First Arab family joins Israeli delegation in US for kidnapped son

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December 8, 2023

Earlier this week, in a moving journey for justice, the family of Samar Fouad Talalka, a Bedouin Israeli who was kidnapped to Gaza, joined a rapid advocacy delegation organized by the Israel-is organization to Washington. This event marked a significant stride in international efforts to secure the release of individuals abducted in the horrific terrorist attack on October 7th.

Organized by Israel-is, a global Israeli advocacy group, the delegation’s mission focused on the plight of those kidnapped in the conflict. Central to their efforts was Fouad Talalka from Hura, whose son, Samar, 24, was kidnapped by Hamas while working in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

This marked the first instance of a Bedouin family participating in such an advocacy campaign, bringing attention to the October 7 tragedy, which involved the kidnapping of seven Bedouin citizens, the murder of 19, and the injury of numerous others.

Throughout the week, the delegation met with members of the US House of Representatives across the political spectrum. These included Congressman Michael McCaul from Texas, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan from Pennsylvania, and Jewish American Congressman Brad Schneider from Illinois. They also conveyed Samar’s story to journalist Bret Stephens from The New York Times.

Expanding their advocacy, the delegation met with prominent Arab figures in Washington. During these meetings, Fouad Talalka shared his son’s ordeal and advocated for his release.

A man cycles past a poster with a mirror reflecting the message board with pictures of hostages, who are being held in the Gaza Strip after they were seized by Hamas gunmen on October 7, in Tel Aviv, Israel December 7, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/CLODAGH KILCOYNE)

Personal appeals and international pressure

In a heartfelt plea, Fouad called for international action: “My son was violently taken to Gaza. His fate remains unknown. He’s a young man seized by a terrorist group that recognizes no human distinction. We must not forget him or the others still held in Gaza. I urge the American government, all rational nations, and individuals to demand Hamas’s immediate release of the kidnapped. This is beyond politics. These are innocent lives, and their captors must face justice.”

Noam Bedein, the foreign relations director at Israel-is and the organizer of the delegation, highlighted the necessity of global pressure on Hamas: “To bring the kidnapped home, we must mobilize international awareness. Understanding the personal stories of these families is crucial in conveying the urgency of the situation to world leaders. Hamas’s detention of hundreds of innocents from various nations, with no information on their well-being, is a crisis unmatched in modern times.”

Uphill battles

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Michael Kuttner

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December 8, 2023

Israel’s fight against Islamic terror is being fought on two main fronts.

As well as physical battles in the field, another much tougher contest is taking place in the battle for people’s minds and hearts. Jews have been waging this war for several millennia, and while there have been occasional successes, they tend to be fleeting.

It would be safe to say that for at least the last two thousand years, there has been a marked lack of sympathy and empathy for Jews wherever they may have been domiciled. Some countries at some stage provided beneficent sanctuary and tolerance but this was swiftly replaced after a short interval with expulsions, pogroms and persecution.

Uncomfortable as it may be for some to admit, even during tolerable bursts of friendship, the seething cauldron of enmity was always there below the surface. Occasionally, it erupted with lethal consequences, but even during those times when all seemed quiet, Jews still lived on the edge of a smouldering volcano.

It is an unfortunate and tragic part of Jewish history that far too many Jews have been and continue to be seduced by false visions whereby they believe that tolerance and understanding have become the norm. For some, a complete estrangement from the Jewish People was and continues to be their default position. This takes the form of a divorce from Judaism and a severance from collective togetherness. This leads to a complete rejection of those things that unite Jews and explains why these people can be seen throwing in their lot with the mindless mobs demonstrating against Israel. Rejection of the idea of a reborn Jewish national sovereignty is the hallmark of those who think that by ingratiating themselves with the anti-Israel masses, they will somehow gain their unconditional love.

This has never worked in the past and certainly is a spectacular failure today, as feminist progressives have discovered, to their shock and horror.

The same goes for “Queers for Palestine”, who would be the first victims of any Hamas or Islamic victory.

Many lament the fact that Israel faces such an uphill struggle to gain sympathy and support. Some put it all down to incompetent public relations and diplomacy, while others blame it on Israelis’ perceived aggressive determination to defend themselves.

One needs to recognize that there is nothing new under the sun and that yesterday’s Jew hate has now morphed into Israel hate of the most virulent variety. The old strain of poisonous libels and slanders is still there and has been updated and modernized. Current events conclusively prove it.

The revelation that the situation is rotten has come as a searing shock to those who had lulled themselves into believing that times had changed for the better. American Jews celebrating Thanksgiving and carving up their turkeys must be wondering what has struck them. It was, therefore, with some small measure of amazement that I read an item in the JP that purported to offer advice on “how to alter the narrative and win hearts.”

Asserting that “Israel was on the losing end of the PR battle,” an American political and communications consultant and pollster offered advice. His winning formula for reversing this situation reads like an exercise in consultancy confusion detached from realities on the ground. Here are a few samples that in his opinion, would miraculously reverse the negativity against Israel currently evident not only in the USA but elsewhere in democratic countries.

Israel is at war with Hamas not the Palestinians. If he bothered to read and listen to the daily Palestinian Arab outpouring of hate for Jews and Israel and their support for Hamas, he would realize that the virulent virus against which Israel is fighting is alive and well among all so-called Palestinian groups. It’s not just Hamas that’s the problem it’s all those infected with Islamic rejection of Jewish sovereignty.

The October 7 massacre was an attack on Israelis, not Israel. His rationale that concentrating on individuals rather than the country will elicit more sympathy ignores the malevolent motivations that cause individuals and groups to hate anything to do with Israel. Despite horrendous personal narratives, those who hate the Jewish State will continue to hate its victims.

Instead of calling Hamas terrorists, call them an army of terror. The reasoning behind this piece of advice, according to this expert, is that Americans are frightened of the word terrorists. If this is indeed the case, it explains why avoiding inconvenient facts will never succeed in eradicating terror.

Focus on the mission of destroying Hamas, liberating Gaza and finding a peaceful alternative. Unsurprisingly, this agenda seems too stark for all those demonstrating and vandalizing. Pie in the sky demands about Abbas and his corrupt PA replacing Hamas and being part of a “two state solution” are fatally flawed.

Gazans living under Hamas rule are deeply suffering. They elected Hamas and cheered their 7 October pogrom. As far as the mindless university demonstrators and others are concerned, those causing suffering are Israelis. No amount of evidence to the contrary seems to sway set minds.

Use graphic descriptions: women raped, children beheaded and infant hostages. Despite these facts already being presented via videos and personal testimonies, international progressive women’s groups and others have been significantly silent. The Jordanian Queen questioned the veracity of such evidence. Hostage families have travelled to many countries and met legislators.

The bottom line is that after an initial burst of sympathy, the rest of the world quickly reverted to its traditional stance. The Red Cross is impotent when it comes to Jews and Israel.

President Macron has stated that it will take at least ten years to destroy Hamas. The subtext of his assertion is that we may as well throw in the towel now because it’s not worth the effort. Vichy France did that with the Nazis and French police and railway workers co-operated in arresting and transporting Jews to their death. The French Ambassador to Israel has now offered up some more Gallic expertise. While supporting the goal of getting rid of Hamas, he trotted out the current UN mantra that Israel was killing too many civilians. Somehow, eliminating Hamas, which is deliberately embedded among its civilian population, can be achieved only by issuing pious pontifications.

Meanwhile, the French Ambassador to Israel echoed his master’s thoughts by declaring that he doubted all of Israel’s military goals are reachable. He went on to advise that “once war broke out, one of Israel’s highest goals should have been to discredit Hamas and to convince everybody that Hamas cannot be taken into account anymore as a respectable political player.” He went on to lament that instead, the opposite has happened and Hamas has strengthened its legitimacy in the Arab world.

Think about this for a moment.

The fact that Hamas has been embraced and championed by much of the Arab and, indeed, Islamic world is a failure of Israeli actions. It obviously has nothing to do with the warped and poisonous Islamic ideology driving Jihad and its ambition of cleansing Israel of Jews from the river to the sea. His solution, which mirrors current international delusions, is the creation of yet another terror country on territory historically Jewish and legally approved for Jewish settlement.

There are some optimistic souls who believe that the advent of the incoming New Zealand Government will inject a breath of fresh thinking into the hitherto fatally flawed policies of the country as far as Israel is concerned. I previously warned such individuals not to hold their breath. It, therefore came as no surprise when the NZ Prime Minister last week observed that “there was no will on either side for a ceasefire or peace process. This contortionist effort to equally blame both the terror group Hamas and Israel’s Government for a lack of peace demonstrates that nothing has changed in Wellington. Would Mr. Luxon have offered up the same senseless stupidity in the midst of the war to defeat Nazi terror? Of course not, because in those days, the Government knew that only by totally defeating the terrorists controlling Germany could any meaningful peace be established.

It is symbolic of the idiocy now gripping otherwise sane democracies that Israel is admonished to leave the job half done and, as in the past, buy temporary and ultimately illusory quiet.

Instead of dealing with Iran and its supporting teams of Russia, China and North Korea, the democracies prefer to take the easy way out. These shades of past appeasement policies will come back to haunt those who think that they will be safe if they offer up Israel on a platter instead.

The only trouble is that most sane Israelis are no longer willing to be fed to the marauding crocodiles.

Chanukah is the perfect time to remember how past attempts to detach Jews from their faith and homeland were thwarted. It may be an uphill struggle, but we will prevail.

The Fall and Rise of Judah

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December 7, 2023

Now it came about at that time that Judah was demoted by his brothers, and he turned away until [he came] to an Adulamite man, named Hirah. And there Judah saw the daughter of a merchant named Shua, and he took her and came to her. [Genesis 38:1-2]

The Torah has just told us of the harrowing story of Joseph, hated by his brothers, thrown into a pit full of snakes and as an act of mercy sold to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver.

Then the story pauses. Instead, we get the downfall of Judah, fourth son of Jacob and Leah and until now regarded as the leader of the 12 brothers. It was Judah who urged his siblings not to kill Joseph, rather sell him and be rid of him for good.

Joseph was not seen by his family. But his presence lay heavy. Jacob was constantly fasting in mourning for his favorite son. The eldest, Reuven, was fasting for having switched his father’s marital bed and incurring his anger. And Judah, who seems to have only wanted to stop a murder, couldn’t take the reproach of the others: “Had you told us to let him go we would have listened.” In other words, it’s your fault.

And Judah leaves the northern Canaanite town of Dotan and heads south, looking for a home in every face he sees. He ends up in Adulam and meets somebody named Hira. Then he marries the daughter of a Canaanite man, something the patriarchs warned against throughout the previous 200 years. The text remains silent.

But the commentators are divided. Some insist that the son of Jacob would never marry a Canaanite. But others, including Rav Saadia Gaon, the 10th Century sage, say simply “Canaanite is Canaanite.” The text appears to support the latter’s interpretation as Judah’s three sons and wife, the victims of G-d anger, die — leaving him alone with a widowed daughter-in-law Tamar.

The next part of the story confounds those who see Judah as righteous. He leaves for Timnah in the south with his kemosabe Hira to shear their flock. On the way, Judah stops off to have sex with an anonymous harlot who turns out to be Tamar — not exactly biblical behavior. For Judah, this is the low point.

Henry Kissinger, who died last week at age 100, took a similar route. He grew up in a traditional Jewish family in Germany and arrived in New York at age 15. Within a few months, he wrote, he had turned from an “idealist” to a “skeptic.” He didn’t see himself as a Jew rather an American, with a passion for the Giants baseball team. He soon left his high school sweetheart Anne for the US Army, where his German and clear prose made him a perfect fit for counter-intelligence in his native land.

Kissinger was a quick study. He might never get rid of his accent — although his younger brother Walter did — but he could shed everything Jewish. As he rose from being a protege to Nelson Rockefeller to the White House, Kissinger always made sure to be the loudest antisemite in the room. The persecution of Jews was essentially their fault. He opposed US support of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. In fact, he protested against American intervention for any Jew. He called those Jews who cared about their brethren “self-serving bastards.”

“The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy, and if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern,” Kissinger told then-President Richard Nixon in March 1973. “Maybe a humanitarian concern.”

Like Judah, Kissinger thought to cap his career by marrying a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or WASP. In 1974, soon after he became secretary of state, Kissinger wedded Nancy Maginnes, his former student at Harvard and from an elite New York family. Rockefeller lent his private jet for the honeymoon. The wedding, Kissinger felt, would put pay to his former heritage, which he attributed to an “accident of my birth.”

Kissinger didn’t seem to have much naches from Nancy. They never had children. From the day of their marriage, she suffered from ulcers that also put her several times in the hospital, one of them for the removal of her colon. He was away all the time.

Still, Kissinger’s career rolled on after his stint in government. He maintained his image as the man who couldn’t stand Jews — even opposing the US Holocaust Museum, claiming it would “reignite antisemitism.” He no longer needed Rockefeller’s money, turning superrich as the ultimate lobbyist for governments and corporations everywhere. One of his last visitors was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The Midrash says G-d spared Judah because of his place in Jewish history: He would be the ancestor of King David and the Messiah. It was Tamar, sentenced to die for becoming pregnant with a strange man, who brought Judah back to his family and faith. “She is right…,” Judah said when presented with Tamar’s evidence that she had been abandoned. The strange man who had impregnated Tamar turned out to be Judah himself at the crossroads to Timna. Tamar gave birth to twins and Judah’s new life began.

For anybody who knows Jews, the woman has the last word. Tamar was no exception. When she saw the first of the twins she understood that a breakthrough had taken place. Judah would return to lead his brothers. He would establish the Jewish monarchy forever. Kissinger would not have understood.

“With what strength you have strengthened yourself!” Tamar said. “And he [Judah] named him Peretz.” [Genesis. 38:29]

Announcement of Visa Restriction Policy to Promote Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank

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December 7, 2023

Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson Hosts Romanian President Klaus Iohannis At The State Department — WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 09: A view of the State Department seal on the podium before Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appear for a photo opportunity at the State Department, June 9, 2017 in Washington, DC. Iohannis is also scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank, including attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis. We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable. Last week in Israel, I made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities.

Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities. Immediate family members of such persons also may be subject to these restrictions.

We will continue to seek accountability for all acts of violence against civilians in the West Bank, regardless of the perpetrator or the victim. We also continue to engage with the Israeli leadership to make clear that Israel must take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks. We will also continue to engage the Palestinian Authority to make clear it must do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have the responsibility to uphold stability in the West Bank. Instability in the West Bank both harms the Israeli and Palestinian people and threatens Israel’s national security interests. Those responsible for it must be held accountable.

Hamas in Jerusalem

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December 6, 2023

Israel has set the elimination of Hamas as a military threat and a political entity in the Gaza Strip as its primary objective in the current war. But vanquishing Hamas in Gaza is not enough, because Hamas’s tentacles stretch far beyond the Strip. In fact, Hamas’s ideological center and active secondary arena is Jerusalem.

Hamas employs a precise methodology in order to spread its ideology and recruit terrorists. It imitates the practices of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has long incubated radical Islamic movements, including Hamas itself. Now almost a century old, the Brotherhood seeks to win the hearts and minds of Arabs by providing legitimate social and cultural services, and then using them a stepping stone to political power.

Hamas used this tactic to take over Gaza. It won the 2006 legislative elections in Gaza by promising to crack down on crime, clean up the corruption that typified the Palestinian Authority’s governance, improve social services and provide economic opportunities to the beleaguered population. After it took power, however, and then seized control of Gaza in a coup, Hamas did nothing to end corruption or improve social services. The only economic opportunity it provided was by enlisting tens of thousands of Gazans into its terrorist army.

Hamas has employed this tactic in Jerusalem for years, right under the nose of the Israeli government, which to date has been ineffectual in countering it. As a result, Hamas’s influence is growing in Israel’s capital with a corresponding increase in terrorist activities.

In Jerusalem, many Hamas-affiliated groups are funded by Turkey and Qatar, which remain the primary foreign hosts for Hamas. For example, a group called Bureij Al-Laklak is funded by Turkey, operates sports clubs in Jerusalem and incites terrorism. It has disseminated a board game to children in which they compete to see who can murder the most Israeli soldiers. TIKA, financed directly by the office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, provides financial assistance as a cover for its nefarious activities. It was expelled from Jerusalem in 2018 but has now returned. Kulana Maryam, in theory an educational group, recruits anti-Israel Arab Christians. Miratana provides educational services. None of these organizations’ activities are innocuous.

Altogether, there are more than 300 Arab non-profit organizations in Jerusalem, some of them enjoying tax exemption, which function with minimal monitoring by the Israeli government. Many of them allegedly funnel money directly to Hamas for terrorist purposes.

As a result of Hamas’s activities, the 350,000 Arab residents of Jerusalem have become increasingly radicalized, which leads to an increase in terror attacks. Many, if not most, of the terror attacks committed in Jerusalem over the last several years have been perpetrated by young people nurtured in organizations affiliated with Hamas.

Israeli law is currently ill-equipped to deal with these threats. Unfortunately, Hamas’s covert activities are shielded by laws that protect legitimate cultural, educational and charitable endeavors. These laws must be amended so as to allow the authorities free rein to shutter terror-connected groups.

Terrorist organizations around the world exploit the liberties and freedoms of democracies to their own benefit. They have discovered loopholes in the laws of many nations that allow them to operate under the radar and wreak havoc across the world. This cannot be allowed to continue, especially in Israel’s capital.

The Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP) makes the following recommendations for how to counter this threat:

Israel must close private Arab schools in Jerusalem whose curriculum incites terrorism.
Israel must closely monitor the curricula in Jerusalem’s government-funded schools that serve the Arab sector. It must withhold funding from schools and fire educators and principals guilty of incitement.
Schoolbooks need to be closely monitored. If they do not recognize Israel or incite terrorism, they must be banned from all schools.
Incitement by religious institutions, imams and non-profits must be stopped and the perpetrators jailed or expelled. Funding for these institutions must be cut off.
Terror-sponsors and their supporters must be stripped of their Israeli citizenship or Jerusalem residency.
Moderate elements in the Arab sector should be cultivated as the next generation of the sector’s leaders.
Surviving perpetrators of terrorism should spend the rest of their lives behind bars and their families should be expelled from Israel after their homes have been demolished.

Hamas is already in Jerusalem. Just as in Gaza, now is the time to eliminate it.

Remind US Policy-Makers

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December 5, 2023

Israel at War Day 49 | Additional Context for Hamas-Israel War

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December 1, 2023

CBN Israel’s continuing coverage of the War in Israel. CBN News. Because Truth Matters™

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Them too

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December 1, 2023

The apathy of women’s groups to the organized gang rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, and slaughter of Israeli women and girls by Hamas on Oct 7 is shocking.
We’ve become used to the anti-Israel bias of many special interest groups, but women??

Them too?

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Why Is the Cruel Sexual Violence of the October 7 Hamas Attack Being Ignored?

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December 1, 2023

“I knew right away that sexual violence was part of the events of October 7, but obviously, I could not have known the extent of the cruelty that Hamas engaged in,” says Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, who served for 12 years on the UN Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Halperin-Kaddari now feels “completely betrayed” by the international women’s rights organizations with whom she has worked for years, for their failure to condemn – or even recognize – the rape, kidnapping and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens on October 7.

In conversation with Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Halperin-Kaddari, a member of the newly formed Civil Commission on Hamas’ October 7 Crimes Against Women and director of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-Ilan University, explains that “unlike any previous incidents of ‘conflict-related sexual violence,’ as the UN calls it, the Hamas terrorists had body cameras and they filmed their actions. They broadcast it both to the families of the victims and on social media, so the horrific footage emerged right away.”

The UN-affiliated groups Halperin-Kaddari has worked with were founded with the mission of “protecting women from violence, to champion women’s rights, and to acknowledge when harm is done to women. And now, when we Israeli women are faced with the most horrible occurrence of ‘conflict-related sexual violence,’ there is complete silence.

“By being silent here, they’re not only failing us Israeli women, they’re undermining the whole system. They lose credibility. By not referring to the ongoing crime of holding hostages, they are in fact legitimizing [it] – and you might even say that they’re complicit in this situation of hostages being kept without a word about their whereabouts, without a word about their condition. They are also providing ammunition to all those who are already engaged in a denial campaign.

Also on the podcast, domestic violence advocate Lili Ben Ami, founder of the Michal Sela Forum, expresses her deep concern over the dramatic expansion of Israelis’ ability to obtain personal weapons in a campaign initiated by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Her organization, she says, “is now receiving calls every day from worried women and domestic violence survivors” that their abusers will now get access to a firearm. When her group looked into the matter, she tells Haaretz Weekly, they found that the distribution plan did not contain a screening mechanism that would prevent men with criminal records related to domestic violence from obtaining a gun.

Incredibly asinine and crass

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Michael Kuttner

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December 1, 2023

The longer it takes to finish off Hamas, the greater the opportunity for all and sundry to weigh in with gratuitous advice and demands.

In past efforts to decimate terror groups, the job was always only half done. International pressure and domestically generated delusionary policies ensured that after a short burst of military activity, a halt would be announced with politicians announcing that “peace” and deterrence had been restored. Anyone who warned that this was an illusion was howled down as a warmonger

This kowtowing to political correctness has brought us to the current sorry state of affairs. Now that the expected avalanche of admonitions has arrived, it will be interesting to see whether Israeli policymakers have finally woken up to what really needs to be done or whether the woke folk will once again manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

A consistent feature of all the rhetoric from near and far is a total amnesia about past failures and an almost religious fervour in advocating action, which, if acted upon, would, without doubt, lead to a catastrophic future.

Demanding that Israel and Jews commit collective suicide is always the preferred option of the haters and self-loathing fellow travellers. When so-called friends and those who call themselves allies also peddle demands that would lead to the same result, we have to stand up and tell them “dayenu” – enough already.

The Hamas Charter makes it abundantly clear that Jews have no right to exist in their ancient homeland or anywhere else for that matter. In this respect, their master plan is as unambiguous as Mein Kampf was for the Nazi Aryan master race. Unfortunately, in both cases, these early warning signals were deliberately ignored and dismissed as works of fiction.

Just as those complicit in Nazi genocide were allowed to escape justice at the end of the war, so today’s Hamas genocidal enablers are expecting to escape being held responsible. Efraim Zuroff, the world-famous Nazi hunter for over 40 years who is still relentlessly pursuing the few remaining perpetrators, has stated that there can be no statute of limitations for such individuals. His determined solo efforts to expose and bring to justice those who have managed to evade responsibility all these years should be an example for today’s leaders. No matter how long it takes the campaign to make sure that Hamas murderers and their accomplices, wherever they may be hiding, must be a top priority.

The rest of the world lost interest very rapidly in punishing the Nazi murderers. The same sick thinking prevails today. We dare not again succumb to the same warped appeasement of terror.

Examples of asinine and crass advice abound.

Biden and other US officials maintain that a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority should take over Gaza once the IDF leaves. This recipe for disaster is also repeated by the EU and some other so-called experts. Even worse is the fact that this nonsensical idea has been touted by none other than the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid. Failing yet again to recognize that Abbas, the PA/PLO and friends are just another version of Hamas, albeit with suits and ties, proves that idiocy knows no bounds. Agreeing to this suicidal notion is the default position of those who refuse to recognize reality even when it hits them head-on.

What happened to all the international aid poured into Gaza previously?

It was used to build the infrastructure for terror against Israel. This self-evident fact somehow escapes the attention of all those who now demand more of the same. The US has asserted that “it will watch future aid to Gaza very carefully.” This guarantee is so farcical, especially when one knows that there is no possibility of it ever happening. Just look at how successful that has been with North Korea, where failed monitoring has facilitated that country’s acquisition of nuclear blackmail capabilities. It is the identical worthless promise that enables Iran to cheat and lie its way to the same nuclear status. Despite these clear examples, Israel is expected to facilitate similar aid to a corrupt and deceitful collection of unreformed gangsters.

What exactly is a “revitalized” PA?

The daily outpouring of incitement and hate against Israel & Jews by PA officials and media should clear up that mystery. The PA Prime Minister and the Secretary General of Fatah Central Committee (the so-called “moderates”) leave no doubt. They both claim that Hamas is an integral part of Palestinian Arab society and that the “attack” was a defensive war against Israel. Are these “revitalized” people designated as suitable candidates for peace, democracy and human rights?

In a recent interview, a New Zealand Green MP boldly asserted that “the conflict started seventy-five years ago when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland.” This bald-faced lie was, of course, not challenged by the interviewer. Failure to point out that the “conflict” predated 1948, Arabs left because their own leaders told them to do so and an equal number or more Jews were expelled from Arab/Islamic countries merely contributed to the gross distortion of the truth. That is the sort of systemic ignorance that has now become part and parcel of current discourse.

Following the results of the recent Argentinean elections, the woke left has exploded in self-righteous indignation and fury. The incoming President is a self-declared supporter of Israel and intends to visit the country even before his inauguration to show his solidarity. He has infuriated the UK Foreign Ministry by alluding to the Malvinas, otherwise known as the “occupied” Falkland Islands. Spitting verbal tacks, the British Foreign Office declared that the Islands’ sovereignty is not up for debate. What a perfect example of hypocrisy. A group of Islands in the Atlantic forcibly seized from Argentina by the British is not up for discussion. However, the historical homeland of the Jews is deemed illegally occupied and disputed and a prime candidate for carving up and handing over to groups dedicated to its elimination.

One cannot make up this nonsense, yet this is promoted as the two-state solution.

The BBC’s international editor, Jeremy Bowen, claimed a few weeks ago that Israel was responsible for bombing a Gaza hospital. This libellous report has, of course, since been disproved. One would think that the gentleman concerned might have issued an abject apology for this claim, which went viral. No such luck. This week he admitted that he had got it “wrong” but didn’t regret his error. In any normal situation, his employer, the BBC, should censure or even dispense with his services. No such move has taken place, which once more highlights the BBC’s double standards and duplicitous behaviour. Emphasizing the depths to which this once standard bearer of UK news has sunk is the fact that the BBC instructed its employees not to attend or take part in the mass march against antisemitism that took place in London. Apparently, attending mass gatherings against Israel is acceptable.

The winner of the recent elections in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, has already caused convulsions among the politically correct crowd in the EU. His staunch support for Israel is naturally a mark of shame which will be held against him for all time. He has already caused a storm of indignation by suggesting that Jordan is in fact Palestine. Over 70% of the Kingdom’s population is already Palestinian Arab. He therefore postulated that this is where the rest of those who describe themselves as Palestinians should move to. His reasoning is that Judea and Samaria are part and parcel of historical Jewish sovereignty. Needless to say this eminently logical fact has initiated a tsunami of frenzied and frenetic fury.

Denouncing this blasphemous idea were terror groups headed by Hamas, joined by the apoplectic Jordanians, sundry Arab/Islamic nations and of course the irredeemable UN. These genocidal Jew haters complained that Wilders was guilty of breaking international law. His response was instantaneous. He expressed his incredulity that Hamas was actually an advocate for any sort of international law and followed his tweet with a picture of a clown.

Do these recent developments mean that at long last some sort of sanity is making an appearance in international affairs as far as Israel is concerned?

Unfortunately, because the seeds of denial and selective amnesia are so embedded, it will take more than the sprouting of a few shoots of sanity to dispel the warped policies of the majority.

Three further examples of the insanity we face should suffice to illustrate the situation.

The oldest Israeli hostage, an 84-year-old woman, was released to her family in a critical health situation but is now slowly recovering. She was fighting for her life in hospital because she was denied the medications she so critically needed. According to her daughter, the International Red Cross was presented with the medications but they refused to accept them. Rejecting pleas for help in passing them on to Hamas and by not visiting and checking up on the other hostages, the Red Cross once again demonstrated its utter contempt for Jewish lives. Just as this organization failed Jews during the Shoah years so it continues to shamefully ignore the plight of Jewish victims today.

It has been reported that President Biden, in a meeting with American Islamic leaders, offered his abject apologies for having previously doubted the veracity of the number of Gazans killed and injured. This breast beating confession in effect means that each and every outrageous lie emanating from terrorist sources must be unconditionally accepted as the pure truth.

Last but by no means least, the Irish Prime Minister asserted that a nine-year-old Israeli/Irish girl kidnapped by Hamas had been “lost but now she was found.” One could be charitable and assume that the PM was so befuddled by too much Guinness that he got confused with the lyrics of Amazing Grace. Unfortunately, it is more a case of Irish enmity towards Israel and Jews and a stark example of not wanting to upset those engaged in terror.

The torrent of asinine and crass comments keeps heading our way.

Israel Behind the News

First Arab family joins Israeli delegation in US for kidnapped son

Personal appeals and international pressure

Uphill battles

The Fall and Rise of Judah

Announcement of Visa Restriction Policy to Promote Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank

Hamas in Jerusalem

Remind US Policy-Makers

Israel at War Day 49 | Additional Context for Hamas-Israel War

Them too

Why Is the Cruel Sexual Violence of the October 7 Hamas Attack Being Ignored?

Incredibly asinine and crass

Column from the Director