Hamas official storms out of BBC interview when asked about Israeli civilians killed - Gianluca Pacchiani

 

​ by Gianluca Pacchiani

In conversation with UK broadcaster, Ghazi Hamad unwilling to explain why Israeli families were killed in their sleep, repeats lie that commanders instructed to only target IDF

Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas's political bureau, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

 

A senior Hamas official stormed out of a BBC interview on Thursday after he was asked how he justified killing Israeli civilians in their sleep.

Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, was interviewed by BBC’s Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega about the brutal killings of over 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians, during the terror group’s October 7 onslaught.

Faced with harsh international condemnation as evidence gradually emerged of the barbarity with which they ordered the massacre of innocent people, Hamas leaders have repeatedly denied targeting civilians, claiming the group’s “policy” was to exclusively attack IDF forces around Gaza.

In his sit-down with the BBC correspondent, Hamad reiterated the terror group’s false mantra, claiming that the civilian deaths were the result of “confrontations” and not planned in advance.

“There was no command to kill any civilians,” Hamad said. “The area there is very wide, there are many people there, and there were clashes and confrontations.”

“It’s not confrontation, you invaded houses,” Bachega responded.

 

Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A senior Hamas official stormed out of a BBC interview on Thursday after he was asked how he justified killing Israeli civilians in their sleep.

Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, was interviewed by BBC’s Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega about the brutal killings of over 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians, during the terror group’s October 7 onslaught.

Faced with harsh international condemnation as evidence gradually emerged of the barbarity with which they ordered the massacre of innocent people, Hamas leaders have repeatedly denied targeting civilians, claiming the group’s “policy” was to exclusively attack IDF forces around Gaza.

In his sit-down with the BBC correspondent, Hamad reiterated the terror group’s false mantra, claiming that the civilian deaths were the result of “confrontations” and not planned in advance.

“There was no command to kill any civilians,” Hamad said. “The area there is very wide, there are many people there, and there were clashes and confrontations.”

“It’s not confrontation, you invaded houses,” Bachega responded.

“I can tell you we did not have any intention or decision to kill civilians,” Hamad insisted.

“How do you justify killing people as they sleep, families?” the BBC journalist asked.

Faced with that question, Hamad pulled off the microphone attached to his jacket, threw it to the side, and said: “I want to stop this interview.”

Overwhelming evidence has emerged that the terror group, in preparation for the assault, instructed its members to murder Israeli civilians and take captives.

The Israeli government on Monday screened for 200 members of the foreign press some 43 minutes of harrowing scenes of murder, torture and decapitation from Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, including raw videos from the terrorists’ bodycams.

The government said it had decided to show journalists part of its collected documentation in order to dispel what a spokesperson characterized as “a Holocaust-denial-like phenomenon happening in real-time.”

The footage was collected from call recordings, security cameras, Hamas terrorists’ body cameras, victim dashboard cameras, Hamas and victims’ social media accounts, and cellphone videos taken by terrorists, victims and first responders.

The materials included a recording of a Hamas terrorist who took part in the slaughter bragging to his parents of slaughtering Jews. In the call, the man can be heard excitedly telling his parents that he is in Mefalsim, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, and that he alone killed 10 Jews. “Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!” he says, according to an English translation.

“Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!”

Listen to a phone call of a Hamas terrorist calling home, bragging about how many people he massacred.

The whole world needs to hear this. pic.twitter.com/Xv0ykyxvrF

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 24, 2023

A partially coded document found in a vehicle used by Hamas terrorists included instructions to burn homes, cars and fields, and contained a code term for “slaughter all captives,” according to the Kan broadcaster.

Apprehended Hamas members have revealed in interrogations they were ordered to carry out atrocities against Israeli civilians. In one video released by the Israel Defense Forces, a terrorist said that gunmen were given instructions to kill everyone they saw, including beheading victims and cutting off their legs.

View of the destruction caused by Hamas terrorist in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, October 15, 2023 (Edi Israel/Flash90)

Hamas, together with other terror groups, led the October 7 assault which saw some 2,500 terrorists break across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,400 people and seizing at least 233 hostages of all ages, under the cover of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.

Israel says it now intends to destroy the Iran-backed terror group’s infrastructure inside Gaza and has vowed to dismantle the organization while minimizing harm to Gaza’s civilians. The IDF has been calling on Palestinians to evacuate from northern Gaza southward, as it intensifies strikes in the Gaza City area.

 

If you watch one thing today it should be this.

“What’s harsh is the way Hamas is using people as human shields. What’s harsh is taking a couple of hundred hostages + leaving families and anxious, waiting and worrying to figure out where their loved ones are,” NSC’s John Kirby. pic.twitter.com/kwOz9n618L

— Shelley Greenspan (@ShelleyGspan) October 26, 2023

 

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the strikes have killed over 7,000 people, many of them children. The figures issued by the terror group cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include its own terrorists and gunmen killed in Israel and in Gaza, and the victims of what Israel says are hundreds of errant Palestinian rockets that have landed in the Strip since the war began.

Israel says it killed 1,500 Hamas terrorists inside Israel on and after October 7.

 

Gianluca Pacchiani

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-official-storms-out-of-bbc-interview-when-asked-about-israeli-civilians-killed/

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Five lies US young adults tell themselves about Israel - comment - Maayan Jaffe Hoffman

 

​ by Maayan Jaffe Hoffman

Here are five misconceptions held by some American young adults that a survey revealed and the necessary information to set the record straight.

 

Do people alter facts at will to align with their agenda or perspective?

This phenomenon appears more prevalent than expected, as evidenced by the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.

This poll, which asked about American voters’ perceptions of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, indicated that the majority (84%) of Americans supported Israel’s struggle against Hamas. However, a closer look at the poll data, particularly when broken down by age, shows a significant and striking lack of factual understanding among young adults aged 18 to 24 in the United States.

Here are five misconceptions held by these young adults that the survey revealed and the necessary information to set the record straight.

Five misconceptions young Americans believe about Israel, and the real facts behind them

No. 1: One-third (32%) of young adults 18-24 do not believe Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israeli civilians by shooting, stabbing, and beheading people.

Israeli security forces at the scene where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a home and a car in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, October 17, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Fact: Hamas launched an incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023, with the explicit intention of causing maximum harm to Israeli civilians through brutal and barbaric means. This week, the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces shared unfiltered audio and video footage captured from body cameras and phones of Hamas terrorists as they carried out ruthless attacks on communities along Israel’s border with Gaza. Reporters who viewed these clips described the contents as containing highly graphic images, including the murder of children, burning of bodies, deliberate targeting of civilians, and various other horrifying atrocities.

In an interview with CBC News shortly after witnessing these materials, Atlantic reporter Graeme Wood conveyed that Hamas’s actions demonstrated a disturbing, sadistic nature. He said the footage showed scenes of blood-covered children who had been blinded and orphaned. In one harrowing moment, a Hamas terrorist called his family, expressing his enthusiasm as he claimed, “Put on Mom. I am a hero. I killed 10 Jews.”

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In addition, the Prime Minister’s Office released verified images on October 12, showing the shocking and disturbing evidence of burnt and beheaded infants. Furthermore, first responders from ZAKA, who were tasked with recovering murdered individuals from the affected towns in southern Israel, have provided testimonies about the horrors they encountered.

During a media tour of Kibbutz Be’eri this week, Yossi Landau, head of operations for ZAKA in southern Israel, recounted an experience of entering one of the homes two days after the massacre, where they found a lifeless woman lying face down. When they attempted to move her for proper handling, they made the gruesome discovery that she had been pregnant. A terrorist had mercilessly sliced open her belly, removed and murdered the baby, and then shot the woman to death.

The consistency of these testimonies and the shocking photographic evidence leave no room for doubt. Israel could not make this stuff up if it tried.

No. 2: Nearly half (45%) of 18-24-year-olds think an Israeli airstrike caused the explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

Fact: The United States, Canada, and France, among others, have said they independently confirmed that the explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was caused by a Palestinian rocket malfunctioning in mid-flight, with no involvement of any Israeli weaponry.

Moreover, in a recent report, CNN presented the results of a forensic analysis of publicly available imagery and footage it conducted on its own, which “strongly indicates” that a rocket originating from Gaza disintegrated in mid-air. This analysis points to a fragment of the rocket landing within the hospital complex as the cause of the explosion, the report said.

No. 3: More than half (53%) of young voters say Israel, not Hamas, rules Gaza.

Fact: Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 as part of a plan led by former prime minister Ariel Sharon, known as the “Disengagement.”

Starting on August 15, more than 9,000 Israeli citizens living in 25 towns in the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, known as Gush Katif, were evacuated. Within five weeks, all IDF installations and forces were withdrawn from the area.

Two years later, in June 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority. Since then, Israel has faced a continuous threat from tens of thousands of rockets launched at innocent civilians, and Gazan civilians have lived under Hamas rule.

No. 4: More than one-third (36%) do not believe Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization in the United States.

Fact: The United States designated Hamas a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 8, 1997. Dozens of other countries have also designated Hamas a terrorist organization, though some apply this label only to its military wing.

No. 5: Nearly half (44%) of 18- 24-year-olds say Israel is the Palestinian homeland, not the Jewish homeland.

Fact: The connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel dates back to biblical times, with Genesis citing God’s promise of the land to the patriarch Abraham. Throughout history, Jews have maintained a deep spiritual and historical tie to this land, even though they have faced periods of exile.

Prophets in the Hebrew bible foretold a day when God would gather His people back to the Land of Israel, and this vision has been a central theme in Jewish tradition for centuries. Every year during Passover, Jews express their desire by saying “Next year in Jerusalem” as a reminder of their longing for this homeland.

Beyond the biblical narrative, the international community acknowledged the Jewish people’s political claim to the land, leading to the establishment of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948. Shortly after that, Israel gained admission to the United Nations as a sovereign state.

It’s important to note that Israel’s control over other territories today beyond what it received in 1948 was acquired due to defensive wars in response to external threats.

WHAT WERE some of the other significant and unbelievable Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll findings?

Nearly half (48%) of young people say they side with Hamas rather than Israel in this conflict.

Around the same percentage (51%) say the grievance of the Palestinians can justify the massacre.

Almost half (48%) strongly disapprove of US President Joe Biden’s pro-Israel policy.

And, perhaps more striking, more than one-third (38%) don’t think Israel has a right to defend its citizens against rocket attacks.

While everyone is entitled to his or her own beliefs, facts must remain consistent. Furthermore, suppose these young individuals continue to hold these beliefs. In that case, it raises the possibility of a substantial shift in America’s support for Israel as they mature into the older generation, potentially placing Israel in a precarious position. 

The writer is deputy CEO – strategy and innovation for The Jerusalem Post and a senior correspondent. She also co-hosts the Inside Israeli Innovation podcast.

Maayan Jaffe Hoffman

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-770355

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Israel strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah rocket barrage - Seth J. Frantzman

 

​ by Seth J. Frantzman

Rocket attacks from Lebanon continue to ramp up as Israel hits back at Hezbollah.

 

Israeli reserve soldiers seen during a military training in the Golan Heights, northern Israel, on October 27, 2023

(photo credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

Israel struck terror targets in Lebanon amid a rocket barrage from Lebanon that sounded rocket alarms in northern Israeli communities including Margoliot, Misgav Am, and the Bedouin town of Arab el-Aramshe on Saturday.

The widespread attacks in the north come after several days of relative quiet. In the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas, Hezbollah increased its attacks on northern Israel. More than 40 communities and the city of Kiryat Shmona have been evacuated amid the rising tensions. 

On Friday Hezbollah terrorists attempted to launch rockets toward Israeli territory, the IDF said. “The rockets fell in Syria. Overnight in response, an IDF fighter jet struck Hezbollah's military infrastructure in Lebanon.”

In general, Israel responds proportionately to each attack in the north. Estimates in various foreign media and social media sources say that more than 40 Hezbollah members have been killed in counterstrikes over the last three weeks.  

IDF intercepts surface-to-air missile

On Saturday the IDF thwarted a surface-to-air missiles fired from Lebanon at an Israeli UAV. Then a terrorist cell fired anti-tank missiles toward Hanita. Hanita is a community in the hills facing Lebanon on the northern border. It is not far from the Mediterranean and Shlomi and other communities near Nahariya. An IDF drone responded to the attack.

IDF Artillery Corps near the border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, July 6, 2023 (credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

Later in the day, there were anti-tank missiles and mortars launched from Lebanon. Then there were more attacks near Zarit on the border.

Towards the evening sirens sounded in Shtula, which is also located on the high hills that overlook Lebanon. There have been a lot of attacks on Shtula since October 7, including one anti-tank missile that hit a vehicle, killing one person and injuring others during the first week of the war.  

Israel carried out retaliation using tanks, artillery, and aircraft.  

Nevertheless, Hezbollah does not appear deterred. On Friday evening, amid reports that Israel was increasing attacks on Gaza, Hezbollah also threatened border communities such as Avivim and Misgav Am. There were also rockets launched from Lebanon that overflew Israel and landed in Syria.  

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Seth J. Frantzman

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-770588

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When it came to Biden family criminal probes, DOJ’s policy often was 'just say no' - Steven Richards

 

​ by Steven Richards

"Slow-Walking" and outright blocking: New documents from Congress shed light on further obstructions by the DOJ and FBI in the Biden investigations.

 

A newly released letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and fresh testimony from former U.S. Attorney Scott Brady provide the latest evidence that the Justice Department and the FBI slow-walked, and sometimes thwarted, investigations into Hunter Biden's business dealings and turned a blind eye to a trusted informant's allegations that President Joe Biden may have been involved in a $10 million Ukrainian bribery scheme.

The body of evidence from prior FBI and IRS whistleblowers and the new revelations this week from Brady and Grassley suggest the FBI and Delaware U.S. Attorney's office went beyond a mere lack of curiosity. The evidence points to hindering investigative steps, pressuring investigators to cooperate with obfuscation and in one instance, using an intelligence assessment report to try and discredit voluminous and credible evidence against the Biden family that may have come from as many as 40 different informants.

The emerging portrait of law enforcement refusing to explore allegations against the Bidens is disturbing, according to one of the FBI retired high ranking officials.

"There's concern among people who've been involved in these investigations, people trying to do the right thing, people on line investigations, in line AUSAs trying to push this investigation along but being met with resistance," Retired FBI Assistant Director of Intelligence Kevin Brock told the "Just the News, No Noise" television show Thursday night.

"Why is that? I hate to say it, but I'm wondering whether we can come to the conclusion right now that this Department of Justice is just not going to pursue the Bidens, it's not going to happen," Brock added.

Here are some of the revelations that have raised the most concern:

FBI Supervisory Analyst Brian Auten Sought to Discredit Hunter Biden Information

In his letter, which was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday, Sen. Grassley renewed requests for evidence he made in July 2022 about efforts inside the FBI to discredit Hunter Biden information deemed "negative." The key figure in this effort, according to Grassley, was FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten.

“On July 25, 2022, I wrote to the both of you. In that letter, I described whistleblower allegations that the FBI developed information in 2020 about Hunter Biden's criminal financial and related activity but ultimately shut it down based on false assertions that it was subject to foreign disinformation,” Grassley wrote. “It's been alleged that the basis for shutting the investigative activity down was an August 2020 assessment created by FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten,” he continued.

Grassley alleges that the conclusions born of Auten’s 2020 assessment were used by “an FBI HQ team” to discredit negative information on Hunter Biden and label it as disinformation. This ultimately led to the end of investigative activity into the younger Biden, according to the letter. The basis for how the FBI team selected the information to include in Auten’s assessment is not publicly known.

grassley_to_justice_deptfbi1023followup.pdf

Auten has a long history of being in the middle of the FBI’s most controversial recent actions, including the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into President Donald Trump where he played a seminal role in vetting the since-discredited Steele Dossier provided to the FBI on then-candidate Trump. The FBI did not immediately respond to email or voicemail requests for comment from Just the News.

In October 2020, Auten confirmed in testimony to Congress that “the actual allegations and the actions described in those reports [the Steele Dossier] could not be corroborated.” He told the investigators that the only information contained in the dossier he or his team could confirm was publicly available information, such as names and positions of subjects mentioned in the report.

Despite being unable to verify any of the substantive allegations in the dossier, Auten failed to inform the FISA court, to which the allegations were submitted, according to contemporaneous reporting by the Federalist. Despite an admitted lack of probity, the dossier was used as the basis for all four of the warrant applications to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe admitted in testimony that the dossier was instrumental in obtaining the warrants.

Foreign Influence Task Force Calls Hunter Biden Investigation Evidence "Disinformation"

Auten’s unsupported assessment was nonetheless used by the Foreign Influence Task Force to seek any confidential human source reports on the Biden family and then used to discredit those reports as foreign "disinformation."

Sen. Grassley alleges that the Foreign Influence Task Force also “improperly” briefed him and Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on the investigation, giving media the room to label their investigation into the Biden’s as impacted by disinformation, according to Grassley’s letter. By September of 2020, the Foreign Influence Task Force was using Auten’s information to attempt to shut down reporting of the Biden family FD-1023 document, labeling it as disinformation.

In reality, the federal prosecutor who was in charge of the probe into the Biden family’s dealings in Ukraine in Ukraine told Congress that his office had corroborated enough of the FBI’s informants claims of the alleged bribery scheme involving Joe Biden to merit further investigation.

Former Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney Scott Brady told the House Judiciary Committee that there was enough credible information uncovered by his office in their initial review to refer criminal matters to U.S. Attorney’s offices in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Delaware. Brady also testified that his working relationship with the FBI was “challenging” and that officials were reluctant to to look into any matter related to Hunter Biden at all.

FBI Officials Delay and then Downplay the FD-1023 Biden Family Bribery Document

These were not the only instances of FBI and DOJ officials working to limit, delay, or close down any investigations of Hunter Biden.

In March 2017, before Auten’s assessment, the FBI and DOJ came into possession of an FD-1023 document relating to the kleptocracy investigation of Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma. An FD-1023 is a document generated by the FBI “to record unverified reporting from a confidential human source.”

That form included a reference to Hunter Biden that the source’s handling agent did not believe was relevant to the ongoing case against the Burisma owner at the time it was created, according to Grassley’s letter. When the FBI and DOJ obtained the document later, they requested that the the source’s handler re-interview the source. Grassley asserts that these agents had “to fight for a month” for the handler to reinterview his confidential human source (CHS).

Once the interview was finally granted after the delays, the new FD-1023 form was produced that addressed the alleged criminal scheme between then-Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden, and Zlochevsky. This document was handled by the assessment by the Pittsburgh DOJ office regarding the Biden matter, assigned to that office by the Trump Department of Justice. This FD-1023 was the document that was obtained by congressional investigators and released by Grassley.

You can read that FD-1023 below:

fd_1023_obtained_by_senator_grassley_-_biden.pdf

Grassley also noted that the FD-1023 was obtained separately from the information provided to the Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney’s Office by Rudy Giuliani. Democrats have downplayed the information contained in the FD-1023 by linking it to evidence that Rudy Giuliani submitted to the office, which Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., claimed was not corroborated by investigators.

After the assessment from Pittsburg was closed down in late September 2020, U.S. Attorney Brady forwarded a summary of his investigation’s findings to a deputy attorney general. According to Sen. Grassley’s letter, Brady’s assessment was limited in its ability to verify all information in the FD-1023 because his office was not authorized to use a grand jury.

“According to information provided to my office, the officials involved in the assessment had limited ability to verify all information in the Biden family FD-1023 because the Justice Department did not authorize them to use a grand jury and, therefore, they didn’t have all the tools at their disposal to run the information to ground, including subpoenas to obtain documents and interviews,” Grassley wrote. Despite this, the report included the recommendation for continued investigations into the Biden matter.

These reports were eventually transmitted to U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ office in Delaware, though, so far, Weiss has not charged Hunter Biden or anyone in the Biden family related to the alleged bribery scheme.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler alleged that there has been political interference in the Hunter Biden investigation by U.S. Attorney Weiss’ office and from the Justice Department. Specifically, Weiss’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf was one of the lead officials obstructing the investigation into Hunter Biden. In one instance, she prevented the investigative team from mentioning Joe Biden in a search warrant.

In another instance, Wolf’s team tipped off Hunter Biden’s lawyers about a search warrant on his storage unit, potentially compromising the search. Wolf also told investigators not to pursue potential foreign accounts of Hunter Biden and insisted that any investigators’ interviews required pre-approval from the DOJ Tax Division.

 
Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/when-it-came-joe-biden-dojs-policy-was-just-say-no

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Look, Mom, I Killed Some Jews! - Robert Spencer

 

​ by Robert Spencer

The Hamas culture of death is foreign and repulsive to Westerners, but it’s all too pervasive.

 

[Make sure to read Robert Spencer’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]

One result of the gruesome October 7 jihad attacks in Israel is that the general public is seeing the naked bloodlust of Islamic jihadists, which the establishment media and Leftist authorities have done all they could to conceal for years.

The UK Express reported Monday that among the footage that Israel recently released of the Hamas jihad massacres of October 7, there is an audio file of “a Hamas terrorist ringing his mother with one of his victim’s phones, saying: ‘I killed 10 Jews with my own hands. I’m using the dead Jewish woman’s phone to call you now.’” The proud mother responds: “May Allah protect you.”

The mind boggles. What could possibly account for this mindset? What’s more, how could anyone possibly think that these gleeful murderers, taking joy in the deaths of those whom they hate, could have the moral high ground? Yet it is clear now that all too many people in the West assume that they do. Few understand how deep this love of death really goes.

Back in April 2020, a Syrian opposition journalist, Khatib Badla, explained that Muslim Arabs “have a trait that distinguishes us from all the other peoples of the world, which is a love of death. We dream of it, regard it as a source of inspiration and think about it every day. We love death and love the dead. Instead of hoping for longevity, for [a life of] giving and loving, we say, with defeatism… ‘God, [help me] go to battle and reach my grave. This is in addition to the grand slogans we [like to chant], such as: ‘death to America,’ ‘better death than humiliation’ and ‘seek death and you shall be given  life [in the next world].’”

Badla was right, and the attitudes and assumptions that he so ably described are quite pervasive among Islamic jihadis. They generally tend to idolize murder and love death, as they frequently affirm. As police were closing in on him, Boston Marathon jihad murderer Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote on the wall of the pleasure boat in which he was hiding: “You are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven.”

Tsarnaev wasn’t remotely singular in this. Muslim teenage girls from Austria who traveled to Syria for jihad announced: “Death is our goal.” Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said: “I’m even longing for death, you vagabond.” In 2021, as his enemies closed in on him, Shekau treated himself to the object of his longing.

In 2012, a Muslim child preacher taunted those he has been taught to hate most: “Oh Zionists, we love death for the sake of Allah, just as much as you love life for the sake of Satan.” In France that same year, jihad mass murderer Mohamed Merah, who murdered little children inside a Jewish school, said that he “loved death more than they loved life.”

Al-Qaeda top dog Ayman al-Zawahiri’s wife once advised Muslim women: “I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instil in them a love for religion and death.”

And as one jihadist summed it up, “We love death. You love your life!”  Afghan jihadist Maulana Inyadullah years ago said the same, while demonstrating a gift for a memorable phrase: “The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death.” More probably prefer Coca-Cola, but we get the idea.

This idea is not actually the strange opinion of a gang of “extremists.” It comes from the Qur’an itself: “Say, O you who are Jews, if you claim that you are favored of Allah apart from mankind, then long for death if you are truthful.” (62:6)

This is one reason why the forces of Hamas and its allies can never win in the long run: loving death is not natural. Loving life is. The young man who happily called home to boast to his mother about having murdered Jews has as his unwitting opponents the multitudes of people, Jews and non-Jews, in the West who are thrilled when they can save a life, not destroy one. When the lovers of life face off against the lovers of death, they have multitudes of silent allies: every living being stands as a rebuke to those whose only love is carnage and destruction, simply by virtue of having life.

Life is, as we have always been told, a gift. As the world looks on in horror at those who rejoice in destroying it, we are reminded in the most vivid possible way of how precious it is. And now the time has come to defend that principle, or face even greater horrors than what we saw on October 7.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 26 books including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad. His latest books are The Critical Qur’an and The Sumter Gambit. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/look-mom-i-killed-some-jews/

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Stronger Action Needed Against Iran - Majid Rafizadeh

 

​ by Majid Rafizadeh

The Biden administration, it appears, has been funding both sides of two wars: Hamas's invasion of Israel, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 

• Removing even just one oil refinery might also "send a message" and persuade Iran's ruling mullahs to rethink their plans.

• The Biden administration, it appears, has been funding both sides of two wars: Hamas's invasion of Israel, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

• When the Iranian regime says, "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," they mean it. The US, by trying to bribe Iran not to carry out at least the American part of that threat, has, in reality, been financing Iran's ability to do exactly that. Instead of confronting the avowed murderers of Americans, the US is bankrolling them.

• The US needs to resume, even step up, enforcing sanctions to cut off the flow of funds to the Iranian regime. If not, the next war, when Iran has nuclear weapons, will make this one look like one of those five-star hotels in Qatar.

When the Iranian regime says, "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," they mean it. But the US been financing Iran's ability to do exactly that. Instead of confronting the avowed murderers of Americans, the US is bankrolling them. (Image source: MEMRI)

With the Biden administration's deference towards the ruling mullahs of Iran, its regime — called the world's "top state sponsor of terrorism" — is so far still the winner of Hamas's barbaric massacre on October 7. The invaders from Gaza killed at least 1,400 people in Israel, including at least 31 Americans, wounded 4, 500 people, and abducted more than 222 people who were taken back to Gaza as hostages. Thirteen US citizens are still unaccounted for.

Iran has targeted US forces in Syria and Iraq 83 times since January 2021, when President Joe Biden took office.

When the US finally launched retaliatory strikes on Syria on October 26, Iran itself was carefully avoided.

One can only hope that a strong enough message was sent to the Iranian regime and its proxies -- Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, the Houthis in Yemen -- many of whose leaders are tucked safely away in five-star hotels in Qatar.

It is shameful that the Biden administration continues to deny that Iran had any role in Hamas's attempted genocide, while the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have themselves confessed that their paymaster, Iran's regime, helped plan the attack.

The Washington Post reported that, according to U.S. intelligence sources, Iran "provided military training and logistical help as well as tens of millions of dollars for weapons". '

The Wall Street Journal cited "senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah," admitting that that Iranian government leaders helped plan the brutal and barbaric assault.

Iran provides roughly $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and $700 million a year to Hezbollah. As US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) correctly said:

"The idea that Iran read about this operation in the paper, or on television is laughable. 93% of Hezbollah and Hamas' money comes from Iran. They're the source of the problem. They're the great evil. So, if Hezbollah escalates against Israel, it will be because Iran told them to. Then Iran, you're in the crosshairs of the United States and Israel."

Graham also told CNN host Abby Phillip:

"If there's an escalation, Abby, if there's people's throats being cut on television as Israel goes into Gaza, they're threatening to kill the hostages, if Hezbollah is unleashed on Israel in the north, it will be because Iran is supporting that. If you don't get the connection between Iran and this terrorist activity by Hamas and Hezbollah, you're missing a lot".

As Tehran's major revenues come from exporting oil, US Senator Lindsay Graham has suggested targeting Iran's oil refineries. "What I would do," he told CNN host Abby Phillip, "is I would bomb Iran's oil infrastructure. The money financing terrorism comes from Iran. It's time for this terrorist state to pay a price for financing and supporting all this chaos."

Removing even just one oil refinery might also "send a message" and persuade Iran's ruling mullahs to rethink their plans. The US should also enforce sanctions against Iran instead of looking the other way.

The Iranian regime, according to reports, possesses the world's second-largest natural gas reserves and the fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves. The sale of oil accounts for nearly 60% of the Iranian government's total revenues and more than 80% of its export revenues.

The Trump administration, when it killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, had warned Iran that 52 additional targets had been selected if Iran were to avenge Soleimani's death -- and that was the end of Iran acting up.

The Biden administration also needs to cut the flow of funds to the Iranian regime by enforcing sanctions instead of showering the regime with billions of dollars. Presumably intended as bribes in exchange for not starting wars, those billions are immediately used to finance terrorism and start wars. US taxpayers therefore have been paying for the murder of at least 31 Americans at the hands of Hamas on October 7; the abduction of "20 or more Americans" who are missing and held hostage; the bounties on the heads of former US officials, and the finishing touches the ruling mullahs are putting on their nuclear weapons program. The Biden administration, it appears, has been funding both sides of two wars: Hamas's invasion of Israel, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Worse, when the Iranian regime says, "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," they mean it. The US, by trying to bribe Iran not to carry out at least the American part of that threat, has, in reality, been financing Iran's ability to do exactly that. Instead of confronting the avowed murderers of Americans, the US is bankrolling them.

When the Trump administration strongly sanctioned Iran and adopted a policy of "maximum pressure," the sanctions did, in fact, impose significant pressure on Iran, and the country's rulers had to cut funding to their allies, militias and terror groups.

The enforcement of sanctions, for instance, caused Iran to cut funds to its proxies in Syria. They were not getting their salaries and benefits, a loss that made it extremely difficult for them to continue fighting and destabilize the region. A member with an Iranian-backed militia in Syria told the New York Times in March 2019 that "The golden days are gone and will never return... Iran doesn't have enough money to give us."

In 2019, feeling the pressure of sanctions on Iran, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran's Lebanese terror proxy, Hezbollah, called on his group's fundraising arm "to provide the opportunity for jihad with money and also to help with this ongoing battle".

Hamas was forced to introduce "austerity plans". Then Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated that the Islamic Republic was encountering the worst economic crisis since its establishment in 1979.

The Biden administration urgently needs to abandon its policy of appeasing Iran and adopting a policy of massive deterrence.

The US needs to resume, even step up, enforcing sanctions to cut off the flow of funds to the Iranian regime. If not, the next war, when Iran has nuclear weapons, will make this one look like one of those five-star hotels in Qatar.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on X (formerly Twitter)
  

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20102/stronger-action-needed-against-iran

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Europe Facing Civil War? - Drieu Godefridi

 

​ by Drieu Godefridi

Finally, Europeans will have to do the unthinkable: actually apply their laws. If anyone -- Muslim or non-Muslim -- wants to celebrate the jihadist pogroms against Jews, well, they can go and rejoice in Iran or Qatar. Not in Europe.

 

• Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained in an interview recently that Europe had made a serious mistake by creating within itself, through mass immigration, populations that reject all its norms, values and a "constitutional basis".

• Finally, Europeans will have to do the unthinkable: actually apply their laws. If anyone -- Muslim or non-Muslim -- wants to celebrate the jihadist pogroms against Jews, well, they can go and rejoice in Iran or Qatar. Not in Europe.

• Every "Death to the Jews" or "Death to Israel" uttered in Europe... is an insult not only to Jews, but to us, what we are, our laws, our democracies and the will of the people.

Europeans will have to do the unthinkable: actually apply their laws. If anyone -- Muslim or non-Muslim -- wants to celebrate the jihadist pogroms against Jews, well, they can go and rejoice in Iran or Qatar. Not in Europe. Pictured: Anti-Israel protesters in Brussels, Belgium on October 15, 2023. (Photo by Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)

In Vienna, London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and dozens of other European cities, demonstrations "in support of Palestine" were organised even before the Israelis responded the jihadist pogrom perpetrated by Iran-backed Hamas on October 7, while the corpses of more than 1,400 Israeli victims -- tortured, raped, murdered and mutilated, babies decapitated or burned alive -- were still warm. According to a JNS report:

"[T]he IDF on Monday [Oct 23] published two segments from the interrogation of Hamas terrorists who participated in the massacre..

"'The purpose of entering Israeli territory... was to kidnap civilians; they want as many hostages as possible,' one of the terrorists revealed. He added, 'They [Hamas] promised us that whoever brings a kidnapped person will receive an apartment and $10,000.'"

All the same, each and every one of these demonstrations in Europe was the scene of hate-filled slogans against Israel and Jews.

In Brussels, those slogans were shouted, and the atmosphere of violence and blood-lust was everywhere. Around me, surrounded by about 2,000 hate-filled demonstrators, a group of a dozen young Arabs were shouting "Death to the Jews" and "Death to Israel", all the while exchanging knowing smiles and a few jokes. One of them ordered me to stop filming. I did.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained in an interview recently that Europe had made a serious mistake by creating within itself, through mass immigration, populations that reject all its norms, values and a "constitutional basis". He deplored the fact that in 2023 in Berlin, almost 80 years after the Holocaust, people, with complete impunity, are shouting "Death to the Jews" in the streets.

In the hours following the revelation of the butchery committed by Hamas, a wave of racist violence and attacks began in Europe, especially in France. Against Arabs or Muslims? Not at all. Against Jews, of course. In Europe, Jews are still the victims of hatred and violence. Apparently it is a way for our local pro-Hamas Europeans to celebrate the jihad pogrom of October 7.

Even though the media have been warning us for 30 years about the risk of violence against Muslims, in deeds and figures, our Jewish fellow citizens are infinitely more victims of violence and abuse than are Muslims living in Europe. Already in 2015, Jeffrey Goldberg warned in The Atlantic: "In 2014, Jews in Europe were murdered, raped, beaten, stalked, chased harassed, spat on and chased for being Jewish."

I feel a certain fatigue towards those who hold Israelis and Arabs equally responsible. Not just the European Left, which often no longer takes the trouble to hide its anti-Semitism. No, also those on the right who, out of cowardice or ignorance, tell us that Israel had it coming.

Let us look at a few facts: In 2005, seeing that the peace process had reached an impasse, Israel forcibly expelled 8,500 Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip and bulldozed all their homes and communities. From that day on, there was not a single Israeli foot on Gaza soil and Gaza was "free." Now, with not one Jew there, the Arabs of Gazan finally had total control of this beautiful land on the Mediterranean coast and could build the "Singapore of the Middle East". A group of Americans even donated $14 million to buy 3,000 greenhouses from the expelled Jews and donated them to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to ensure that the Gazans could start with businesses there. Within days, they all had been looted and destroyed.

In 2006, elections were held in Gaza; the majority of Gazans voted for the totalitarian terrorist organisation, Hamas, whose openly stated goal was -- and still is -- the total destruction of Israel and the eradication of the Jews (Articles 7, 32).

In 2007, in response to Hamas's smuggling in weapons to fulfil its genocidal mission, a blockade of Gaza was introduced by Israel and Egypt, in agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which Hamas had just persuaded to leave Gaza by killing hundreds of its members, some by throwing them from the top floors of high buildings.

Israel bears no responsibility whatsoever for the pogrom it suffered on October 7, the responsibility for which lies entirely not only with the psychopaths of Hamas but at least as much with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the puppet-master and aspiring hegemon of the region.

But let us return to Europe. In most Western European countries, support for terrorism and incitement to hatred and violence against non-Muslims have gone from being offences, to being support for and diversity and "multiculturalism". 99% of those who commit these offences are never prosecuted, let alone convicted. Saying "Death to the Jews" and "Gas the Jews" has again become acceptable in the West.

No sane person, according to Thucydides, wants the worst form of war, which is civil war. It is for this reason that Europe needs to better understand what it has done to itself. Europe doubtless intended to "do good" but has demographically overwhelmed itself with people who Europeans may have imagined were fleeing tyranny, but who in fact were bringing tyranny with them. Three measures seem worth considering.

The first is a moratorium on immigration. Europeans will have the greatest difficulty integrating the populations already present in their countries. They may not even be able to. Many do not seem to want to integrate into European culture; they appear to want Europeans to integrate into theirs. It should by now be obvious that adding millions of newcomers every year will not solve the problem.

This would mean leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The extremist "open borders" jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court prevents any development of a rational asylum policy. In 2012, the ECHR enacted the so-called "Hirsi ruling," named after the court case of Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy, which states that the European states have the legal obligation to rescue migrants wherever they find them in the Mediterranean Sea -- even just 200 meters away from the Libyan coast -- and ferry them to a European port, so that these people can claim refugee status.

When the Italian Navy intercepted illegal migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and sent them back to their point of origin in Libya, not only did the ECHR condemn Italy for this "obvious" breach of human rights; the Italians had to pay 15,000 euros ($17,000 at the time) to each of these illegal migrants in the name of "moral damage". This kind of money is equivalent to more than 10 years of income in the countries of origin of Mr. Hirsi Jamaa and his companions: Somalia and Eritrea.

In 2016, Somalia's GDP per capita was an estimated $400 ; Eritrea's $1,300. Everyone, of course, heard about the Hirsi ruling. In Africa, especially, many understood that if they could reach the Mediterranean, European navies would now be obliged to ferry them directly to Europe. Before the Hirsi ruling, when people tried to reach the shores of Europe, hundreds every year tragically died at sea. After Hirsi, the objective is now simply to be intercepted. Consequently, hundreds of thousands attempt this journey -- often with the help of non-governmental organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières, whose activists wait for boats to appear at sea, just off the Libyan coast.

Finally, Europeans will have to do the unthinkable: actually apply their laws. If anyone -- Muslim or non-Muslim -- wants to celebrate the jihadist pogroms against Jews, well, they can go and rejoice in Iran or Qatar. Not in Europe.

Every "Death to the Jews" or "Death to Israel" uttered in Europe, particularly after babies tortured, burned alive and beheaded, women raped and more than 200 Israelis dragged back to Gaza as hostages on October 7, is an insult not only to Jews, but to us, what we are, our laws, our democracies and the will of the people.

Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (Saint-Louis University of Louvain), a philosopher (Saint-Louis University of Louvain) and a doctor in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is the author of The Green Reich.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20103/europe-civil-war

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New Yorker goes viral for confronting person who ripped down Israeli hostage posters - Ben Sales

 

​ by Ben Sales

As of Friday evening, the video had more than 3 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter, and more on Instagram.

 

People gather for a demonstration at Times Square to express solidarity with Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., October 19, 2023

(photo credit: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR)

(JTA) — Countless videos have spread this week of people taking down hostage posters. But almost immediately, it seems, viewers knew that this one would be different.

Like the others, this video featured someone tearing down the fliers featuring the names and pictures of some of the more than 200 people held captive by Hamas in Gaza. But unlike the rest, the man confronting the poster-ripper did not just urge the person to stop. Instead, he said the f-word. A lot.

Another difference: The man confronting the person taking down the posters was, by his own admission, “not f—ing Jewish.”

“You don’t have a f—ing right to touch that s—,” the man sporting a brown plaid shirt yelled in a thick New York City accent about halfway through the 43-second clip, which was first shared by the group StopAntisemitism. Someone can be heard calling him Paulie.

"A free country"

“This is a free country,” the man went on. You can wave your Palestine flag and say ‘Death to the Jews’ or America or whatever you want, but we can put up f—ing signs, OK? Then don’t rip that down.”

After a short confrontation with the man he said had torn down the posters, he said, “You’re littering the city. In a minute I’m going to litter the f—ing floor with you.”

"You can wave your Palestine flag and say ‘Death to the Jews’ or America or whatever you want, but we can put up f—ing signs, OK? Then don’t rip that down.”

New Yorker

As of Friday evening, the video had more than 3 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter, and more on Instagram. Users quickly determined that the exchange occurred at a specific street corner in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills, which has a large Jewish community. Several said they’d like to buy the man a beer or several, or send him money on Venmo.

“This non Jewish person’s determination to do the right thing is the energy and support we need right now,” wrote one user on Instagram. “Helping bring the hostages home is what any decent human being should do.”

As Shabbat began in New York on Friday evening, Paulie’s identity had not yet been publicly revealed. But it seemed to be only a matter of time. “Who wants to those guys a beer?” another user wrote on Instagram, adding the applause emoji. “We need the reverse shame game and find their names and publicly praise them.”

Ben Sales

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-770531

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Gantz’s speech reveals the most of Israel’s grand strategy for Gaza to date - Yonah Jeremy Bob

 

​ by Yonah Jeremy Bob

Gallant called saving hostages a "supreme goal."

 

Soldiers of the IDF Golani brigade train for possible combat during Operation Swords of Iron, October 2023

(photo credit: IDF)

National Unity Party leader and war minister Benny Gantz on Thursday gave the most detailed revelations on record from one of Israel’s decision-makers to date regarding the war in Gaza and its aftermath.

Gantz made it clear that the government’s original solitary goal of destroying Hamas and remaking the reality in Gaza has been adjusted by multiple other goals.

If initially top sources told the Jerusalem Post that the invasion of Gaza would happen in the first week and the government wanted to convey a sense of rapid momentum in that direction, Gantz and the government now want to convey a purposeful deliberateness in deciding their grand strategy.

Not only did Gantz join with the current government and defense officials in taking responsibility for the failure to foresee Hamas’ invasion, but, more importantly, he defended the government’s delay of the invasion.

Of course, he did not say those explicit words, but he said that he has been at the center and agrees with all government decisions regarding the war – and the government has refrained for almost three weeks from ordering the counter invasion of Gaza.

IDF tanks stationed near the Israeli Gaza border on March 27, 2019. (credit: Dudi Modan/Flash90)

In separate messages, the government and IDF said from the start that they wanted to return the hostages as well as eliminate Hamas.

However, in the early days of the war, a senior diplomatic official made it emphatically clear at that time that worrying about the hostages getting in the crossfire would in no way slow down the IDF’s attacks on Hamas.

That indication has ultimately panned out as inaccurate, as the ground invasion has been delayed by weeks and Gantz made it clear that trying to save hostages was not just a tactical issue, but a strategic consideration.

Sources have hinted that Gantz still realizes that destroying Hamas is the primary goal, but the fact that he did not use those words publicly, shows how heavily the fate of the hostages is weighing over him and other key decision-makers as a strategic matter.

Of course, Gantz and all key players in Israel say that Israel will only make decisions based on its own national interests, but he made it clearer than ever that how those interests are viewed at a strategic level is far more through the eyes of top US officials than it was in the first week of the war.

He said that the IDF would greatly increase its attacks soon, but balanced that promise with the need to retain international legitimacy, including deep coordination with the US.

US calls for smaller scale response

The US has been less bashful than Israeli officials, and has explicitly called for a smaller invasion, more along the lines of Israel’s 2014 limited incursion in Gaza, with only a much smaller number of elite troops going deeper into urban areas.

Gantz made it clear that Gaza strategy is massively impacted by concerns about the next moves by Hezbollah and Iran.

One of the practical upshots of that is waiting longer for more US missile defense to be in place to further dissuade Hezbollah from getting involved if and when the IDF finally does its ground invasion into Gaza.

Other sources have revealed that some of the delay is to frame the invasion also around the best way to deal with post-invasion guerilla warfare tactics as well as to be better in a position to completely end weapons smuggling into Gaza.

This could include reconsidering the status of the Philidelphia Corridor which Israel gave control of to Egypt in 2005.

Gantz does not want to discuss with the public exactly when Israel will give up on hostages in order to prosecute the war or when the war will be fought less aggressively to give more opportunities to save hostages.

Top generals have indicated to the Post that the IDF is ready to take some real operational risks to try to rescue as many hostages as possible, while understanding how hard that will be.

OPPOSITION LEADER MK Benny Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff, addresses a special Knesset session Thursday, at which he was among those added to form an emergency cabinet. (credit: NOAM REVKIN FENTON/FLASH90)

It is unclear if Gantz and the government’s belief that the US will continue to back Israel’s right to deeply clean out Hamas even for weeks and months will be correct.

It is further unclear whether Gantz and the government’s belief that Israelis who have evacuated from the North and the South will wait patiently for an extende delay of the invasion to return home or start to protest government policy.

Just before press time, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant similarly blurred the disparate goals of destroying Hamas and rescuing hostages, calling saving hostages a “supreme goal.”

With the lack of clarity, Gantz’s speech and to some extent Gallant’s, has made clearer what has changed and where Israel is going.

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Source: https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/gaza-news/article-770380

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