Eli Sharabi’s full address at the United Nations today. He survived 491 days of Hamas captivity in Gaza, and with remarkable resilience and strength, he shared his story with the world. Upon being released from captivity, he learned the heartbreaking news that his wife, Lianne, and their two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered by terrorists on October 7, 2023.
Douglas Murray Exposes the lies against Israel for Attacking Hamas.
Last week marked 17 months since, under the cover of thousands of rockets it rained down on civilian communities in southern Israel, Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza launched a savage invasion of the Jewish state. On Oct. 7, 2023, the jihadists killed some 1,200 persons, mostly civilians, among them more than 30 Americans, and kidnapped 251 persons, mostly civilians, among them as many as 12 Americans.
By means of its surprise attack, Hamas’ Gaza branch sought to draw Hamas in Judea and Samaria and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon into a multi-front war aimed at crippling and ultimately destroying the Jewish state. Instead, by November 2024 Israel had inflicted heavy losses on both Hamas and Hezbollah and, with precision air strikes, had severely degraded Iran’s air defenses and destroyed Tehran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles.
Yet Gaza remains a battlefield and a nightmare. Despite Israel’s extraordinary military accomplishments, Hamas still stands, and the jihadists have exploited the ceasefire that went into effect on Jan. 19 to recruit, rearm, and prepare for renewed fighting. Meanwhile, Israel continues without a concrete plan for dealing with Gaza’s approximately 2 million Palestinians once major military operations end.
President Donald Trump’s radical plan is not concrete, and the administration has not offered a clue about its implementation. On Feb. 4, at a televised White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president startled many of his own senior staff, caught Netanyahu off guard, aroused indignation among Europeans, and rattled America’s moderate Arab partners. In front of the world, the president affirmed a more extravagant version of the idea of moving 2 million Palestinians from Gaza – so that the 50,000 tons of rubble produced by the war could be removed and the territory’s infrastructure could be rebuilt – than the one he first raised in a Jan. 25 telephone conversation with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Trump’s staff defended the proposal, Netanyahu pocketed it, Europeans scoffed at it, and America’s moderate Arab friends and partners unequivocally rejected it.
Within two weeks, despite – or because of – Trump’s grandiose plan to displace Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians and construct there a “Riviera of the Middle East,” Egypt announced that it was working on its own plan to rebuild Gaza. The Egyptian proposal takes for granted that Palestinians will stay put and that even if they wanted to leave, other moderate Arab states, starting with Jordan and Saudi Arabia and very much including Egypt, won’t take them in.
On March 4, at an Arab League summit in Cairo, “Arab leaders adopted a five-year Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza,” according to the Times of Israel, “that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave.” The plan envisaged the eventual handover of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority but left unclear Hamas’ role. Hamas promptly welcomed the Arab proposal. On March 6, Israel and the United States rejected it.
Meanwhile, as of March 1 when the Israel-Hamas deal’s first phased ended, 33 Israeli hostages had been released, eight of them dead, in exchange for around 2000 Palestinian prisoners, many with blood on their hands. Hamas continued to hold 59 hostages, of whom 32 Israel believes to be dead.
Discussions about the second phase, which would have included Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the end of the war in exchange for Hamas’ release of the remaining hostages, never commenced. Israel accepted and Hamas rejected United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s proposal for Israel to extend the phase-one ceasefire through Ramadan (Feb. 28-March 29) and Passover (April 12-20) and for Hamas to release all remaining hostages. In the absence of an agreement, Israel stopped aid to Gaza and considered resuming military action “to pressure the terror group into making further concessions.”
As Israel determines whether to return to the negotiating table or the battlefield, it grapples with the anguish stemming from the nation’s bargain with the devil. Israelis will not forget – they have trouble pushing to the periphery of their hearts and minds – the ghoulish spectacle Hamas made of the hostages’ return. The jihadists paraded abductees on stages in Gaza, turned over emaciated kidnap victims, and sent back in coffins to Israel the brutalized bodies of three members of the Bibas family – mother Shiri, and sons Ariel, who was four, and Kfir, who was not quite nine months old, when Hamas ripped them from their homes.
In “The Untold Story: How We Lost in the Negotiations Despite the Military Victory in Gaza,” Eyal Tsir-Cohen acknowledges the “great happiness steeped in anxiety and sadness” with which Israelis have experienced the ceasefire and hostages’ return. He nevertheless urges his fellow citizens to look beyond the here and now, the assignment of blame for the October 7 massacres, and the imperative to return the remainder of the hostages. A former member of Israel’s hostage-negotiation team, Tsir-Cohen brings the big picture into better focus by examining where the Jewish state went wrong in the Hamas negotiations. An improved understanding of Israel’s mistakes, he argues, enhances the nation’s grasp of, and ability to counter, the looming threats.
Four “erroneous working assumptions,” maintains Tsir-Cohen, led Israel to overestimate its capabilities.
First, Israel’s political echelon and defense establishment wrongly assumed in the winter of 2024 that Israel military force would in the coming months swiftly and decisively weaken Hamas’ senior leadership. Notwithstanding Israel’s killing of Marwan Issa (deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing) in March 2024, Mohammed Deif (Hamas military chief) in July 2024, and Yahya Sinwar (top leader of Hamas in Gaza) in October 2024, much of Hamas’ core leadership fled underground – literally – and survived. This substantially diminished Israel’s ability to dictate terms at the negotiating table.
Second, Israel’s political echelon and defense establishment wrongly assumed that intensified fighting and mounting death and destruction in Gaza would open a rift between Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian population that would impel the people to drive out the jihadists. The error sprang from the belief that Gazans are Hamas’ passive victims, prisoners of a fanatical terrorist organization. Too few on the Israeli side appreciated how thoroughly Hamas’ jihadist spirit is woven into the fabric of Palestinian society and how tightly it is bound up with Gazans’ identity. Add to that massive humanitarian aid flowing to Gaza during the negotiations – some 250 trucks a day – and a population whose median age is 19.5 years, and Hamas’ replenishment of its ranks with young and willing Gazan recruits ceases to baffle. “In Gaza in 2025,” writes Tsir-Cohen, “there is truly no bottom to the barrel of terror.”
Third, Israel’s political echelon and defense establishment wrongly assumed that if military pressure compelled Hamas to come to the negotiating table, Qatari and Egyptian mediators would persuade the jihadists to compromise. But, observes Tsir-Cohen, “Already by February 2024, it had become clear that even if the mediators’ heads were in the West, their hearts remained in the Middle East.” The Qataris and Egyptians operated with a cool and calculating professionalism, taking no sides between Hamas who wished to destroy the Jewish state and the Israelis who wished to survive and thrive. Qatar’s two-facedness is well known, hosting both Hamas leadership in Doha luxury hotels and American forces at Al Udeid Air Base, “the largest US military installation in the Middle East.” But Egypt’s refusal to take Israel’s side despite Cairo’s dislike of Hamas – the Palestinian branch of Egypt’s enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood – should be a stinging reminder that unlike the logic of politics elsewhere, the enemy of one’s enemy in the Middle East is not necessarily one’s friend.
Fourth, Israel’s political echelon and defense establishment wrongly assumed that the Israeli government’s excruciating 47-minute film documenting Hamas atrocities – featuring footage shot by the jihadists’ GoPro cameras – would shock consciences worldwide, compelling nation-states around the globe to stand by Israel and encourage it to demolish Hamas. This, according to Tsir-Cohen, is the most painful error, and it derives in part from overestimating the Biden administration. From January 2024 a procession of intellectuals and diplomats, foremost among them from the United States, visited Israel, writes Tsir-Cohen, “with one question: ‘When will you Israelis withdraw from your positions and terminate the war?’” The Biden administration was hardly alone in deploring Israel’s refusal to put the cessation of hostilities ahead of defeating Hamas. “It is difficult to exaggerate the intensity, the frequency, and the urgency of the cries of pain of our allies,” reports Tsir-Cohen. Hamas heard those cries and drew the obvious conclusion. The Gaza jihadists realized that they needn’t agree to painful compromises because even Israel’s friends, despite the seven-front war that Iran was waging against the Jewish state, put the pressure for major concessions on Israel.
These grim lessons for Israel – about Hamas leadership’s elusiveness, Hamas’ power over Gazan hearts and minds, moderate Arabs’ ambivalence, and international public opinions’ cluelessness or rottenness – ought also to inform Trump administration thinking about the Jewish state’s strategy and Gaza’s future.
Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2019 to 2021, he served as director of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department. His writings are posted at PeterBerkowitz.com and he can be followed on X @BerkowitzPeter.
A bombshell new investigation from international human rights group UN Watch exposes the disturbing links between the UNRWA and Palestinian terror organizations. According to the report, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have not only infiltrated the $1.5 billion UN-funded agency but are actively influencing its operations and fueling violence against Israelis.
The explosive findings reveal that UNRWA has employed Hamas militants, allowing the terror group to interfere with key agency policies and operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
UN Watch is calling for the immediate dismantling of UNRWA, saying the organization has become a conduit for terrorism and a facilitator of violence in the Middle East.
“UNRWA isn’t just a bystander in the Arab-Israeli conflict – it’s a primary enabler,” observes Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “By allowing terrorists to infiltrate its ranks and incite violence, UNRWA isn’t promoting peace, they’re perpetuating hatred and war.”
The report includes images of terror leaders with UNRWA officials, and details years of instances where leadership of the UN agency closely cooperated with terror groups in secret. The report implicates many members of UNRWA leadership, including current-UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
“People need to understand that UNRWA isn’t the firefighter, it’s the arsonist. The U.S. and other Western nations who have given billions to UNRWA need to wake up. Your money is being used to employ terrorists, indoctrinate children, and build the infrastructure of hate and violence. The U.S. alone has given more than $1 billion to UNRWA over the past four years. This is a betrayal of your taxpayers and your values.”
“The time has finally come to dismantle UNRWA, an agency that glorifies terrorism,” said Neuer.
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An investigation into the secret ties between terrorist organizations and the UN’s largest aid agency
This report reveals how UNRWA, despite its claims to be a humanitarian agency, has forged an unholy alliance with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations. This secret relationship allows the terrorist organizations to significantly influence the policies and practices of a UN agency with 30,000 employees, and a $1.5 billion annual budget that is funded primarily by Western states.
The report shows how UNRWA’s international officials, and its senior local managers, routinely meet with terrorist groups in Lebanon and Gaza, mutually praise each other for “cooperation,” and describe each other as “partners.”
The terrorist groups frequently make demands of UNRWA and influence its decisions. Moreover, when the terrorists oppose specific actions by UNRWA— such as the introduction of biometric IDs for beneficiaries of UNRWA financial assistance, an ethics code affirming LGBT rights, or suspension of employees for promoting terrorism—the terrorist groups are often able to foil implementation, including by issuing threats.
Examples of the UNRWA-Terrorist Alliance
Examples of the UNRWA-terrorist alliance, documented in the report below with 68 photos obtained from open sources, include:
Conclusion
This report reveals how UNRWA’s senior management not only knowingly employ individuals tied to Hamas terrorism, but also allow the terrorist groups to influence critical agency decisions and policies.
Through uncovered photographic evidence, the report exposes the close relationship top UNRWA officials have with designated terrorist organizations.
Current and former UNRWA officials with terrorist ties included in the report are:
During the summer of 2024—because I could no longer bear the thought of not taking an active part in our ongoing war, and thanks also to my stubborn refusal to acknowledge my advancing years—I volunteered for the IDF reserves. For the first time in decades, I put on a uniform, donned a helmet, and picked up a gun; the uniform still fit me, more or less, while the latter two items were far heavier than I’d remembered.
My assignment was to help guard a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee near the source of the Jordan River: an area that was then under constant rocket fire from Hizballah terrorists based in neighboring Lebanon. Among my fellow reservists were women and men who’d been on duty, without a break, since the attacks of October 7, 2023. On that day they had faced the very real possibility of a Hizballah assault many times larger and deadlier than Hamas’s in Gaza—and yet their kibbutz’s emergency squad was armed with but a single automatic rifle. By the time I joined them in the following August, they still lacked the heavy weapons needed to repel any serious Hizballah infiltration.
In off-duty hours during my ensuing weeks of service, I interacted with the members of the kibbutz: extraordinary people who, despite the daily shelling, refused to leave their homes. Many were veterans, or the descendants of veterans, who’d defended the kibbutz through successive wars in the past.
On one such occasion, I attended a meeting of the community’s emergency committee, gathered to determine procedures in case Hizballah were to attack us directly. One participant reported that there were not enough sandbags on hand to barricade all the kibbutz’s windows. Another registered the lack of sufficient gravel to fill the industrial-sized sacks behind which the soldiers would defend the crossroads. Still others asked how the children could be evacuated in the event of an emergency. And what about the elderly? The bedridden?
Sitting there, witnessing this conversation, I couldn’t believe I was in modern-day Israel. If I closed my eyes and just listened, I could swear instead that we were not in 2024 but in 1948, three-quarters of a century earlier, at the height of Israel’s War of Independence.
That same sensation of déjà vu also hovered over a question that, ever since October 7, I was being frequently asked: which if any of Israel’s previous wars did today’s war most closely resemble?
To such a question, the obvious answer would have been the Yom Kippur War, which had erupted on October 6, 1973, exactly 50-years-and-a-day before this latest outbreak. Indeed, Hamas deliberately chose this date to start the war in a sadistic effort to reignite Israel’s Yom Kippur trauma.
As did the new war, the earlier one had begun in a massive surprise attack—led then by the Egyptian and Syrian armies—that had caught Israel and its armed forces completely off guard. And, as in 1973, Israel in 2023 and 2024 has turned that initial rout into a military victory not only in Gaza but now also in Lebanon. Cadets at West Point and other military academies around the world study Israel’s astonishing success in 1973. They will study our success in this war no less.
What is more, in addition to the similarities between our current conflict and the Yom Kippur War, we might also consider other parallels that range still farther back in time.
Take, for instance, the Six-Day War of 1967. That earlier conflict had broken out when the nationalist Arab forces of Egypt and its partners—Jordan, Syria, and Iraq—surrounded Israel and pledged to throw it into the sea. Similarly, 56 years later, on October 6, 2023, Israel would again find itself surrounded, this time not by nationalist Egypt and its proxies but by jihadist Iran and its proxies—Hamas, Hizballah, and the Houthis—all correspondingly bent on Israel’s destruction. And once again Israel would succeed in turning imminent existential disaster into a battlefield success every bit as impressive as that of the Six-Day War.
Nor is that all. Other clashes bearing parallels to this most recent one have included the First (1982) and Second (2006) Lebanon Wars, as well as the brief Gaza operations of 2008, 2012, and 2014. Each of these, to one degree or another, can realistically be seen as foreshadowing the current conflict—so that now, with Israel continuing to fight, we can discern sharp echoes not only of 1973 and 1967 but also of our more recent series of border clashes.
But for me the larger truth remains that in the roster of Israel’s conflicts over the decades since achieving statehood, none today continues to echo so resonantly—or so instructively—as does the one I named at the start: the 1948–49 War of Independence.
Let me explain.
First, as in our War of Independence,the current war has been fought not deep in enemy territory but nearby and indeed within the state itself: in our farms, towns, settlements, and municipalities.
Next, like its predecessor at Israel’s birth, this latest war has been waged not only or even principally against our armed forces but rather against our civilian population—with similarly horrifying results in the toll of Israelis killed and grievously injured or seized, tortured, and hauled into captivity. This war, again like the War of Independence, has seen civilian Israeli volunteers picking up guns to protect and secure their homes and their families huddling in bomb shelters.
Finally, this war—for which we do not yet have a nationally accepted name—not only resembles the War of Independence but also rivals it in terms of its duration. As of the January 19th cease-fire, the current conflict has outlasted our independence struggle by four days.
Like Israel’s other wars, this latest one, too, has been fought for our security, if not for our very survival. But the current war is also being fought for something even more fateful. That something is Israel’s soul.
That is what was at stake from the very moment this war began, at 6:29 on the morning of October 7, 2023, when our soul was already torn by political schisms. The catalyst was the launch by the newly elected government, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, of a far-reaching reform of the judicial system. With the subsequent hardening of positions on either side came the dangerous refusal of IDF reservists to report to duty and the government’s refusal to heed warnings of the threats of such internal divisions to Israeli security.
The scene, only days before October 7, of Israelis clashing in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Plaza over the nature of public Yom Kippur prayers revealed how deep and dangerous those schisms had grown. Whether for or against the judicial reforms, Israelis appeared united in believing that they could continue to indulge in this open drama of severe civil strife and not, as a society, be required to pay a price for it. Bound by the belief that the “Startup Nation”—that world-renowned destination for culinary tours, that champion winner of Eurovision musical contests, that recipient of the highest awards in the fields of literature and film—was somehow located geographically in Paris, or San Francisco, we forgot that we were, in fact, in the Middle East.
Hamas did not forget. We now know from documents found in Gaza that Israel’s internal struggle helped Hamas determine both the timing and the ferocity of its October 7 attack.
That onslaught ripped Israel’s soul apart even more widely. It threatened to tear asunder our twin duties to guard the land and people of Israel and to redeem those captured in its defense. We remain torn by two interwoven fears: first, that if we were to fail to secure the freedom of the hostages, Israeli parents would no longer be able with a clear conscience to send their children to serve in the army; and second, that if we fail to defeat and crush Hamas, Israelis will no longer have an army to send their children to.
Meanwhile, in the world at large, Israel was finding itself increasingly isolated, accused of committing genocide even as Hamas and its supporters were celebrating the genocide that its terrorists had attempted to commit. Despite the supreme efforts of the IDF to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza, despite registering the lowest ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in modern military history, we were widely condemned, even by our American ally, of responding “disproportionately” and “over the top” to the slaughter of October 7, of killing “entirely too many Palestinians,” and of dehumanizing and deliberately starving non-combatants. Across the United States and Western Europe, the university campuses where many Israelis had studied or taught turned into arenas for anti-Semitic spectacles. Classic anti-Semitic tropes, stipulating the Jewish people’s penchant for vengeance or its thirst for children’s blood, proliferated in Western media.
As if all these nightmares proved insufficient, Hizballah soon physically joined Hamas’s assault, and so did the Houthis of Yemen and the Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq. Iran would fire some 700 ballistic missiles and drones at Israel. As millions of Israelis sheltered from the incessant barrages, 200,000 became internal refugees, fleeing their residences in both the north and the south. What certainty did we have—did any of us have—that the Jewish state could nevertheless prevail?
This, in short,was a true 1948 moment, evoking nothing so threatening as the evening of May 14, 1948, only hours after David Ben-Gurion had proclaimed Israel’s independence, when five Arab armies joined by barbarous terrorist bands invaded the nascent Jewish state in order todestroy it. That, too, was a genocidal campaign, smashing through our borders in the Negev and the Galilee, triggering desperate fighting in Jerusalem, Safed, and Jaffa, and claiming the lives of thousands.
And then too, Israel had been alone. We had no major allies. Although President Truman had seen to it that the U.S. would be the first nation to recognize the re-created Jewish state, he just as swiftly slapped on that state a total arms embargo.
The late Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, with whom I had the honor to work, once told me that, on May 14, 1948, Israeli forces possessed barely enough bullets to fight for a single week. Just so, visiting an artillery base last summer in the north, I was told that, as a result of the cutoff of American supplies, our cannons were down to firing a mere five shells per day.
In the current war, Israel has had to make such excruciating decisions as whether to continue destroying Hamas no matter what or, in return for the hostages’ release, to risk the state’s long-term security. In 1948–49, Ben-Gurion had to decide which part of the embattled Jewish state to preserve first: Jerusalem? Tel Aviv? Beersheva? The entire country could not be defended at once. Like today, Israeli forces in 1948 were stretched thin, traumatized by battle, exhausted.
Israel also entered its first war with its soul already divided between competing Zionist visions and ideologies: politically, between liberal-socialist Zionism and revisionist Zionism; militarily, between the Irgun and Leḥi on one side and the Haganah and Palmaḥ on the other. It was an internal schism every bit as bitter, if not more so, than that of prewar 2023.
Was it in light of those similarities between 1948 and today that Prime Minister Netanyahu has called this latest struggle a war of revival (milḥemet t’kumah)—a Hebrew phrase that has also become a longstanding popular term for the 1948 War of Independence? Be that as it may, and setting aside strategic and logistical parallels, this war, as I see it, also recalls the War of Independence in a more fateful, morally direct, and in the end transformative way. As I see it, this must be the war to correct, and to get right, the things we got wrong in 1948.
For example: this must be the war in which the Israeli public will no longer be required to abide the refusal of Haredim to serve in the IDF. That exemption, first conferred by Ben-Gurion in 1949 to no more than 400 yeshiva students, has expanded to include 70,000 eligible conscripts. Such gross imbalance cannot continue.
This, then, is the war in which the citizens’ army of Israel must and will become an army of all its citizens—an army in which Haredim serve just as they served without protest, proudly, in 1948. And serving too will be not only Haredim but also the Israeli Arabs whom Hamas and Hizballah refused to distinguish from Israeli Jews, slaughtering us all indifferently.
There is more. In 1948, the state of Israel secured its territorial sovereignty at an excruciating cost: a sovereignty that over the decades it has largely forfeited in such crucial geographical areas as the Negev—62 percent of the country’s territory—where the state’s laws against polygamy, drug trafficking, and gun trafficking are rarely if ever enforced, and where, especially among the Bedouin community, illegal construction continues apace.
In this war, we Israelis will remind ourselves of other lessons from 1948 that we’ve steadily forgotten. We will recall that we live not in Sweden or California but in the homicidal, fratricidal, and genocidal Middle East. We will recall that, while we can form crucial alliances, at the end of the day we alone are responsible for our defense. We will also recall that, rather than remaining dependent on foreign sources of arms, to the greatest degree possible we must be munitions-independent. As in 1948, we must manufacture not only our own bullets, grenades, and “Davidkas” (homemade mortars) but ordinance for tanks, artillery, and combat aircraft.
As in 1948, a war fought a mere three years after the Holocaust, we today and tomorrow must grapple with the reality of anti-Semitism. We must come to grips with the reality of a world that cares little for Jewish life while, and despite the superhuman efforts of the IDF to minimize Palestinian and Lebanese casualties, condemning us for non-existent war crimes and issuing warrants for our leaders’ arrest.
Most crucially, this is the war in which we must once again learn the meaning of Zionism. That meaning can itself be defined, and encompassed, in a single word: responsibility. While the disaster of October 7 was the product of many Israeli failures, the most egregious of all was the failure to have assumed responsibility for the defense of our border and the population living alongside it.
We must fulfill that responsibility, along with the responsibility to pursue an effective public diplomacy and protect our image in the world. We must also adequately and responsibly arm and equip our soldiers, while contributing as well to the defense of Jewish communities abroad. Above all, we must be responsible in demonstrating to our people, beyond all conceivable doubt, that the state has done the utmost to secure the release of any who have been taken hostage.
In this, our second war of independence, we have the opportunity—and beyond that, the duty—to ensure Israeli and Jewish unity. Our leaders have the opportunity to exhibit and personify the kind of behavior urged by Ben-Gurion in his most exalted (if untranslatable) coinage: mamlakhtiyut: i.e., acting in a respectable, responsible, and statesmanlike manner. Perhaps that would even be a more fitting name than the war of revival, or Iron Swords (the IDF’s formal name for its current military operations): milhemet ha- mamlakhtiyut, the war for attaining true sovereignty.
Thus, along with winning the war on the battlefield, we must triumph also in the war for Israel’s soul. Even though the extraordinary solidarity we experienced at the beginning of the war is today once again in danger of unraveling, there is reason to believe we will avoid the bloody internecine hatred of the kind once openly unleashed when, at the height of the Arab invasion of 1948, one Israeli armed force deliberately sank a ship (the Altalena) bearing the fighters of another.
Above all, we have every reason to be optimistic about the generation that has fought and continues to fight this war: the 360,000 reservists who, proportionally speaking, made up the equivalent of 20 million Americans—four million more than served in all of World War II.
They, the members of this generation, are tempered, steeled, anything but fragile, and intensely patriotic. They are the greatest such generation we have known since 1948. They are the Levi Eshkols and Golda Meirs, the Yitzhak Rabins and the Moshe Dayans of the future. They have been, and they remain, united, transcending all of the usual Israeli divisions—politics, religion, ethnicity—to live and to fight as a single force and with singular purpose. They are unparalleled in their resilience, their camaraderie, their quiet moral confidence, and their courage.
This generation will lead our country in rebuilding, reviving, and breathing new life into the Zionist project. This is the war for restoring our dignity, our identity, our independence, and for reaffirming and embracing our responsibility. This is the war after which, each time we rise to sing our national anthem anywhere and everywhere in the strong, sovereign, responsible Jewish state of Israel, we can stress, without modification, elision, or irony, the final phrases that say exactly who we are: “a free people, in our own land, in the land of Zion, in Jerusalem.”
Download PDF: Comprehensive Indictment of UNRWA Please refer to p.100
The Senate confirmation hearing for Gov. Mike Huckabee to become the U.S. ambassador to Israel was delayed once again—this time from March 13 to March 25.
Peloni: The relevance of this 2023 proposed study stands today as being arguably more relevant than ever. Note that UNRWA now operates on a $1.6 billion budget and not as stated in this proposal which was written two years ago.
David Bedein | Center For Near East Policy Research Ltd | Original Proposal Dated 2023
Israeli corporations have a de facto monopoly on the provision of supplies to Gaza and other PA areas. The ability of these corporations to sustain their exclusive control of this multi-billion dollar market is wholly dependent on COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) decision making. Over the past several weeks, COGAT has raised an alarm that humanitarian aid from UNRWA is not reaching the Palestinian population. Noting that this alarm is inconsistent with 1000 trucks a day carrying Israeli products into Gaza, the Center for Near East Policy Research (CFNEPR) contacted 44 donor nations. With the exception of a nominal reduction in U.S. aid, every donor nation responded emphatically that UNRWA and hence Gaza, is receiving 100% of its customary donations, an amount that CFNEPR calculates to be $1.2 billion dollars per year.
This on-going funding includes $13.5 million transferred on behalf of the Bank of Israel each month in cash by COGAT officials at the Erez border crossing that is put into the hands of the UNRWA workers union which is under the control of Hamas. Once the Israeli goods have been offloaded from the Israeli trucks, witnesses have observed cash payments being made to COGAT officials.
Why Is COGAT Raising an Alarm?
One possibility is that the current storm puts the Israeli monopoly at risk. Another is the opportunistic view that this is a good time to expand the lucrative export trade. Our best estimate is that about 150 former COGAT officials are senior executives at companies that export goods to Gaza and PA areas.
The tradition of former COGAT officials joining commercial enterprises for the sole purpose of profiting from exports to Gaza and the PA began in 2005. With the expulsion of the Gush Katif communities and the hand over of their assets to Hamas via the World Bank, Gaza became a cash cow for Israeli entrepreneurs. At the time, Gen. Eival Giladi, the COGAT official in charge of the expulsions was placed in charge of Palestinian business development through the Portland Trust. It was at this juncture that former COGAT officials responsible for vetting Israeli products paid for in cash by Gazans began abandoning service to COGAT in order to assume profitable roles as exporters to Gaza.
At the time, an investigation we carried out exposed arrangements by which the IDF, the PA, the U.S. and UNRWA cooperated to hand the Gaza economy over to Hamas. Today, for Israel’s financial stakeholders, preservation of a status quo in which Israeli corporations maintain a de facto monopoly on the provision of supplies to PA areas is a top priority. The advantages of preserving this monopoly also give those corporations good reason to try to influence military decision making.
The idea that the IDF would consider commercial interests in its military planning at first seems preposterous. However, mounting practical and circumstantial evidence is telling precisely that story. It begins with what we already know with certainty: UNRWA has historically promoted Israeli commercial interests by maintaining a huge labor force willing to work below minimum wage while living in housing, enjoying educations, and using water and electricity paid for by UNRWA. To this day, the PA areas remain a captive consumer economy dependent on Israeli products.
The synergy created by Israel’s official hands-off policy and the clear interest that UNRWA, the PLO, and donor nations have in perpetuating the status quo create a perfect economic storm in which Israeli conglomerates operate. Through their complicity in perpetuating this status quo, UNRWA, the PLO, and donor nations have provided Israeli commercial interests with a smokescreen behind which they obscure their exploitation of a captive consumer market.
It is understandable why Israeli businesses would want to sustain the status quo. By 1987, there were 300,000 Palestinian UNRWA workers in Israel — equaling nearly 7% of the entire population of the country. The intifada led to a withdrawal of that workforce, but by then the attitude of the Israeli business community was fixed. The captive UNRWA market was a golden goose for Israeli products delivered to a suffering population by ostensibly helping hands.
Our initial finding is that financial windfalls, greed, and the appeal of monopoly has brought about a situation where former IDF officers may be using their influence to sustain a status quo that not only harms Israel’s national interest, but which may impact on IDF tactical and strategic decisions in Gaza. It is not a remote possibility that this situation has both resulted in the loss of Israeli soldiers and exposes civilians to increased danger.
The ensuing situation has been one in which massive amounts of pilfered cash from UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies has wound up in the hands of Hamas for the sole purpose of supporting terrorist activities. Huge sums of this cash are earmarked by Hamas for purchasing Israeli products. We have subsequently been able to confirm that in the case of each of the three IDF incursions into Gaza between 2007 to 2014 that were on the verge of decisively crushing Hamas were eased as a result of demands by the Israeli business community that their products be allowed to get through.
Our published findings to date have included the disturbing revelation that a high ranking COGAT official set up a company in charge of cement distribution in Gaza. In this arrangement UNRWA in Gaza was given responsibility for ensuring this cement would not reach Hamas terrorists. If the unsavory absurdity of this arrangement requires further verification, one need only look at the number of terrorist tunnels that continue to be discovered and destroyed, and the amount of cement that is being imported to replace them. This is a supplier’s dream scenario.
That this scenario is something other than building materials that simply slipped through the cracks is borne out by the fact that there are NO RESTRICTIONS on Israeli exports to Gaza:
According to COGAT, there is no restriction on those wishing to bring goods into Israel, and that it is entirely possible that Gazan terrorist organizations are carrying out trade with Israeli citizens.
“There is no list of authorized merchants, since, generally speaking, there is no restriction on those wishing to trade [with Gaza].” – COGAT (see The Jewish Press, July 2, 2018)
Our sampling has confirmed that these exports are dominated by firms owned by former senior IDF officers. In the face of both compelling circumstantial evidence and the preliminary data we have uncovered, there is an urgent need to answer one remaining question with certainty:
DOES THE ISRAELI ARMY REGULATE ITS ACTIONS to benefit COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF ITS FORMER OFFICERS?
Over ninety days we will tie circumstantial evidence to an exhaustive investigation in order to answer this question conclusively and make recommendations by:
Our team will include tri-lingual investigators (Hebrew, English, Arabic) with backgrounds in economics and security analysis.
Investigation
With the exception of high-tech, the businesses being examined operate with the oversight of the Israeli Army and COGAT. The rules are such that high-tech bypasses governmental approvals and employs hundreds of computer engineers to work via the internet with Israeli companies, allowing PA/Hamas engineers access out transactions.
UN-affiliated organizations such as UNRWA place requests for tenders via a UN procurement organization, which, in turn, contacts every vendor in order to carry out transactions.
This study will examine:
APPENDIX
This study will focus primarily on the following companies.
1. Ready-Mix Industries Israel: Ytzhak Bejerano, CEO. 155 Bialik Street, Ramat-Gan.
2. Hanson Israel: This company maintains 26 technologically advanced concrete and mortar production plants, with an annual capacity of approximately 3 million cubic meters; 3 quarries with an annual yield exceeding 8 million tons of aggregates; 2 asphalt plants capable of supplying about one million tons of different types of asphalt annually; and a fleet of 130 trucks to transport concrete and building materials. 5 Jabotinski St. Ramat Gan, 5252006Israel 972-3-5764242: Eliezer Priel, CEO.
Hanson Israel LTD. (Heidelberg Cement Group), Dubi Halaban, CFO.
3. A.S.T Clean Water Technologies, LTD. 26 Dayan Moshe Rd., Haifa, 2629824.
4. Delek – Israel Fuel Corporation LTD.
British Gas Group discovered a natural gas reservoir over 15 years ago off the coast of Gaza that is similar in capacity to that of the Yam Tethys project, and this reservoir may be developed in the future and marketed both locally and to the Mari-B, which has already been largely depleted by Noble and its partner, the Israeli company Delek Group, might have fallen squarely within Palestinian claims by as much as 6,600 square kilometers of maritime territory within the eastern Mediterranean’s gas-rich Levantine Basin. The PA, however, has been reticent in asserting Palestinian claims to much of these resources.
Palestinians are almost totally dependent on the state-backed Israeli Electric Corporation (IEC), which supplies around 85 percent of their electricity. However, gas from Noa, Mari-B and, according to SOMO, the Border Field, is sold to the IEC by the Noble and Delek Group.
The regional supply also includes Gaza-Marine, with estimated reserves of 32 BCM. The field was discovered by Israel and transferred to the Palestinian Authority. Gaza-Marine is jointly owned by Shell, the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF) and the Consolidated Contractors Limited (CCC). However, the field’s location, off the Mediterranean coast of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, makes its probable development in the near-term unlikely. In the long-term, we expect that, pending appropriate political conditions, the reservoir will be developed and will serve as a source of supply to the Palestinian market to complement future gas imports from Israel.
Delek Group LTD is the ultimate owner of Delek Israel through its fully owned
subsidiary Delek Petroleum.
Delek Group LTD is a public Israeli company traded on the Tel Aviv stock exchange
under the ticker symbol DELEKG. Its controlling shareholder is Itshak Sharon
(60.51%).
Delek Israel CEO, Esther Eldan
Subsidiaries / Partners:
Wholly owned subsidiaries: Delek Natural Gas LTD., Delek P-Galilot Limited Partnership LTD., Delek Industries LTD., Delek Transportation LTD., Delek Menta Roads Retails LTD, Delek Retail Stores LTD., Shot Delek Kliot.
The company also holds 51% of Joe Gourmet Coffee, 75% of United Company for the extraction of Oil LTD.,60% of Delek-Ygal M.P.G LTD., and 15% of Kmor Shipping Services LTD. Head office: 7 Gibory Israel St. 4250407, Netanya.
5. Isa Khoury Metal Industry LTD. 3 Ha-Nekhoshet St. Beer Sheva, IL 8487503
Well known in metal and mechanical construction works in the region and expanding worldwide, with subsidiary offices in Nazareth, Bethlehem in the PA and in Aqaba, Jordan. ISA KHOURY writes in its company description that it has an “outstanding relationship with Israeli Borders authority and articulate communication skill in handling political matters between Israeli and PA entities”.
Constructed the first Gaza Power Plant in situated in Gaza with 140MW under Alstom Sweden Contract.
6. G. Willi-Food International. The Company has developed trade relationships locally, as well as in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority. 4 Nahal Harif St., Northern Industrial Zone, Yavne, 81106, Israel. Amir Kaplan, Chief Financial Officer.
7. PAZ Oil Company. The company is publicly traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PZOL.Top institutional shareholders: Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings LTD. (6.56%), Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services LTD (6.13%), Meitav DS Investments LTD (6.0%), The Phoenix Holdings LTD (5.18%), Menora Mivtahim Pensions and Gemel LTD (5.06%).
Subsidiaries / Partners:
Main subsidiaries: Paz Industries and Services (Oil) LTD. (100%), Pazgas (100%), Paz Lubricants and Chemicals (100%), Pazkar (100%), Paz Aviation Services (100%), Paz Aviation Assets (100%), Azomat of the Paz Group (100%), Nituv Filling Stations (100%), Paz Movil (100%), Paz Ashdod Oil Refineries (100%) and Pi-Glilot Oil and Pipe Terminals (21.5%).
Joint ventures include: Pazniv Yerid Hamizrach (50%), Gai Iron (50%), On Fuel Lubricants and Wash (50%), Kenyon Shoket (50%) and Solpaz.
The company enjoys access to the Palestinian market.
The Palestinian Authority is Paz’s largest customer, accounting for about 10% of its total revenues. In 2016, it supplied about 50% of the oil product and about 85% of the LPG (liquid petroleum gas) to the West Bank and to the Gaza Strip.
As collateral, the company holds the right to collect its payment from Palestinian tax revenues held by the Israeli government. Israel has repeatedly used its power to withhold Palestinian tax revenues as a punitive measure against the PA, in violation of both the Oslo Accords and international law.
The company has filling stations in East Jerusalem.
8. Nesher Cement. Ownership: Clal Industries (100%). Clal Industries is a subsidiary of Access Industries, a US-based holding company, owned by Len Blavatnik. Subsidiaries / Partners: Company subsidiaries include Nesher Sachar cement marketing, Taman (PPM), MP Mineral, Taavura Holdings and AvShal Investment and Trade, which owns Israel Shipyards and Nesher Environment.
Location: 2 Hahazon Street, Industrial Zone A – Ramla 72369 Israel
9. Israeli High-Tech industries that work with Gaza companies: This is something new, which does not fall under COGAT oversight and operates without a physical presence in Gaza. Essentially, this is trade in non-humanitarian products.
a. Innitel (Changed name to Deskforce, uses Gaza engineers) CEO Elie Rubin,
CTO Dan Leubitz.
b. Mellanox: Eyal Waldman, President, and CEO of Mellanox Technologies LTD.
UN VENDOR LIST:
The study will examine transparency procedures concerning the goods and services that Israeli corporations provide to the UN. The study will ask the Israeli government to name the “end users” for these products.
Israeli companies currently on the UN Vendor List:
Gevaram Quality Envelopes LTD
Gilat Satcom LTD
Gizra Internet Solutions LTD
Glosec Solutions LTD
Goren-Kidon International trade LTD Hafatsa and Harkavot
Hatzor Safes LTD
HP PPS Israel LTD
I.D.E. Technologies LTD.
I.Y.Genesis Advanced Engineering LTD Iconic LTD.
IO Solutions LTD.
Isa Khoury Metal Industry LTD.
ISRAEL AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES LTD. ISRAEL CARGO LOGISTICS (ICL) LTD. JACKY BITTON LINE LTD
John Bryce Training LTD.
Karil International Marketing LTD
Karmi Interlab L.T.D
KNOLTECH LTD
L.A.D.M. Agencies (1998) LTD.
L.D.D. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES (2005) LTD LADM Agencies (1998) LTD
Lan-Lee International LTD.
LAN-TECH Systems & Communications LTD. Layam LTD
Link-com Telecom LTD
Lotan Group International LTD
Magal Security Systems LTD
Matrix I.T. LTD.
Meprolight (1990) LTD.
MER SECURITY & COMMUNICATIONSYSTEMS LTD.
MGS Language services
Mifram LTD
Mosah Zamir Bakal LTD
Mottech Water Management LTD. N.A. Rosenfeld Projects LTD
NESS A.T. LTD
Netalizer LTD.
Nextcom LTD
Nibor Enterprises Israel LTD.
NICE Systems LTD.
A.S.T CLEAN WATER TECHNOLOGIES LTD Adi Tours LTD
Aeroflame – Fire Fighting Systems LTD AGAN ENGINEERING ENTERPRISES (1988) LTD. Aleppo International
Amos Gazit LTD.
ATID TECHNOLOGICCOLLEGESNETWORKLTD Avner Gilad Preservation & Restoration of Buildings LTD
B.Rimon Agencies LTD
Barlev Associates, Accountants
Bezeq International LTD
Biometrix LTD
BIRD Aerosystems
BlueBird Aero Systems LTD.
Bney Meir LTD
Brand Industries LTD.
Bynet Data Communications LTD
C&G Logistics Solutions LTD.
C.A.L. CARGO AIRLINE LTD
Carmor Integrated Vehicle Solutions LTD. Ceragon Networks LTD.
CHROMAGENAGRICULTURECOOPERATIONSOCIE TY LTD
Classica International LTD.
Computer C Data LTD
CueBid Inc,
Danir Systems LTD.
DELEK -ISRAEL FUEL CORPORATION LTD. Diesel Garage Tiberias LTD
DIUK ARCHES LTD
E Geller Consulting
E.D.T. E-Drive Technology LTD
EASY LINE LTD
EITHAR INSURANCE AGENCY CO. LTD. Elbit Systems LTD
Elco – Contracting and Services (1973) Limited Eltel Technologistics LTD
Eshet Engineering LTD.
EZPack Water LTD
Firefly LTD.
Galillee College
Gaya Automotive Industries LTD.
Sdema Group, LTD. (Israel)
Shladot LTD.
Somet Integration LTD
Sonol israel LTD.
SPACE-BAND
Starcom G.P.S Systems LTD.
Sunshield Safety Coating Solutions LTD SysDo LTD
T.D. GROUP LTD
Tahal Consulting Engineers LTD. Tal Jerusalem Stonemasons L.T.D. Tamooz Marketing Communications Tenders System LTD.
Tractors & Equipment LTD (I.T.E) Upgrade Solutions LTD
Water-Gen LTD
Zim Integrated Shipping Services LTD. ZIV-AV Engineering LTD
Nir Zaidfunden Consulting Engineers LTD ODIS Filtering LTD
Ofek Aerial Photography (1987) LTD Onset Systems Engineering LTD
Opgal Optronic Industries LTD
Ophir- Mizrachi Yosef
OrliteIndustries(Millenium2000)LTD PALRAM INDUSTRIES (1990) LTD
PAZ OIL COMPANY LTD.
Plasan Sasa LTD
Rabintex Industries LTD
RAD Data Communications LTD.
Robogroup T.E.K. LTD.
S.B. HANDLING SOLUTIONS LTD
S.D. ADVANCED SOLUTIONS LTD
Sami Awadallah for Construction Works LTD Scope Metals Group LTD.
Without remembering past events, we are doomed to repeat the same fatal mistakes.
This has been proven endlessly over the millennia of Jewish history and is as relevant today as it was in past years.
This past week, Jews commemorated Shabbat Zachor and read the passage from Exodus, commanding a remembrance of how Amalek attacked the vulnerable Israelites as they trekked to the Promised Land. That singular Biblical event and its annual recitation set the scene for what is a communal determination to remember and act against those who plot our demise.
As we celebrate Purim and the deliverance of Persian Jews from genocidal machinations the lessons of the past should be foremost in our minds. At no time since the end of the Shoah have those plotting evil against Jews been more vocal and active.
It is unfortunate but not surprising that, once again, we face a largely indifferent world. Expressions of solidarity are swamped by cynical votes against Israel at international gatherings. Today’s successors of Haman plan their latest version of Jew cleansing and the world prefers to pretend that it’s all a bluff.
A brief survey of the latest developments should be a wake-up call for sceptics who see nothing amiss, optimists who prefer to pretend that peace beckons at the end of the rainbow and realists who fear that time is running out.
Purim this year is still being celebrated in the shadow of post-7 October 2023 traumas with Israeli hostages, dead and alive, being held by Hamas for ransom. The deadly consequences of Islamic terror are a potent reminder of the carnage that results from underestimating the nefarious designs of our detractors.
In a unique twist of irony the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is also being observed at this time. Based on past experiences, this is likely to unleash increased violence and terror. For devout Muslims, it is a time of fasting, reflection and communal gatherings. Unfortunately for an increasing number of jihadist militants it has also become a month when Islam is hijacked and used as a weapon against those they perceive as “infidels.” An upsurge in terror-related activity in Israel is usually the norm. As expected, the usual groups have issued clarion calls for violence with the Temple Mount being a convenient excuse.
Missing in action are denunciations of this kidnapping of Islam by increasing numbers of fanatics. The almost total silence of Islamic clerics and political leaders in the face of this wave of hate is very noticeable. Are they silent because of a fear of retaliation by their own followers or does their silence signify passive approval?
Just as bad is the silence of Christians and many Jewish religious and lay leaders in countries outside of Israel. In many places interfaith gatherings are organized which purport to demonstrate that we are all mates together and nothing is amiss. Unfortunately, celebrants fail to remember underlying worrying narratives. The results can be soul-destroying, especially when illusory mirages are cruelly shattered.
This is exactly what has recently occurred in the United Kingdom.
An attempt at a Jewish – Muslim reconciliation was attempted whereby a much-touted pact was signed by several UK Islamic notables and Jewish leaders, including the Chief Rabbi. This declaration of fraternal friendship was presented to King Charles amidst much fanfare and media hoopla. I wondered how long it would take before a counter-reaction would be forthcoming from Islamic representatives who saw this as some sort of a betrayal.
Sure enough this week, just in time for Ramadan, the expected denunciations were forthcoming.
A coalition of UK Muslim organizations rejected this pact aimed at improving relations between the two communities because of the “involvement of British Chief Rabbi Mirvis” who they denounced as a “staunch Zionist. He has supported Israel’s war on the Palestinians in Gaza. We cannot in good faith acknowledge these accords when the Chief Rabbi has made public statements supporting Israel despite the horrific actions of the Israel occupation forces.” They went on to state that they would only accept and support the accords if the UK Chief Rabbi condemns the “genocide and apartheid being enacted against the Palestinian people.” We reject these accords “made purportedly on behalf of the Muslim community.” In conclusion they said that “a central facet of Islam is the complete rejection of oppression. As a community we do not shy away from rejecting oppression in all its forms against anyone.”
Remembering past and current experiences of Jews and others one can only marvel at the breathtaking claims. The number of Christian and Jewish infidels put to the sword since the advent of Islam is most probably only surpassed by the number of Muslims murdered in the name of Allah by other Islamists.
The irrational and poisonous strain of anti-Jewish hate combined with an obsessive objection to any Jewish historical sovereign rights is the “elephant in the room” that needs addressing. A cowardly silence and a fake friendship in the face of stark realities is not a recipe for any sort of genuine reconciliation or tolerance.
Next up is a classic example of how remembrance can be classified as non-diplomatic.
The New Zealand High Commissioner to the UK was sacked this past week for the “crime” of articulating plain truths instead of utilizing diplomatic double-speak.
It seems that the hapless diplomat was asked his opinion about Ukraine and President Trump’s policies. Instead of repeating the politically correct and banal responses of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, High Commissioner Phil Goff mused that he had just read the comments of Winston Churchill spoken in 1938. After British PM Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich with “the deal of peace with honour and for our time” he was hailed as a latter day messiah and saviour of humanity.
Churchill’s famous retort to this outbreak of collective euphoria about selling Czechoslovakia down the river and making dubious deals with international terror patrons remains relevant.
“You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”
No doubt, New Zealand’s diplomatic representative to the UK found this a most appropriate observation, taking into account that Russia has territorial ambitions in the Ukraine. His further observation that he doubted Trump’s grasp of history was no doubt the final straw as far as Wellington was concerned.
His dismissal for articulating inconvenient truths is yet another example of how hypocrisy flourishes in the corridors of international diplomacy.
It has been revealed that “negotiations” have been taking place between a US negotiator and Hamas about releasing a dual US hostage and extending a ceasefire.
This has thrust the whole question of whether one should deal with terrorist organizations into the debate. Is it better to talk to these murderers or should we deal with them in the only real way that they understand?
Israel has, at times in the past, tried indirect negotiations with terror facilitators, and the end results have always been a complete fiasco. The most prominent example of this failed policy was the rescue of Arafat and his terror cronies from a sure end in Lebanon in 1982. Allowed to go into exile in Tunisia with his supporters this deal with the PLO laid the groundwork for subsequent legitimization of everything to do with “liberating Palestine.”
This disastrous gesture was then subsequently made even worse when the infamous Oslo Accords granted them an internationally blessed certificate of approval. A deal bringing a terror entity to our border sanctified the PLO as a “true” partner when in actual fact it really guaranteed the death of Israelis and perpetual murderous deeds.
Hamas has obviously taken on board the lessons of Oslo because after the latest futile attempt to involve it in meaningless talks it issued a triumphant statement claiming that “it sees these talks with the USA as the beginning of gaining international legitimacy.”
It is, therefore, appropriate at this time for Israeli decision-makers to remember the painful lessons that Purim teaches us.
Our response to Amalek was not one of the deals but the uncompromising determination to defeat terror and ensure that the murder of Jews would never go unpunished.
Likewise, the lessons of the Purim episode are not to hide but instead thwart nefarious schemes against Jews.
We must constantly remember in order to avoid the lethal pitfalls of the past.
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