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I Negotiated Israel’s Hardest Hostage Deal. Here’s What’s Next in Gaza.
Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier, had been a hostage for five years before Israel and Hamas were seriously willing to work toward his release. That was 2011. I had been pursuing secret back-channel communications with Hamas since a week after he was captured in a cross-border raid and dragged into Gaza. My partner in these secret negotiations was Ghazi Hamad, Hamas’s spokesman who was then also a political adviser to its prime minister.
Mr. Hamad showed compassion for Mr. Schalit and his family many times. In the end, the price of Mr. Schalit’s freedom was steep: 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. On Oct. 18, 2011, he returned to his home in northern Israel. When I talked to Mr. Hamad on the phone early that morning, he blurted out in a moment of spontaneous joy, “Next time we will negotiate peace!”
On the first night of Israel’s bombing, I have learned, Mr. Hamad’s home in Gaza City was destroyed in an airstrike. I saw it as a clear signal from Israel: Everyone affiliated with Hamas is a target. The time for talk is over.
Today, there are again hostages in Gaza — more than 200, according to the Israeli government. On Friday, Hamas released two of them — an American mother and daughter — but the fate of the others remains unclear. As deadly airstrikes on Gaza continue and Israel amasses troops at the border in preparation for a ground invasion, their safety grows more precarious each day. Should Israel negotiate to get their civilian hostages out of Gaza as quickly as possible? Should it sacrifice them to achieve its goal going into this war — to eliminate Hamas? Should it exchange them for prisoners, as it has done in the past?
These considerations present a stark dilemma for all Israelis, but perhaps none more so than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was once the staunchest opponent of negotiating with terrorists of any kind, but who also came to realize that the ethos of leaving no soldier behind did sometimes require that kind of engagement.
Israelis have been held hostage many times over the nation’s 75 years. In May 1974, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine held 115 hostages, most of them high school students in the town of Maalot, in northern Israel, for two days, an episode that ended in the murders of 22 hostages. An Air Force officer, Ron Arad, was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and was never returned. In May 1985, Israel released 1,150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of three Israeli soldiers captured in Lebanon.
Over the course of those painful episodes, the nation learned a great deal about how to work for its hostages’ release, whether through third-party negotiations, secret back channels or force. But today’s hostage crisis is unlike any other. It’s not just a few people being held by hostile forces. It’s about 200 people, including women, children and the elderly, and it’s unfolding in the midst of a full-blown war. None of the old rules apply.
Hamas held Mr. Schalit in a secret location. Is that possible with such a large group? Gaza is a very small territory with a very dense population, not all of whom support Hamas. The inevitable intelligence leaks could enable Israel to conduct rescue operations. Israeli intelligence analysts will be looking for leads anywhere they can find them, such as data from cellphones found on the bodies of terrorists killed since the attack on Oct. 7.
It is equally unclear how this group of hostages will be treated. Hamas treated Gilad Schalit surprisingly well during his years of captivity. He was never physically tortured. Could the same be the case with so many hostages? Hamas has said that some of them are being held by other groups, including Islamic Jihad. Whatever Hamas’s approach is toward these hostages, there is no guarantee that another group will share it.
Killing hostages is not what I would previously have expected from Hamas. But the killing spree of Oct. 7, including the butchering of whole families, the burning of homes, the destruction of whole communities, changed that. On Monday, it released a video of a 21-year-old hostage who appeared to have been wounded and was being treated on camera. There were no signs that she had been tortured but it was clear that she was under duress.
Negotiating for the release of hostages may also be less popular this time around. The Schalit deal was very difficult for Israel to accept. More than 300 of the Palestinians who were released from prison had been serving life sentences for violent acts, including killing Israelis. It was hard for me, too: My wife’s first cousin, Sasson Nuriel, was kidnapped and killed by Hamas in September 2005. Four of the people responsible for murdering him were released as part of the agreement that I negotiated. Still, in the end, nearly 80 percent of the public, according to one poll, along with 26 government ministers and the entire national security establishment, supported the deal. Prime Minister Netanyahu signed off on the agreement.
Today, Israel holds about 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, of whom 559 are serving life sentences for killing Israelis, according to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group. Will Israelis, still reeling from the atrocities of Oct. 7, be willing to accept this kind of bargain again? Is it safe to do so? One of the men who killed my wife’s cousin, who was released in exchange for Gilad Schalit, was among the leaders of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, according to Israel’s report of his recent killing.
I have no official authorization as a negotiator, but as far as I know I’m the only Israeli citizen who has contacts both with the leadership of Hamas and the leadership of Israel, so I have been in continual touch with both sides in hopes of advancing some long-term agreement. The release of those first two hostages is a positive development, but overall, prospects remain dim. Hamas continues to demand an end to “Israel’s aggression against Gaza,” and Israel says it has no intention of ending this war “until the job is done.” Mr. Hamad has not backed down from Hamas’s brutal attacks.
In my conversations with Hamas leaders, I have pushed them to release the women, children, elderly and sick as a humanitarian gesture. Hamas rejected the idea. I believe that Israel is open to accept a small deal in exchange for such a group, so I proposed to my Hamas contacts that they trade them for the 33 Palestinian women and 170 Palestinian minors currently in Israeli prisons, according to Addameer. Hamas rejected that, too. Right now, Hamas’s focus is achieving a comprehensive cease-fire.
There are still official talks taking place. Qatar is speaking with Hamas and the United States is speaking with Qatar and Israel. This is too convoluted and complex. There need to be direct talks between Israel, Qatar and Hamas, and no one else. Not the United States, and not Iran. The agreement of Hamas to release the two Americans was apparently negotiated by the Qataris and assisted by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The United States still has a role to play. It should continue to pressure Qatar, which should give an ultimatum that if hostages are not released within, say, 24 hours, all of Hamas’s leaders will be expelled from Qatar, where many are based. I don’t believe that Qatar will agree to that — and certainly not without an Israeli cease-fire — but the American government and others have leverage over Qatar and it should be used.
There is still a small chance and a limited window of opportunity before the ground assault begins to attain the release of some of the hostages through this kind of agreement. After the invasion begins, it will depend on Israeli special forces to try to save them.
Some will again see their homes; others may not.
At the other end of this war, I hope that the trauma and suffering we are all feeling on both sides of the conflict will spur us to figure out how to share this land that belongs to both Israelis and Palestinians. Maybe our collective suffering and pain can be channeled to focusing on how to live together rather than killing each other. That will be a long process and cannot include the leaders on both sides who have brought us to where we are.
We need a new generation of leaders with new vision, new hopes, new dreams and the ability to lead. I hope that many of the hostages, together with their families, will soon be able to join the voices calling for change.
Gershon Baskin is the Middle East director of the International Communities Organization, a human rights advocacy group.
UNRWA incites during a time of war
At a time when the war in Gaza continues in full force, Israeli state security services are finally enforcing a crackdown on incitement, a step which our agency has advocated for more than 30 years.
In that context, more than one hundred Israeli and Palestinian Arabs have been arrested for demonstrating active support of the new campaign to butcher Jewish men, women children and babies.
What has so far gone unreported are the daily celebrations of these murders of Jews. celebrations which are now being conducted in the UNRWA refugee camps in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem, which have become weapons arsenals and may spill over into attacks on Jews in the heart of Israel, at any moment.
At this time, we dispatch TV crews to document the new campaign to incite genocidal violence in the UNRWA refugee camps of Deheishe and Aida in Bethlehem and the UNRWA camp in Shuafat in Jerusalem.
The crews are asked to interview the children in these camps. as we have done in earlier movies,which can be seen at https://www.cfnepr.com/205640/Movies
We are always a few steps ahead of the Israeli security establishment when it comes to our coverage of lethal incitement because our cameras are on site before the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli intelligence services arrive.
During the heyday of the supposed peace process, the Israeli security establishment did everything possible to prevent this material from being screened, since we unmask the true face of Israel’s “peace partners”.
For that reason, our initiative remains a private initiative.
That is why funds to produce this new short documentary which will expose UNRWA incitement during this war will remain in the private domain.
The Dark Reality Of PLO And UNRWA Policies
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building during a strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 26, 2018. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** אונר"א
עזה
בניין
שביתה
For decades, I advocated for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, believing that it could bring about a lasting peace in the region. I was convinced that Israel had a genuine partner in the peace process, one that could help resolve the conflict with the Palestinian Arabs and address the millions living in UNRWA refugee camps. However, a fateful week in December 1987 changed my perspective forever.
On December 8, 1987, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) took control of the Palestinian Arab leadership, marking the beginning of a violent “intifada.” This shift extinguished my optimism for a peaceful resolution. From that moment on, I embarked on a 36-year journey of examining the PLO and UNRWA with the help of dedicated journalists, both Jewish and Arab, who spoke Arabic fluently.
Our collective research yielded a conclusion that was often met with skepticism: the PLO’s aim was not merely to foster hatred of Jews but to indoctrinate a systematic ideology of murder against them. For years, our perspective remained in the minority, but the horrific events of October 7th this year served as a chilling confirmation of our long-standing concerns.
The October 7th massacre, where Jewish men, women, and even infants were brutally murdered, represented the culmination of 24 years of continuous incitement of Palestinian Arabs to cross the border, abduct or murder any Jew who stood in their way, all in the pursuit of their so-called “right of return” by force.
Fast forward to October 18th, when US President Joe Biden visited Jerusalem. The State Department assured me that President Biden was convinced the Palestinian Authority (PA) had condemned the ongoing Arab murder campaign. Based on this report, President Biden endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state with Mahmoud Abbas at the helm.
To closely monitor Abbas’s statements, our news agency engaged Dr. Pinhas Inbari, a senior journalist fluent in Arabic and now a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He kept a close eye on the tightly controlled Palestinian Authority media, especially after the horrifying discovery of murdered babies at the hands of Palestinian Arabs.
Inbari’s findings were disheartening. President Abbas did not express a shred of remorse, offer an apology, or demonstrate any second thoughts about the actions of the Arab murder campaign since October 7. Instead, he repeatedly promised grants to the families of those Arabs who died as “Shahids,” or holy martyrs, since that tragic day.
While the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency initially published comments by Abbas that criticized Hamas over its actions, they later removed references to the terrorist group without an explanation. What Abbas has consistently reiterated on PA media channels is his intent to support the families of those who died in this abhorrent campaign.
This is the legacy that President Joe Biden left in Jerusalem: allowing Mahmoud Abbas to evade responsibility for these murders, leaving the troubling policies of the PLO and UNRWA unaddressed and unchecked. We must not turn a blind eye to this dark reality, and it’s high time for a reevaluation of our approach to peace in the region.
Mahmoud Abbas und der Terror der Hamas
Die Kommentare von PA-Präsident Abbas gegenüber palästinensischen Medien enthielten kein einziges Wort des Bedauerns oder der Entschuldigung, sehr wohl aber die Zusage von lebenslangen Renten an die Familien der Terroristen.
Die Ereignisse der vergangenen zwei Wochen haben meine Schlussfolgerung bestätigt, die ich nach sechsunddreißig Jahren der Untersuchung der Politik der Palästinensischen Befreiungsbewegung (PLO) und des UN-Hilfswerks für die Palästinenser (UNRWA) gezogen habe: Die PLO hat eine Ideologie gefördert, die auf der Rechtfertigung des Judenmordes beruht.
Als ich am 1. Dezember 1987 das Jerusalemer Pressezentrum, ein Büro für Nachrichten und Recherchen, eröffnete, war ich ein Befürworter eines palästinensisch-arabischen Staates. Siebzehn Jahre aktives Engagement in der israelischen Friedensbewegung hatten mich davon überzeugt, dass Israel einem echten arabischen Friedenspartner gegenüberstand, mit dem es den Krieg beenden und sich um die Millionen von palästinensischen Arabern kümmern könnte, die in neunundfünfzig UNRWA-Lagern auf ewig als Flüchtlinge lebten. Mein Optimismus währte eine Woche lang.
Am 8. Dezember 1987 verpuffte diese Aussicht, als die PLO die Führung der palästinensischen Araber in einer gewalttätigen »Intifada« übernahm, einem arabischen Begriff, der bedeutet, Israel »abzuwerfen«. Seitdem habe ich arabisch sprechende Journalisten – Juden und Araber – engagiert, die dabei mithelfen, jeden Aspekt der PLO und der UNRWA zu untersuchen.
Nach sechsunddreißig Jahren kamen wir zu dem Schluss, dass das Ziel der PLO nicht allein darin besteht, den Hass auf die Juden zu schüren, sondern vielmehr auch in der Indoktrinierung zur systematischen Ermordung von Juden. Nur sehr wenige glaubten mir.
Das schamlose Massaker an jüdischen Männern, Frauen und Babys, das am 7. Oktober stattfand, stellte jedoch den Höhepunkt von vierundzwanzig Jahren der Aufstachelung dar, als Hunderte Palästinenser aus Gaza den Grenzzaun überwanden, um jeden Juden zu entführen oder zu ermorden, der ihnen auf dem Weg zur bewaffneten Erfüllung ihres angeblichen »Rechts auf Rückkehr« begegnete.
US-Präsident Biden in Jerusalem
Wie mir das amerikanische Außenministerium bestätigte, sei Präsident Joe Biden versichert worden, dass die Palästinensische Autonomiebehörde (PA) die aktuelle arabische Mordkampagne verurteilt habe. Der Bericht über solch eine Verurteilung der Morde durch Abbas ermöglichte es Biden, in Jerusalem einzutreffen und die Gründung eines palästinensischen Staates mit Abbas an der Spitze zu befürworten.
Unsere Nachrichtenagentur engagierte einen hochrangigen Journalisten, der fließend Arabisch spricht, Pinhas Inbari, Fellow am Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, um jedes Wort zu verfolgen, das Abbas von der PA zugeschrieben wurde, deren Verlautbarungen nach der Entdeckung der von Palästinensern abgeschlachteten israelischen Babys einer strengen Kontrolle unterlagen.
Inbari berichtete, Abbas’ Kommentare gegenüber den Medien der Palästinensischen Autonomiebehörde enthielten kein einziges Wort des Bedauerns, der Entschuldigung oder des Innehaltens über die palästinensische Mordkampagne vom 7. Oktober und danach.
Zwar veröffentlichte die offizielle Nachrichtenagentur der Palästinensischen Autonomiebehörde am Sonntag Kommentare von Präsident Mahmoud Abbas, in denen er die Hamas wegen ihrer Aktionen kritisierte, entfernte später aber den Verweis auf die Terrorgruppe wieder, ohne eine Erklärung abzugeben. Zugleich wiederholte Abbas im Radio, Fernsehen und Internet der PA immer wieder, dass die Behörde der Familie jedes Palästinensers, der seit dem 7. Oktober als »Shahid« (arabisch für: heiliger Märtyrer) gestorben ist, eine Rente gewähren würde.
Dies ist das Vermächtnis von Präsident Joe Biden in Jerusalem: Mahmoud Abbas mit Mord davonkommen zu lassen.
The involvement of the ‘uninvolved’: Gaza’s population actively abetted Hamas in plotting against Israel
Some 20,000 “uninvolved” workers from Gaza used to enter Israel every day until the slaughter. They did so for months and months. They worked in the communities of the Gaza border, in Sderot, and in Ofakim, and some of them took detailed notes about their destinations: how many houses there were, where the living rooms, the bedrooms, and the security rooms were, how many family members lived in each house, whether they had a dog, where their cars were parked. They documented everything. And all of it went to Hamas. It was part of the infrastructure of the pogrom – the contribution of the “uninvolved” to the atrocity.
After the civilians were slaughtered, Salah Arouri of Hamas tried to defend his fighters by claiming that they weren’t the ones who did it. It was the residents of Gaza, he said. “When the Gaza Division fell apart,” Arouri explained, “people from the Strip went in and clashed with the settlers. As a result, people were killed.”
The “uninvolved,” many thousands of them, “demonstrated” at the border fence on the eve of the massacre. They planted explosive charges along the fence and marked off the weak points. They participated in the great deception that Hamas pulled off more successfully than it had ever imagined.
Tens of thousands of “uninvolved people” just like them – hundreds of thousands in the army’s count – took part in “marches of return” along the fence over the years, lobbing charges and firebombs onto our side, launching incendiary balloons and setting our fields afire. Their hearts seethed with hatred and entertained a dream – to return to Ashkelon, Lod, Acre, and Ashdod, and to replace us. Today, one hopes, many more of us believe them. Our true friend in the White House, Joe Biden, still remains unconvinced, but at some point, he’ll figure it out, too. The Palestinians have creative ways of explaining it.
The “uninvolved” danced like dervishes around the trucks that hauled away the abducted children, the old men and women, and the young men and women, crying “death to the Jews” and helping Hamas to place them in hiding. The “uninvolved” helped Hamas to move its rockets to concealment. “Uninvolved” mothers proclaimed that they were proud to send their children into battle in order to turn them into shahids (martyrs). And “uninvolved” teachers taught the children of Gaza that it’s a religious obligation to kill Jews. Hundreds of thousands of “uninvolved” Gazans took part in the funerals of the arch-murderers whom Israel eliminated over the years. For those who really want to go back there – Google and watchdogs like MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch will provide the terrifying texts that were read out at those funerals, the masses roaring their agreement.
In 2006, hundreds of thousands of Gazans who had the right to vote cast their ballots for the Hamas terror organization, whose charter calls for the annihilation of the Jews and the State of Israel, and gave it eighteen of the twenty-four seats that were up for direct election in the Strip. When it was done, Hamas won 43% of the votes as against 33% for Fatah. Hamas also won in eastern Jerusalem and performed handsomely in Nablus, Hebron, and elsewhere. In a departure from the norm, these were sound democratic elections. Some 250 European Union observers confirmed it. They accurately reflected the preferences of the residents of Gaza and Judea-Samaria. Admittedly, seventeen years have passed since then but Hamas’ strength in Gaza, and in Judea-Samaria as well, has not only held up but has grown.
Hamas and the Gazans are one and the same – in elections, in their hearts, in their actions, and in their assistance. Many of them knew about the war preparations, furthered them, and kept them secret. The IDF is a moral army. It will not line up a civilian population in the crosshairs of its rifles, tanks, artillery, and aircraft, but if this population unintentionally comes to harm, heaven forbid, it’s worth our while to know exactly whom we’re dealing with.
The origins of Palestinian hatred
THE TRAIL OF blood left by
Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip
is another chapter of the Palestin-
ian cruelty and brutality that was
born over 100 years ago. There have
been several inflection points along the way
that we can refer to: the lynching in Ramal-
lah in October 2000, the Pogel family massa-
cre in Itamar, the Salomon family massacre
in Halamish, the suicide bombings on buses
during the Second Intifada, and events far
back like the 1929 Hebron Massacre, the Lavi
family massacre, the Ma’alot school massacre,
the Coastal Road massacre in 1978.
New Poverties Conferences
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Witness to Terror: Unearthing Horrors of Oct 7th
As a secondary witness to the atrocities that transpired on October 7th, I recount the horrors of the massacres.
Photo credit: zakaworld.org
We are now on the 11th day of conflict in Gaza, under Hamas control, a continuation of the brutal events that unfolded in Israeli communities along the Gaza border.
ZAKA, the emergency response and rescue team, broadcasted the first live accounts of Israeli civilians on an international platform in English, French, and Spanish.
Over 60 reporters from major global media networks were invited by Israeli-is NGO and the Jerusalem Press Club, to hear from eyewitnesses directly. They narrated their experiences unfiltered, detailing how Hamas terrorists executed these massacres. The acts of violence included torturing children and infants, and sexually assaulting women before they were either shot execution-style or burned alive. It was also revealed that maps and detailed plans were discovered at some of the sites.
The testimonials I heard were described as “worse than the Holocaust”. Matt Frei from Channel 4 News stated: “It was the most difficult thing I have ever heard in my entire journalistic career”.
Watch the Full Press Conference with ZAKA’s Testimonials –
Photo credit: zakaworld.org
I take pride in having contributed to bringing this tragic historical event to light for hundreds of millions of viewers and readers worldwide. I bore witness to the horror that descended upon my people. However, it wasn’t just them who suffered. This atrocity affected individuals from 43 different nationalities, including Muslim-Palestinian Arabs.
A global campaign is already underway to deny and downplay these crimes against humanity. Some attribute these acts to the war in Gaza, where Hamas intentionally uses its civilian population as human shields. This constitutes a double war crime and epitomizes evil.
The day I became a secondary witness to the October 7th Hamas massacres will forever be etched in my memory.
By: Noam Bedein. International Authorities Coordinator to #BringThemHomeNOW headquarters and Israel-is NGO
Phony, Fickle And Fleeting
As the initial shock over the Hamas massacre of Israelis wears off, the predictable reactions start to roll in.
One didn’t need to be a genius in order to anticipate this.
The whole gamut of hypocrisy is now on full display. It ranges from disbelief, joyous celebrations and support for terror to accusations of Israeli culpability plus expressions of admonishment over Israel’s retaliation.
When General Eisenhower’s troops liberated Dachau concentration camp he insisted that movie camera teams record the atrocities found there. Questioned as to why that was necessary, he replied that there would be some who doubted the authenticity of the reports of the genocide and that in the future there would be others who dismissed the Shoah as a Hollywood fabrication.
Little did anyone realize that in fact this would eventuate. Today, we can see and hear how Holocaust revisionists are peddling their lies and how these untruths are being spread and swallowed by social media users on every continent. In addition we face the monstrous smear of the mutated Jew hate whereby Israel is accused of being modern-day Nazis.
Jew hate is so pernicious that it causes some to deny even the obvious. Thus, when the horrific photos of the victims of Hamas terror were published there were those who denied their authenticity and maintained that it is an Israeli fake campaign of disinformation.
That leaves us with the phonies, the fickle and the fleeting expressions of sympathy and support.
Chief phony is undoubtedly PA President for life, Abbas. He has managed and indeed continues to manage fooling almost every international leader that he is a dove of peace and therefore deserves to be crowned as head of a Palestinian Arab State. If prizes were handed out for the best conjuring tricks this fake peace fraud would walk away with the first prize. Second prize would be awarded to the UN and its collection of fraudulent representatives.
The most amazing farce that is being repeatedly recycled at present is the notion that establishing a terror state in the heartland of Israel will usher in peace and tolerance. One would have thought that after everything which has transpired such a scheme might be abandoned for the lunacy that it represents. US Secretary of State, Blinken, visited Israel. He was genuinely and visibly shocked by the realities of the pogrom perpetrated by Hamas. After making all the right declarations he then flew to Amman where he warmly greeted Abbas and thanked him for his efforts at calming the situation in the “West Bank.”
The head of the PA/PLO who authorizes the payment of salaries and pensions to the murderers of Israelis is warmly praised by the US State Department chief representative. Abbas issued a rather pareve statement about the massacre, following which the media and gullible others waxed enthusiastic about this dramatic turn of events. Alas, this piece of hallucinatory trickery was shattered a couple of hours later as the PA revised its statement so as not to be seen as sympathetic to slaughtered Jews. By then, of course, social media and other media outlets had spread the phony notion that Ramallah had disassociated itself from what had happened in Israel.
Despite everything, Biden continues to lead the international chorus singing the praises of a two-state solution. He made a flying visit to Israel to “ask some tough questions” and pledge friendship. The original plan was for him to proceed to Jordan where he could show even-handedness by embracing Arab leaders whose condemnations of Hamas have ranged from lukewarm to non-existent. This photo opportunity however was aborted as the host, Abdullah of Jordan, pulled the red carpet in a show of solidarity with Islamic Jihad who hit a Gaza hospital with a failed rocket launch. Needless to say Abdullah and Abbas lost no time in accusing Israel of this heinous crime, knowing full well that the media and its willing partners would jump on the bandwagon prior to and despite any subsequent proof of Islamic Jihad culpability.
President Biden kept talking about “the other team” while he was in Israel. Does he realize that this is not about a baseball game but rather a far more serious elimination challenge?
Examples of fickle “friendship” abound.
The EU has expressed its solidarity with Israel, although the level of support fluctuates across its members and decreases the longer Israel retaliates. The former EU Ambassador to the “Palestinians” articulated the fickleness best in a radio interview. He criticized Israel “for an unjustified attack on Gaza in response to the atrocities committed by Hamas. It does not matter what Hamas did – nothing justified the use of such deadly (Israeli) force without distinction and proportionality as far as the Palestinian population in Gaza is concerned.” There you have it in a nutshell. This mantra is being repeated endlessly.
One of the best proofs of fickle support was provided by the Auckland (NZ) War Memorial Museum which lit up in blue and white in support of Israel. As soon as local Islamic protesters turned up to condemn this blatant act of solidarity the museum turned off the lights and apologized for any “hurt” caused. This must be a world first and certainly exemplifies how standing up for Jews can collapse at the first sign of Islamic displeasure. What’s next? A museum apology for displaying any sympathy for the Jews murdered in the Shoah in case Jew haters are aggrieved? Woke madness and spinelessness knows no bounds.
The FA in the UK refused to light up Wembley stadium in blue and white. This refusal in the face of anticipated Islamic anger demonstrated a familiar pattern of not wanting to get involved when Jews are the victims. That same indifference characterized the Shoah years and the refusal of the International Olympic Movement to take a stand against terror nations, hence the 1936 Berlin Games.
It was always a given that after the initial shock and horror of the Hamas massacre it would not take more than a few fleeting moments for the aftereffects to wear off.
So it has once again proven as doubts and condemnations pour forth from media, groups and individuals. The media in particular love nothing better than discovering self-loathing Jews and breast-beating champions of human rights for oppressed minorities except if they happen to be Jewish.
Have you noticed the deafening silence from those who promote the rights of women and alternative lifestyle sectors? As these groups face persecution and death in Iran and many Islamic countries the UN is largely silent and complicit. As Israeli women were raped, abused and abducted these same so-called human rights organizations went mute. Political parties such as the Greens suddenly lost their voice and only were heard of again when they surfaced to condemn Israel for retaliating.
Some of the general media has already moved on from reporting about the massacres in Israel and are now focusing their efforts on the impending Israeli response. Reading their reports one could be excused for believing that support for the genocidal campaign against Jews is confined to a miniscule minority. Ignored are the inconvenient facts that support for the murder of Jews is widespread not only in Gaza but also in the so called misnamed “moderate” PA as well as in certain other Islamic countries.
Deliberately ignored is the reality that hate education is a staple part of the education curriculum in UNRWA and Moslem schools in the Middle East and elsewhere. The graduates of this poisonous system are the terrorists of today and their collaborative supporters. The next generation is already being inculcated with the same toxic poison. Taxpayers’ money is helping to perpetuate this scandalous situation.
The US Government resumed funding UNRWA after Biden assumed office.
The Scottish First Minister’s wife claimed that “all 2.2 million Gazans will die as a result of Israel’s actions.” This was reported by the UK media as though it is a fact rather than a gross lie. Unsurprisingly much of the media still describe Hamas as freedom fighters and militants. Obviously using the word terrorist even after this current massacre is too much to expect.
There are of course exceptions to the mendacious media reporting.
Unfortunately, however most news sites take their feed from sources such as the BBC, Reuters and Associated Press which love to pillory Israel. Watch the tsunami disinformation increase as soon as Israel demolishes the terror infrastructure in Gaza. It will surpass anything you have hitherto seen.
Pundits, critics and sundry commentators are demanding to know exactly what the objectives of Israel’s response are likely to be.
The best response is to reiterate the stirring words uttered by Winston Churchill in his first speech to the House of Commons after being appointed Prime Minister.
“We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask what is our policy? I can say: to wage war by sea, land and air with all our might and with all our strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be. For without victory there is no survival.”
No friend or ally counselled “proportionality” or insisted on a ceasefire before Nazi terror had been defeated.
Now it is time to make sure that today’s terror monsters and their facilitators meet the same fate.
