch by the Secret Service.

Then there’s Letitia James in New York, who ran on a pledge to prosecute Trump for something never named, “Ultimately, James used a law in an unprecedented way to secure an absurd penalty of half a billion dollars, even though no one lost a dime because of the Trump loans.” James is not alone in this nonsense. Another prosecutor, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg:

has also come up with an unprecedented way of using a state law to effectively prosecute Trump for a federal offense that the Justice Department has already rejected.

The same odor has been lingering in the Hunter Biden cases. The Justice Department had reached a ridiculous plea agreement with Hunter Biden that would have allowed for no jail time and a sweeping immunity agreement that would have protected him from all his other alleged crimes. 

As the plea agreement fell apart in court, the prosecutor admitted that he had never seen a defendant given such a deal over his long career. This came after the Justice Department had allowed the statute of limitations to run out on major felonies and scuttled efforts to conduct searches and interviews. Even after that embarrassing hearing, the Justice Department was still trying to preserve the agreement. 

He gives even more examples of the “odor of mendacity” in our courtrooms and offers only one hopeful sign -- a California judge, Cormac J. Carney, issued a rare opinion slamming demonstrable selective prosecution of conservative groups.

With almost every law professor in the country supporting the Left and hiring of new law school faculty controlled by the existing pro-Democrat faculty, with bar disciplinary groups largely drawn from the same tranche of leftists and their sympathizers at the moment, only rare courage by the judiciary can change this. Of course, if you think Trump’s tweets are too bothersome to vote for him, you can be sure this mendacious infestation of justice will only get worse.

 
Clarice Feldman

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/03/mendacity_and_corruption_in_the_judiciary.html

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How tensions between Hamas and Fatah could change Gaza - Seth J. Frantzman

 

by Seth J. Frantzman

The Hamas decision to launch the unprecedented massacre of October 7 was an attempt to launch a first strike that could change the region.

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a news conference following the extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Turkey (photo credit: REUTERS/OSMAN ORSAL)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a news conference following the extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Turkey
(photo credit: REUTERS/OSMAN ORSAL)

Tensions between Hamas and Fatah, the two largest Palestinian factions, have been growing and becoming more visible. While the two groups have been rivals historically, the Oct. 7 attack led to a focus on Gaza, while the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, where Fatah is strongest, appeared sidelined.

Fatah slammed Hamas on Saturday as “those who were responsible for the return of the occupation to the Gaza Strip and [who] caused the Nakba [catastrophe], which our Palestinian people live, have no right to dictate national priorities.” Meanwhile, Hamas has been criticizing the PA’s new prime minister, Mohammad Mustafa, claiming that his appointment lacks consensus. All of this indicates that there is much more going on beneath the surface.

Hamas’s decision to launch the unprecedented Oct. 7 massacre was an attempt to launch a first strike, a match that could light the region on fire and change the current dynamics. It sought to derail talks of Israel-Saudi normalization and set in motion Iranian-backed attacks from Hezbollah and the Houthis, as well as the Iranian operationalization of its proxy groups in Iraq and Syria.

Hamas was in the driver’s seat, with pretensions that it could rise to the level of a regional power. For instance, it was able to get tacit support from Russia and China in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7. Hamas is hosted by Doha, a major non-NATO ally of the West, and is also backed by Turkey, a NATO member. This means that over the last five months, Hamas has appeared to be the center of attention. For the Palestinian Authority, this is a potential disaster.

On the one hand, this could lead to an attempted Hamas takeover of the West Bank; Hamas could leverage a hostage deal to gain influence and try to enact a unity government in the West Bank that would allow it to participate in politics. It could, for instance, move the PA to choose a “technocratic” government and then use that as a back door to move back to the territory. It could also play the long game by waiting out the aging Palestinian Authority leadership before swooping in. This would all turn back the clock to an era before Hamas took over Gaza and ejected Fatah and its Gazan leader, Mohammad Dahlan.

 Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas reads a statement during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not seen) in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 31, 2023. (credit: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/POOL VIA REUTERS)Enlrage image
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas reads a statement during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not seen) in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 31, 2023. (credit: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/POOL VIA REUTERS)

So far, hundreds of Hamas members in the West Bank have been arrested, with around 800 detained within the first month after Oct. 7. All the while, the Palestinian Authority continues to face challenges to its power, having already lost control of parts of Jenin over the last few years.

This is the context of the current tensions between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas wants to continue to control parts of Gaza and then leverage that to increase its role in the West Bank. With support from anti-Western countries abroad, its leadership thinks it has smooth sailing ahead; all it has to do is wait. It also thinks it might be able to lure over some support from those who had been closer to Fatah over the last decades.

A welcome change to Ramallah

The PA has not been able to rally much support from abroad since Oct. 7, but things are changing. The Mustafa appointment could bring a welcome change to Ramallah. Last Tuesday, Mahmoud Abbas hosted Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly in a meeting described as positive. PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki spoke with his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, while Abbas hosted Vieira at his office on Sunday. Brazil has harshly criticized Israel’s war in Gaza since the start. In the realm of foreign affairs, Abbas also spoke with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Saturday.

Hamas-Fatah tensions now provide a potential silver lining for Gaza by creating an opening for Gazans to critique Hamas. Human rights activist Ihab Hassan noted that “since Hamas’s bloody coup in Gaza 17 years ago, Hamas has cultivated a narrative that labels any critics as collaborators or as aligning with Israel. This narrative, heavily promoted by Hamas supporters and influencers since the onset of this war, aims to stigmatize and discredit any dissent against Hamas and its reckless policies and wars.”

This opening to criticism comes as Hamas continues to try to control humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Gunmen in Gaza have fired on people trying to get aid over the past few days, while Hamas has sent plainclothes thugs to harass people in the north. Hamas also murdered a clan leader in Gaza in a mafia-like way to send a message to the clans in Gaza not to work with Israel, a message echoed by the Palestinian Authority to its local clans.

There are many balls in the air at the moment, and it is not clear how it will all play out. For instance, the various countries conducting airdrops to Gaza and backing the airdrops, like Jordan, the UK, the US, Germany, Egypt, and the UAE, all have good relations with the PA; the UAE supports the World Central Kitchen maritime corridor and Spanish charity Open Arms. It is unclear how countries interested in the PA returning to Gaza can make that happen.

A day later, Israel discussed the plan, including the idea of humanitarian pockets or bubbles, but provided few practical details. It is not clear who will control these areas. So far, there has been a lot of chaos in northern Gaza, something Hamas feeds off. In southern Gaza, Hamas continues to cling to a bastion in Rafah while also controlling the central camp area. Overall, it still has around 10,000 men. Israel is talking up an operation in Rafah, but there is also a push for a ceasefire; the Rafah operation likely won’t happen for weeks.

The Fatah-Hamas tensions, therefore, come at a unique time, during a new phase in the Gaza war. It remains to be seen if either side will exploit the tensions and seek to do something in Gaza or the West Bank. For now, the Palestinian Authority and Fatah have a chance to take the initiative after five months of Hamas being in the spotlight. 


Seth J. Frantzman

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-792411

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Schumer’s ‘rabbi’ is an anti-Israel activist - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

Rachel Timoner is a J Street activist affiliated with anti-Israel groups.

 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) delivers a more than 40-minute speech about antisemitism on the U.S. Senate floor on Nov. 29, 2023. Source: C-SPAN.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) delivers a more than 40-minute speech about antisemitism on the U.S. Senate floor on Nov. 29, 2023. Source: C-SPAN.

The media decided to defend Sen. Schumer’s attack on Israel and call to spare Hamas and create a terrorist state by rushing out his “rabbi,” Rachel Timoner, to claim that “he said what most of us think” and “what the overwhelming majority of American Jews are saying to each other.”

The first part of that is probably true.

Rachel Timoner is an activist with such anti-Israel groups as J Street and T’ruah and co-founded the New York Jewish Agenda leftist organization alongside Sharon Kleinbaum, who faced an exodus from her “temple” after saying Kaddish for Hamas terrorists, with a mission of fighting the city’s Orthodox Jews.

The latter isn’t because these anti-Israel extremists don’t represent Jews. They represent only the Jew-hating far left.

Bringing out Timoner, the clergywoman of the leftist congregation Schumer attends, doesn’t help him. It reveals how bad he really is.

Let’s take a look at what Rachel Timoner has been up to.

Timoner took part in a recent anti-Israel “ceasefire” rally while whining that “continued war and Israeli occupation of Gaza will be an unmitigated disaster.”

She signed on to a letter by the T’ruah anti-Israel hate group which claimed that “there is no military solution” and demanded that Biden “ensure that Israel does not invade Rafah” and finish off Hamas.

In the past, Timoner had signed on to a T’ruah/J Street letter defending BDS.

Timoner, the author of op-eds such as “Fellow Dykes: We Must Be Both Pro-Israel And Pro-Palestine,” tries to have it both ways, but she picked her side.

The side of those who murder Jews.

We know what Timoner is. Now what does tell us about what Schumer is?

“Schumer has attended Timoner’s synagogue near his home in Park Slope, Brooklyn for at least a decade. Timoner officiated his daughter’s wedding, blessed his three grandchildren and buried his father.”

This is what Schumer embraced as his guiding spiritual light.

A mere few weeks after the Hamas atrocities, Timoner was already scolding Israel in a sermon, warning that “killing thousands of Palestinian civilians will not bring back the Israeli civilians.”

She repeated the same message in a New York Times op-ed.

T’ruah summed up Timoner’s remarks at one anti-Israel rally as, “American Jews must tell our govt. we oppose this war and want an end to the occupation and a real political solution for Palestinians and Israelis.”

That’s the message Sen. Schumer took to the Senate. It’s not the message of American Jews, but of their leftist and Islamist enemies.

 
Daniel Greenfield

Source: https://www.jns.org/schumers-rabbi-is-an-anti-israel-activist/

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