 GUERNICA BY Pablo Picasso
Elon Musk’s Revelation – He Didn’t Know it Was About Israel: The Land of Israel Fellowship
Elon Musk-tweet-31October2023-The real battle
The real battle is between the extinctionists and the humanists.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
 Elon Musk-tweet-31October2023-The real battle is between the extinctionists and the humanists. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Islamic Conquest between 7th and 9th Century
 Islamic Conquest between 7th and 9th Century-Map
 Map of the 12 Tribes of Israel Excerpted from The Chanukah Scroll by Hagi Ben Artzi:
[When Antiochus sent a demand for the return of captured ‘Greek cities’ in Eretz Yisrael] …Shimon rebuffed these demands…, and responded in resolute and firm terms:
“We didn’t take a foreign land and we didn’t exist on the spoils of other nations, but on the lands of our fathers that through the years was illegally seized by our enemies. We, when we had the opportunity, restored our birthright.” – Shimon Maccabee to the Greek Antiochus 2158 year ago. 3626 -136BCE
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 Judenstern_Yellow Star of David
Symbol that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, so that they could be identified as Jews. |
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Israel Hamas War RANT
Yishai Fleisher @YishaiFleisherTV https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1EasxeXGzoXJb2y3HTMsLA |
Excerpted from The Chanukah Scroll by Hagi Ben Artzi:
[When Antiochus sent a demand for the return of captured ‘Greek cities’ in Eretz Yisrael] …Shimon rebuffed these demands…, and responded in resolute and firm terms:
“We didn’t take a foreign land and we didn’t exist on the spoils of other nations, but on the lands of our fathers that through the years was illegally seized by our enemies. We, when we had the opportunity, restored our birthright.” – Shimon Maccabee to the Greek Antiochus 2158 year ago. 3626 -136BCE
1 Tevet 5784 12December2023 http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2023/12/those-inspiring-maccabees.html
Rosh Chodesh
6th Candle of Hanukkah<
Following is a sampling of inspiring speeches made by the Maccabean leaders which aroused the Jewish neshamahs of their followers to greatness in the Name of Hashem. Excerpted from The Chanukah Scroll by Hagi Ben Artzi:
[To the Greek officer who bid him come and sacrifice a pig on the altar to Zeus,]…Matityahu’s response was delivered in a loud and confident voice, and was clearly heard throughout the city square. Matityahu said: “Even if all the nations in the Kingdom of Antiochus hearken to him and abandon their traditions and customs and follow the paths of the Greeks, I, and my sons and my brothers will continue to walk in the ways of our Forefathers, and will not betray the covenant of our God. We dare not leave our Torah and our national tradition! We will not follow and will not hearken to the words of King Antiochus, for the God Who dwells in Heaven is our King.”
…”Jews, we are going out to war! Whoever is zealous for the Torah, whoever is loyal to the covenant with our God, follow me to fight for our faith and our Torah!”
[Even from his deathbed, Matityahu persevered]…”My sons, be zealous for the Torah; give your very souls for the sake of the covenant of your Forefathers. Remember the actions of your fathers, how they gave their lives and brought salvation to their nation. Remember Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov; remember Moshe and Pinchas; remember Yehoshua and Calev; remember David and Eliyahu; remember Daniel, Chanayah, Mishael and Azaryah.
Carefully reflect on the previous generations; learn from them that one need not fear an evil man, even if he is strong and threatening. Our fathers trusted in God, and He came to their salvation. You, as well: Believe in God, and become strong with Torah – for only this way will bring you pride. In your war with the enemies of our nation, Yehuda will be your Chief of Staff and commander, and Shimon will be your advisor and father. Gather to you all those who uphold the Torah, and avenge the honor of your people. Give the Gentiles what they deserve, and hold fast on to the Torah’s commandments.”
With these words, Matityahu passed away….
…when Yehuda’s few men saw the great Syrian army marching towards them, great fear fell upon them. They called to their commander Yehuda: “We are few and weak; how will we be able to fight this great camp?” Yehuda then gathered all the men together, and strengthened their spirit with words of faith.
Thus he said to them: “Nothing can prevent God from saving us, whether we are few or many. It is not great numbers of soldiers or heavy weaponry that brings victory in war. It is rather a spirit of valor, one that stems from true faith. We are fighting for our nation and our Torah, whereas they are coming upon us with haughtiness and evil, to destroy us, our wives and our children, and to take our property. The God of our fathers will not abandon us; He will smite them before us.
Arise, my brothers! Go out and fight without fear!”
When Yehuda finished speaking, a spirit of valor overtook his men, and they fell upon their enemies with great force.
[When the war had continued many years, Shimon, the last of the Maccabees] …gathered a large crowd in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem, and encouraged them and raised their spirits. He said to them: “You know that which we have done – I, my brothers, and my father’s house – on behalf of the Torah and the Temple. All my brothers died in the great war, in which they gave their lives for their people; I, alone, remain. Do not fear that their deaths have caused me to be afraid or to seek my own personal safety, for I know that I am no better than my brothers. Just as they did, I will continue to lead you in the way of the Torah and to fight the wars of God.”
[When Antiochus sent a demand for the return of captured ‘Greek cities’ in Eretz Yisrael] …Shimon rebuffed these demands…, and responded in resolute and firm terms:
“Not foreign land did we take, and not over property of foreigners did we take control. We have returned to the inheritance of our forefathers, from which we were unjustly banished by our enemies. And now, with the help of our God, we have returned to the inheritance of our fathers.”
AMEN AND AMEN!!
And the Spirit of the Maccabees lives on…
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How do you describe the simple pleasure of celebrating Chanukah in a place where everyone is also rushing home to light their menorah? Our holiday, our land…
Natalie Kovan | Posted on 09October2023 | https://breslev.com/366335/
 Our Holiday, Our Land by Natalie Kovan I can’t believe we’ve been here for a few years. Even so, when it comes to Chanukah, I still feel that same excitement I felt the first time we celebrated it as new olim (immigrants) in our homeland. I didn’t realize just how deep the disconnection with all things secular in America was until a recent conversation with my Mom. As she described my brother’s vacation on the 23rd and 24th of December, I asked her if it was a holiday or something.
Silence.
“It’s X-mas!” my mother piped up, in total disbelief. Like, only the entire world knows what holiday falls on those dates! What my mother forgets is that here in our Blessed Land we are not constantly bombarded or reminded since the end of October when the pumpkins are just being put away, and the Jack-o lanterns are beginning to rot. My mailbox is not overflowing with ‘holiday’ themed catalogs, and red and green trees are not to be seen. The flora and fauna around me don’t suddenly sprout colorful blinking lights. Reindeer (especially those sporting red noses) are basically extinct. In short—Gan Eden! And after five plus years of breathing in the kedusha (holiness) of Eretz Yisrael, the 23rd and 24th of December became just that—two regular days in the Gregorian calendar.
The first and most obvious pleasure of being in Israel this time of year is that the only men you see with long white beards are those who are wearing black coats. No man in the red suit in sight. No flashing-colored lights. No green and red plastered on any store fronts. Not a one. Here, we are absolutely oblivious on what day the ‘big day’ actually falls. Yes, there is actually a place on this earth where the big arm of the catalog behemoth does not reach, and we are blessed to be totally clueless about the latest twenty-eight-inch Bob Sponge whatever –his-name-is who dances and sings and twirls in a 360-degree pirouette with accompanying ukulele accoutrements—all for the low price of $28.99!
 Sufganiyot at Mahane Yehuda shuk Here we have been overdosing on suffganyot (fried doughnuts filled with jelly—or caramel as the case may be) since Simchat Torah. Supermarkets display an endless supply of menorahs, chocolate covered Chanukah gelt (“money”), candles, oil—you name it. The entire nation puts aside their differences for eight days, as they wish each other a Chanukah sameach (Happy Chanukah!). Everything shuts down early—so that everyone can light their menorahs with their loved ones. As you stand on the street after dark, you see menorah upon menorah—lights upon lights—lights belonging to us, bridging century upon century of Jews keeping the fires of Yiddishkeit burning, living—in our Land.
Even the dreidel—a simple dreidel brings home the knowledge that living in Israel is, well—miraculous. Our son, looking at an Israeli dreidel for the first time, suddenly burst out, “hey—there’s no ‘Shin’ on this dreidel!’. Upon closer inspection, we found a ‘Pey’ where the shin should have been. In the rest of the world, the letters ‘Nun, Gimmel, Hay, Shin’ (נ ג ה ש) for “a big miracle happened THERE’. But for us living in Eretz Israel, it’s “Nun, Gimmel, Hay, Pey’ (נ ג ה פ) “— a big miracle happened HERE’. Here. In our backyard (almost literally—Modiin is but a drive away). Here. Not there, but here. Jews all over the world light menorahs and celebrate a miracle that happened not too far away from our living room, in a place that is still seeing miracles to this very day.
How do you describe the simple pleasure of celebrating Chanukah in a place where everyone is also rushing home to light their menorah? It’s a communal event, where every single one of your neighbors is celebrating with you. Our holiday. Our land. Here we don’t take second place as ‘the consolation holiday ‘. Here, our holiday is THE holiday. Here everything stops for Chanukah. Everything revolves around lighting the menorah, not the other way around. No jingles in the supermarket overloading your subconscious. In their stead, Jewish children walk around singing Chanukah songs, filling the air with their pure words. How does one grasp it? Here it is a tangible. You are enveloped in it day and night, not just as you huddle with your family around the menorah. I can’t describe how wonderful it is not to have to endure another “Merry (insert name of holiday here)”, while internally screaming, “But I’m Jewish!” No generic “Happy holiday” greetings either. Here, your taxi driver wishes you a “Chanukah sameach,” and your soul responds, because it feels right. That’s the magic of living in Israel.
The other major difference is that Chanukah in Israel is not so much about the presents—it’s about the miracle. When you live in a country that exists because of one long continuous miracle sustained by Hashem—it’s the miracle that counts. When a sonic boom breaks the silence of the night sky, as army planes ‘do their job’ up North—and the realization that this little country with a spirit which is too big to fill its borders—is being guarded by Hashem and His emissaries because we have a right to be here—then the miracle that is Israel—that is Chanukah—takes on a whole new meaning.
As we read about the battles fought by Judah Maccabee and his army, the mind can’t help but marvel at the fact that not much has changed since those days, except for the fact that technologically, warfare has evolved drastically, to say the least. We are still the few against the many. A small nation surrounded by those who would love nothing more than to see our destruction. The story of Chanukah is not a quaint and inspiring story that we celebrate as part of our past—it is also the story of our present.
I remember two years ago, during Operation Cast Lead, as we lit our menorahs with the backdrop of a war going on at several of our borders. Stories of soldiers requesting tzitzit before they would go into battle streamed out to the public. And that is what Chanukah is about. Keeping our identity separate and whole from the rest of the nations as we do spiritual and physical battle with our adversaries. Looking at our uniqueness not as an impairment, but an asset to be celebrated and protected at all costs. For when we act like Jews, proud in ourselves, our Land and our Torah—then defeating our enemies becomes a reality, with the help of our Creator.
It is only by the benevolence of Hashem that Israel and the Jewish people exist. Without the Land of Israel, there is no nation, and vice versa. It is here that the plans for Am Israel took root, and it is here where they will culminate when Mashiach comes (may it be speedily in our days). Even though we wandered for centuries without a ‘home’, Hashem has gifted us in the last 60 years with concrete borders to come home to. A Kotel to pray at. Land to be populated and bring back to life. He is setting the stage for our ultimate return and Redemption (may it be His will). To be here and call this home—despite the hardships—is a miracle. As painful as it is to be so far from loved ones, friends and all things familiar—there is nothing like the miracle of finally coming home. Home where the soul and body are finally in alignment for the very first time. That is a miracle all its own.
Even as I write, it is impossible to describe in mere words the enormity of living here. Sometimes it’s a struggle, sometimes it’s a cultural shock, sometimes it’s just plain hard. And sometimes, while standing at the top of a hill, looking out at the valley, and at cities that were not here that long ago, brimming with Jews—and the eyes fill at the intensity of the knowledge that you are home—finally—then you say, “Thank You, Hashem, for the miracle that is Israel. Thank You for bringing me home.”
Shiri_Sabra-tweet-23April2024-Passover Seder in Jerusalem 1919
Jewish soldiers of the British Army who liberated the Land of Israel at Passover Seder in Jerusalem, 1919.
 Shiri_Sabra-tweet-23April2024-Passover Seder in Jerusalem 1919
The Persian Jewess-tweet-23April2024-Jews are Indigenous to Israel
Jews are Indigenous to Israel.
Palestinians are Arabs who rebranded their “ethnicity” in 1964.
“Palestinians” have ZERO historical, religious or anthropological ties to Israel, Gaza or the West Bank.
#StandWithIsrael
 The Persian Jewess-tweet-23April2024-Jews are Indigenous to Israel
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Often, when we look below the surface of what appears to be a dismal situation, we can find the hidden solution. So too, in our current situation in Eretz Yisrael, we see the glimmer of redemption!
David Ben Horin | Posted on 13December2023 | https://breslev.com/4078471/
 Hashem Signals our Settlers by David Ben Horin On the surface, the news looks like one series of uppercuts to the head of Am Israel. Look deeper, and you will see Hashem’s blessings.
In 1914, there was a convention of Sages from Agudat Israel in Switzerland. They wanted to discuss Zionism – were they for it or against it?
They invited Rav Avraham Kook to come and speak. He resisted. His heart was in the Land of Israel, and to him, a mere moment outside the paradise God gave him was like an eternity in Gehinnom. Reluctantly, for the sake of Israel, he left the Land to attend the conference. When he arrived, World War I broke out. As a result, he was stranded in Europe and couldn’t get back to Israel.
On the surface, it was a nightmare.
He made his way to England and became a powerful voice in the British Jewish community. By 1917, the British Parliament debated whether to declare the Land of Israel the homeland of the Jewish People.
The loud voice of assimilated Jews lobbied the MPs to reject the proposal. They protested that they were English first and shouldn’t be branded as dual loyalists.
Rabbi Kook was asked to present a counter claim in favor of the proposal before the House of Commons. He gave a passionate speech. When he met objections, the non-Jewish lawmakers stood up and said, “Look at the man. Head to toe, he lives in the service of God. He represents the Jews.”
Had Rav Kook remained in Israel, would Britain’s Balfour Declaration that gave political backing “to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine” become reality?
A Hundred Years Later
In November 2023, American President Joe Biden issued a statement which decreed that anyone in the “occupied territories who acts in opposition to peace will be denied entry into the US.” (The Caroline Glick Show In-Focus|Nobody is Decrying Jewish Genocide (@10:18-15:08) ).
It doesn’t specify “violent settlers” or “Jewish extremists.” President Biden refers to anyone who lives in what is called “occupied territories,” which includes most of Jerusalem.
On the surface, this is a disaster. The city of Efrat has thousands of people with dual citizenship who make their livelihoods going back and forth from America to Israel. Thousands of residents throughout Yesha are dual citizens who may be torn apart from their families living abroad.
Think about how COVID-19 split families. How many tragedies did we hear about mothers not being able to see their daughters and fathers not being able to see their sons because of the pandemic?
Major Miracles
Hashem is bringing His children home. He is encouraging countless Jews outside of Israel to come here as often as possible.
What about the residents of Judea and Shomron? Hashem is giving them the ultimate gift. He is keeping them in Israel. Could this be to protect them from catastrophe in America?
Could Mashiach be HERE and Hashem doesn’t want His precious children to be anywhere else when He reveals His anointed to the world? Are these decrees a signal from God that everyone should be in Israel right now – that we shouldn’t leave, not even for a moment?
The Tanya Rebbe Yehuda writes that just before Mashiach comes, Jews living along the borders of Israel will be without homes and will wander from city to city. (Sanhedrin 97a) Currently, 100,000 Israelis in Kiryat Shemona (near the Israel-Lebanese border) and in border towns along the Gaza belt are relocated in temporary living quarters throughout the land.
Has the time come?
From Woke to Awakening
Whenever you hear “From the River to the Sea,” follow it up by saying “Hashem natan ha’aretz li” (God gave the Land to me)!
Non-Jews can’t say that!
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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.
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Large “Palestinian” families and tribes in Israel are from:
 Ottoman Empire History-1699-1914-Map
Visegrád 24-tweet-20April2024-large ‘Palestinian’ families and tribes in Israel are from
Most anti-Israel protesters in the West don’t understand that many of the Palestinians arrived first in the late 19th century during huge internal migration flows within the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, many Jews arrived from Europe and the Middle East
Large “Palestinian” families and tribes in Israel:
– Al-Masri
– Masarawa
– Al-Fium
– and Al-‘Asi are all from Egypt
– Al-Baghdadi
– Obeid
– and Al-Tikriti are all from Iraq
– Halabi
– Nashashibi
– and Al-Horani are from Syria
– Al-Lubnani
– Al-Sourani are from Lebanon.
– Al-Kurd are from Kurdistan
– Al-Zarqawi are from Jordan
– Al-Hijazi
– Kabah are from Saudi Arabia
– Al-Maghrebi
– Al-Jazeir
– Al-Arge are from North Africa
– Abid are from Sudan
– Al-Shishani are from Chechnya
 Visegrád 24-tweet-20April2024-large Palestinian families and tribes in Israel are from
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Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs-NOT INDIGENOUS
Hussain Abdul-Hussain-tweet-22February2024-Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs
Yeah, except that Palestinians are not a race, neither are two billion Muslims. Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs who think they are the center of the universe. All Palestinians on the planet would barely fill half of New York City.
The number of Palestinian dead and displaced over the past century of conflict with Israel remains a fraction of those killed and displaced in other Mideastern conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen. The disproportionate attention that Palestinians have received makes much bigger Arab problems look irrelevant.
Palestinians want to “put things in context” and liberate Palestine “by any means necessary,” including through the terrorism of Hamas, that’s on them. Just stop making it the end of the world. It’s just another Middle Eastern war. Had Jews and Israel not been involved, it wouldn’t have made it to the bottom of the last page of any newspaper.
 Hussain Abdul-Hussain-tweet-22February2024-Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs
Yiskah Chaya-tweet-23February2024-WHAT’S AN ARAB?
WHAT’S AN ARAB? https://twitter.com/i/status/1710627833750384813
“Arab” is a cultural & linguistic term. It refers to those who speak Arabic as their first language. United by culture & history, Arabs are not a race. Some have blue eyes & red hair; others are dark skinned; many are somewhere in between.
idan segal-tweet-7October2023-The truth about the issue And the Palestinian
האמת על ה״סוגייה״
ועל ה״פלסטינים״
“The truth about the “issue”
“And the “Palestinians”
 Yiskah Chaya-tweet-23February2024-WHAT’S AN ARAB?
JonJon from SF-tweet-3February2024-Today’s Palestinians are descendants of immigrants
Notes:
– Today’s Palestinians are descendants of immigrants who came to Palestine seeking economic opportunities due to Zionism.
(NOT INDIGENOUS)
– According to historical sources like De Hass History and the 1911 Encyclopaedia Brittanica, these immigrants hailed from various places including the Balkans, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Armenia, and more.
– Reports from the 1860s and 1937 document significant Arab immigration from places like Sinai, Transjordan, and Syria.
– Even Winston Churchill in 1939 noted the substantial increase in the Arab population in Palestine.
– CG Smith’s Studies on Palestine reveals the Turkish policy of planting Circassian colonies in the region.
– Historical documentation by De Haas mentions the establishment of permanent Egyptian colonies by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian conqueror.
 JonJon from SF-tweet-3February2024-Palestinians are NOT INDIGENOUS
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Hamas has dictated the parameters of victory
BY Edward Luttwak
Professor Edward Luttwak is a strategist and historian known for his works on grand strategy, geoeconomics, military history, and international relations. His most recent book is The Art of Military Innovation: Lessons from the Israel Defense Forces.
X ELuttwak
23December2023 https://unherd.com/2023/12/why-israel-cant-accept-a-ceasefire/
During their protected wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s leaders and generals could never define victory. Hamas, by contrast, has a clear understanding of what it looks like. Now that the terror group has demonstrated the failure of Israel’s deterrence, it insists it will not any more short ceasefires in exchange for hostages, but only a complete end to Israel’s offensive, which would of course leave it in full control of Gaza.
What would this entail? Most immediately, this would also hand Hamas the millions of dollars in aid that will arrive from Western nations, as well as the billions coming from Qatar, Kuwait and other oil-rich countries. And while these funds are intended for welfare distributions and for civilian reconstruction, Hamas will of course use them to rebuild its underground tunnel networks, and to fund its military training, propaganda and political units in and out of Gaza.
The reason it would get away with this is straightforward: Hamas has never pretended to be fighting for the well-being of Gaza’s population, or for Palestine as a national cause. It serves global Islam —the Umma — that rejects all nationalisms and demands supremacy over all other religions. In other words, it accepts no responsibility for the dead and wounded of the war, or for Gaza’s reconstruction.
Hence, if there is a permanent ceasefire, Hamas can start to prepare its next surprise attack, hoping for another October 7 of indiscriminate killings and rapes. If anyone in Gaza objects, Hamas will also act as it did in the past, shoving sacks over their heads and shooting them in front of crowds.
And yet, steadfastly ignoring this inevitability, retired generals and even, in an unguarded moment, Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, have urged the Israelis to reduce their bombing or even their attacks altogether, in order to win over Gaza’s population. Yet this is to forget that such a formula failed in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan: populations dominated by brutal extremists cannot be “won over”.
For the Israelis, however, there is clarity: because Hamas defines its victory so clearly, so can the Israelis. While the “complete end of the offensive” that Hamas, the UN and countless American and British undergraduates demand would mean a complete defeat for Israel, the continuation of the war — sine die, as they say in diplomacy — is the essential precondition of victory.
In this sense, little has changed since 1948: the Israelis might have to keep fighting on their own without US support. As soon as the first of Israel’s wars started on May 15, 1948, the US and the British, then very much the senior partner in the Middle East, imposed a total arms embargo on everyone involved. This favoured the Arab armies, who already had their British-supplied kits of small arms, machine-guns, field artillery and even a few aircraft and tanks, while the Jews only had rifles and submachine guns. It was very much the goal of the British Foreign Office and US State Department that the newly proclaimed State of Israel should be defeated as soon as possible, so as to preserve the stability of British power over the region.
But, then, something entirely unexpected happened: the Jews started winning. As a result, having favoured war to put a quick end to Israel, the Brits then had to end it to save their collapsing Arab allies. And the resourceful Foreign Office had the necessary remedy, promptly backed by the obedient State Department: on June 11, 1948, the UN Security Council imposed a total ceasefire, after 26 days of fighting. Had the Israelis not resumed fighting on July 9, Israel could not have emerged as a viable state.
Even so, this set the pattern for all subsequent UN ceasefires in the region: as soon as Israel launches its counteroffensives and starts winning, the UN General Assembly demands an immediate ceasefire, and pressure builds on the UN Security Council to actually order one.
But here the continuity ends. Everything else is very different now that Israel is a stronger, more self-sufficient military power. The US can certainly help to deter Hezbollah, and is the only power that can disarm the Houthi menace in the Red Sea and Suez Canal. But only Israel can incapacitate Hamas, by fighting in one alley, tunnel and bunker after another right across the Gaza Strip.
Very reasonably, the Biden Administration has been asking the Israelis to hurry up with their fighting, instead of prolonging the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. And just as reasonably, the Biden Administration has been asking the Israelis to use less air power, less artillery and more infantry to reduce civilian casualties. But to move faster in Gaza’s intricate urban terrain would sharply increase Israeli casualties. The same is true of any imposed reduction in artillery fire and air strikes. And to do both simultaneously would not just add to Israeli casualties but multiply them.
Because the leaders on both sides know those things, and because they respect each other, there is a back-and-forth process of mutual accommodation day by day. But the unavoidable reality is that Israel cannot end its offensive, nor even accept protracted ceasefires in exchange for hostages.
Instead, its forces must persist until every basement and tunnel has been cleared and Hamas’s cadre of trained fighters has been drastically reduced. Nor is the capture of Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, a realistic goal — with the help of Sinai Bedouin smugglers, it would be all too easy for him to escape and join Hamas’s other leaders in their five-star suites in Doha.
Of course, although essential, destroying the military power of Hamas cannot by itself bring about a permanent state of peace in Gaza. But if Hamas can no longer subject Gaza’s population to its perpetual war, it will be victory enough.
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A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:
Please send this to anyone at a School, College or University. Parents, Students, Administrators and Teachers. These are Felony Death Threats. This violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/antisemitism-dcl.pdf
This is not free speech.
 Click to download PDF file UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION-OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS-antisemitism-dcl
 Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies
Re-upping this meme for those who witnessed the disgusting worldwide demos on Shabbat.
 Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:  A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies: The Proper Jewish Response:
“Hashem natan ha’aretz li” (God gave the Land to me)!
“Eretz Yisrael Yehudi ” (Eretz Yisrael is Jewish land)
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Pallywood: Palestinian Propaganda
Pallywood: “it’s just an act mommy”
Imam of Peace-tweet-12November2023-Pallywood-it’s just an act mommy
This is gold. A Palestinian mother sees images online showing her son injured. She races to the hospital only to find it all fake. He is fine, it’s just an act mommy. It’s called Pallywood.
 Imam of Peace-tweet-12November2023-Pallywood-it’s just an act mommy
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Opinion: The only way to end the all-pervasive anti-Israel bias in so much of the media is to shake their underlying narrative, which forms part of the greatest slur campaign in history
Col. Richard Kemp |2023-10-22 | https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjqi11m7ma
Much of Western media has blood on its hands. Following the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, many news outlets have been acting as willing tools of the genocidal terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip that perpetrated it. This is neither new nor unpredictable. An anti-Zionist narrative has for many years displaced media objectivity in every conflict involving Israel.
The strategic objective of Hamas’s attacks is to incite international condemnation of Israel by compelling it to take military action in which Gaza civilians will inevitably be killed despite unparalleled IDF measures to prevent it. Whenever this happens, like Pavlov’s dogs a chorus of reporters, tame analysts and newscasters immediately appear on the airwaves to accuse Israel of war crimes. Such accusations are loudly echoed in universities, human rights groups and international bodies. Exactly as Hamas intended.
 Pro-Palestinian demonstration following reports of Al Ahli Hospital blast, in Rabat, Morocco, April 18, 2023
(Photo: AP Photo) That in turn encourages Hamas to do the same thing again and again and is the real “cycle of violence” that many journalists love to accuse others of but are in fact themselves active participants.
When Donnison retweeted a photo of a girl from Syria, as Palestinian
A few days ago, an explosion occurred in the parking lot at Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip. No one outside Gaza knew what had caused it. Immediately, the Hamas disinformation machine swung into action, accusing Israel of attacking the hospital and causing hundreds of casualties. Across the world, media parroted their accusations without question or challenge.
 Pro-Israel rally outside BBC studios, in London, October 14, 2023
(Photo: Carl Court / GettyImages) One of the worst offenders was the BBC, by far the most influential media organization in the UK, and with one of the largest audiences internationally. It is regarded by many as the most authoritative and impartial news organization in the world and has been seen as a beacon of truth going back to the Second World War.
“Hundreds killed in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital — Palestinian officials,” was the BBC headline. The next day, the British Financial Times splashed with: “Gaza Health Ministry says hundreds killed in Israeli air strike on hospital”. Across the Atlantic, the New York Times, among others, reported the Al Alhi incident in similarly false terms.
BBC reporter John Donnison told viewers: “It is hard to see what else this could be really given the size of the explosion other than an Israeli air strike or several air strikes.” Well, if he was incapable of comprehending the other obvious possibility — a terrorist rocket falling short, which it turned out to be — then perhaps he should have restrained himself from venturing any opinion at all.
Donnison has a track record. During an earlier Gaza conflict in 2012, he retweeted a picture of a young girl lying in hospital with bloodied clothes, presented as a casualty of Israeli strikes in Gaza. In fact, it was a photograph from Syria.
Terrorists attacking Israel are always “militants”
He is far from alone. Six BBC Arabic language journalists “liked” X.com postings praising the 7th October attacks, with one reporter celebrating the slaughter as a “morning of hope.” And back in 2009, the BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, now World Editor, was censured by the BBC’s editorial standards body over complaints of impartiality and inaccuracy in his reporting on Israel. In 2004, after complaints about anti-Israel bias at the corporation, the BBC commissioned its own investigation which resulted in the 20,000-word Balen Report. Since it was written, the BBC has spent more than $425,000 in legal fees to contest demands that it should be published. It remains under wraps nearly 20 years later.
Even after the 7th October massacre, the BBC still refuses to call Hamas what everybody else knows they are: “terrorists”. Instead, terrorists attacking Israel are always referred to as “militants”. Meanwhile, the BBC are happy to brand as terrorists the 9/11 attackers, the London suicide bombers in 2005 and the 2017 Manchester Arena bombers. And despite digging their heels in against complaints over their stance on Hamas, the BBC described a shooting in Brussels last week as a “terrorist attack”.
 BBC studios covered in red paint in protest of coverage of Israel-Hamas war, in London, October 14, 2023
(Photo: Reuters / Susannah Ireland)
The same deliberate mischaracterisation of terrorists attacking Israelis is shared on the UK’s Sky News, who have also referred to Hamas as a “political organization”. This is much more than mere semantics: it can only reflect these media outlets’ real view of Hamas and their cause.
Wider concerns about the BBC help shed light on what lies behind their anti-Israel bias. In 2021, the Simon Wiesenthal Center rated the corporation as number three on its annual “Global Antisemitism Top Ten”. Iran was number one with Hamas in second place.
Jewish students at colleges – physically attacked
One example of the BBC’s alleged antisemitism cited by Wiesenthal was their reporting of an attack on a bus containing Jewish teenagers in London’s Oxford Street as they celebrated Hanukkah. Rabbi Mervin Hier, the center’s chief, said: “The BBC falsely reported that a victim on the bus used an anti-Muslim slur”. The BBC had misinterpreted the words of a distressed Jewish man speaking in Hebrew appealing for help. Again, they instinctively leapt to the wrong conclusion, but the one that fitted their narrative.
Discussing the Al Alhi hospital incident with a British reporter, I was told the accusation against Israel was made because it was “a fast-moving news situation”, and that corrections were published by many papers and broadcasters as the situation became clearer. But “clarification” usually meant substituting the false assertions against Israel with reports that “both sides traded blame”. As though there can be any equivalence between a proscribed terrorist murder gang and the official statements of democratically accountable armed forces.
I got no answer from the reporter on why Hamas statements were automatically given immediate credence, including the grossly exaggerated casualty figures churned out by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. When media did correct their fake news it was too late and their stories had already been eagerly recycled, including by politicians such as Canada’s Justin Trudeau and former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as well as human rights organizations like Amnesty International, well known for their anti-Israel bias.
 Aftermath of Al Ahli Hospital blast, in Gaza City, October 18, 2023
(Photo: AP / Abed Khaled) Such stories are also seized on in the streets, leading to mass protests, violence and even terrorism. Three days after media accused the IDF of the Al Ahli incident, the Daily Telegraph reported that a terrorist attack occurred in Britain; when arrested the perpetrator told police he had done it for “Palestine”. No further details have yet been published, supposedly for legal reasons.
In the last few days, Jewish students at colleges in the U.S. and UK have been set on and physically attacked as a result of disinformation spread by the media, which stokes and inflames pre-existing anti-Zionist movements so rife on many university campuses. Police in London report a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared to the same period last year.
During a Sky News interview a few years ago, I contested the standard falsehoods about illegal occupation, illegal settlements and the old trope of “Israeli apartheid”. Afterwards, a veteran Sky Middle East correspondent told me privately that he agreed with me. I asked him why, then, did his reporting always reflect the opposite perspective? He told me if it did not he would be fired.
This sums up the intractable problem that dominates the editorial policies of the BBC, Sky and so much of U.S. and European media. That is the lie that Israel is an illegitimate state that deliberately oppresses innocent, peace-loving Palestinians whose land has been stolen. They may not say as much publicly, but the dominant view, even after such horrific attacks as 7th October, is that the Israelis had it coming, or at least have a major share in the blame.
 Colonel Richard Kemp
(Photo: Courtesy) The flimsy mask seemed to slip last week when Sky News journalist Kay Burley claimed the head of the Palestinian Authority mission to the UK had said Israel “had it coming”, a remark he did not make.
Perhaps a case of projection of her own views and so many of her media colleagues? The only way to end the all-pervasive anti-Israel bias in so much of the media is to shake their underlying narrative, which forms part of the greatest slur campaign in history. And how, exactly, do you do that?
Colonel Richard Kemp is a former UK Armed Forces commander
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Snopes is one of the most well-known “fact-checker” websites worldwide, regularly posting articles debunking online conspiracy theories, dispelling media misinformation and separating satire from serious news. Its website boasts of the stringent process its editorial…
Rachel O’Donoghue October 23, 2023 https://honestreporting.com/fact-checking-website-snopes-shills-for-hamas-debates-beheaded-babies-in-sickening-debunking-articles/
Snopes is one of the most well-known “fact-checker” websites worldwide, regularly posting articles debunking online conspiracy theories, dispelling media misinformation and separating satire from serious news.
Its website boasts of the stringent process its editorial team undertakes to ensure the veracity of information, including contacting primary sources, finding experts who have relevant expertise in the subject at hand, and using non-partisan information and data sources to inform its pieces.
However, since the outbreak of the October 7 war against Israel, Snopes has been producing some dubious content that requires some fact-checking of its own.
Here are just a few examples of Snopes’ problematic fact-checking on the Israel-Hamas war:
Sneaky Editing on Gaza Hospital Blast
The explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital sparked a flurry of media misinformation and social media disinformation.
From the New York Times headline that an “Israeli airstrike” was responsible for “killing 500″ to the BBC’s correspondent Jon Donnison confidently announcing live on-air that he found it “hard to see” who else could be responsible other than the IDF, the lie that Israel bombed a civilian hospital spread like wildfire.
But then the truth emerged. The Israeli military released satellite imagery, videos of the blast, and tapped phone recordings that proved it was a misfired rocket shot by Islamic Jihad that was responsible.
What’s more, further evidence came out that the rocket did not directly hit the hospital and that nowhere near 500 people died.
On October 19, two days after the explosion, Snopes published an article asking, “Did Israel Warn Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza to Evacuate?” written by former Al Jazeera journalist Nur Ibrahim.
In addition to relying on widely discredited reporting on the events from the New York Times for its “fact-checking,” the article also fails to acknowledge the many pieces of evidence released by Israel that exonerate itself, as well as the United States’ own findings that Islamic Jihad was responsible.
Perhaps owing to her employment history, Ibrahim uses a statement given to Al Jazeera without noting the outlet is a state-run propaganda arm of the Qatari government and fails to note that the “unnamed senior health official in Gaza” who spoke to Al Jazeera would be affiliated with Hamas, which controls the Gazan health authorities.
It is also clear that Snopes did some sneaky editing of the article where it had initially made errors.
An original version of the piece states unequivocally that “500 people were killed” which was later amended to read “hundreds of people” even though that figure is still in dispute.
 Did Israel Warn Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza to Evacuate-old version.  Did Israel Warn Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza to Evacuate-new version.
Fact-Finding Over Beheaded Babies
One of the most disgusting “debates” that has taken place during the war is whether Hamas terrorists beheaded babies or shot them during their murderous onslaught in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.
Also written by Nur Ibrahim, the Snopes article allegedly debunking the claim flippantly describes the atrocity as a “viral rumor spread by news media, the US president, and so on.”
It also includes this disturbing paragraph: “As we looked into the claim, we found contradictory reports from journalists, Israeli army officials, and almost no independent corroborations of the alleged war crime, leading to concerns among fact-checkers that such a claim may be premature or unsubstantiated.”
This is a lie.
In addition to numerous eyewitness accounts, including from independent journalists who saw the aftermath of the massacre and photographic evidence, there is enough proof to say that babies were indeed beheaded during the Hamas rampage.
More importantly, Ibrahim’s insistence on calling it an “alleged war crime” is baffling. For, even if babies had not been beheaded, what Hamas did would have still amounted to a war crime — there is nothing “alleged” about the events of October 7.
Lastly, Ibrahim claims details of the massacre being released could lead to hatred toward Muslims, explaining that people should be “wary of claims that echo Islamophobic rhetoric, or statements that compare the violence in Kfar Aza to ‘ISIS-style’ killings — i.e., beheadings that have taken place in a different context and were committed by a different group” because they have the “potential to become dangerous propaganda.’
HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-
BREAKING: Israeli official confirms two important details.
⭕ Babies were decapitated at Kibbutz Be’eri.
⭕ Women were raped next to the bodies of fellow festivalgoers at Re’im. They were “killed twice, first raped and then murdered,” the official said.
 HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-Israeli official confirms two important details
Shilling for the Iranian Ayatollah
Ibrahim acted as an apologist for another Islamist regime in an October 10 article that asked, “Did Iran Say It Will Hit Israel with Missile Strikes from Lebanon, Yemen and Iran if Attacked?”
According to the Snopes piece, the following claim that appeared in the Wall Street Journal remains unproven: “During the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Iranian officials said that if Iran were attacked, it would respond with missile strikes on Israel from Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, and send Iranian fighters into Israel from Syria.”
Citing the fact the WSJ only cited one source for the threat, Ibrahim concluded Snopes “cannot independently verify whether such a threat was sanctioned by the Iranian state.”
But just days after the Snopes article was published, Iran effectively confirmed its threats when its foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned the regime may take “preemptive action” against Israel via its proxies, which happen to be based in Lebanon and Yemen.
“Today, when we talk about the resistance in the region, it is not only Hezbollah, and we are witnessing the activities of various resistance groups in the region,” Amir-Abdollahian added.
Did Snopes update its article to reflect this? Nope.
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It was impossible not to notice a disturbing trend that took place last week, as respectable news outlets rushed to publish almost identical reports defending their only source of information on Gaza casualties: The Hamas-run…
Rinat Harash 29October2023
https://honestreporting.com/media-rush-to-defend-hamas-ministry-providing-skewed-data-on-gaza-casualties/
It was impossible not to notice a disturbing trend that took place last week, as respectable news outlets rushed to publish almost identical reports defending their only source of information on Gaza casualties: The Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Reuters, AP, The New York Times, The Guardian, Time Magazine and The Washington Post included all or most of the following elements in their pieces: The release by the Hamas-run Ministry of a list of victims, flawed reasoning, attributions to the same problematic sources, and ridiculous attempts to claim that the Ministry was actually run by the PA, Hamas’ rival. This orchestrated pattern seemed like it carried the heavy footprints of an agenda-driven effort that journalists were all too happy to parrot.
Victims List and Logical Fallacy
All of the outlets mentioned above based their apologetic reports on the release of a list of Palestinian victims that the Hamas-run Health Ministry sent out after US President Joe Biden had questioned its reliability. The list — which was not published — reportedly included the names and identity numbers of 6,747 Palestinians who according to the Ministry had been killed in Israeli bombardments of the enclave.
But almost all outlets failed to notice or mention that the document included 471 victims from the blast at al-Ahli hospital, which according to analyses of several intelligence services was the fault of a misfired Palestinian missile and not an Israeli strike. And that number, which is still disputed, was modified from an earlier estimation of 500 fatalities falsely provided by the ministry in the immediate aftermath of the blast.
Related Reading: Gaza Hospital Explosion: The Evidence
But this is just one symptom of a deeper problem. When analyzing the reasoning behind these reports, a logical fallacy emerges. Here’s how AP makes its case:
Throughout four wars and numerous bloody skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, U.N. agencies have cited the Health Ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers…International news agencies, including AP, as well as humanitarian workers and rights groups, have used the ministry’s numbers when independent verification is impossible.
How does the fact that other bodies rely on a sole source make it reliable? They simply don’t have any other choice.
So the argument fails. But it fails also because some of the bodies quoted as part of this equation — like the UN’s OCHA and Human Rights Watch — are problematic in their own right.
Agenda-driven Attributions
The main talking head in all of the reports is none other than Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch.
Yet no report mentions that Shakir is far from being impartial when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Shakir was forced to leave Israel in November 2019 after his work visa was not renewed due to his support of the controversial Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Both Reuters and AP also quote OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) as a body whose reliance on the data provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry is a testament to its accuracy.
But OCHA, as detailed by NGO Monitor, is a body that oversees funding for anti-Israeli NGOs, including some that engage in blatantly antisemitic activities and have ties to the PFLP, a proscribed terrorist organization.
AP also mentions Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra, who is described as a logistical genius:
Gaza’s most widely quoted source on casualties is Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. From an office at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, al-Qidra receives a constant flow of data from every hospital in the strip.
While this may be true, al-Qidra is working for Hamas. As former Reuters bureau chief Luke Baker recently wrote on X/Twitter, “any health official stepping out of line and not giving the death tolls that Hamas wants reported to journalists risks serious consequences.”
HonestReporting-tweet-25October2023-
A former @Reuters Jerusalem bureau chief spells out the clear problems with the media coverage of Gazan casualty figures:
The numbers are supplied by Hamas and Hamas can’t be trusted.
 HonestReporting-tweet-25October2023-The numbers are supplied by Hamas and Hamas can’t be trusted Moreover, an Israeli think tank estimated in 2014 that al-Qidra was a former Hamas activist who has been affiliated with the terrorist movement since the 1990s.
It is no wonder, then, that several media outlets added a ridiculous argument to their case, defying reason and reality altogether: The Gaza-Health Ministry is actually not run by Hamas.
Denying Hamas’ Responsibility
Three media outlets — Reuters, AP and The New York Times — have made a special effort to distort reality by falsely claiming that the Gaza Health Ministry is supervised by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’ rival which holds sway in the West Bank.
Here is Reuters’ version:
While Hamas controls Gaza and exercises tight control over information coming out of the enclave, formal responsibility for the health ministry still rests with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.
And AP’s:
The Palestinian Authority, which controlled Gaza before Hamas overran the area in 2007, retains power over health and education services in Gaza, though it’s based in the occupied West Bank. The ministry is a mix of recent Hamas hires and older civil servants affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party, officials say.
And The New York Times:
The Ministry of Health, which is part of the Hamas government in Gaza but employs civil servants who predate Hamas’s control of the territory, did not say why it had decided to publish the names of the dead.
Did these outlets forget the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007? Do they not know that a Gazan civil servant who doesn’t abide by Hamas’ dictates risks his or her life? Why are they parroting agenda-driven talking points without adding a shred of factual context? Their absurd description makes Gaza look like a pluralistic society in which the two rival Palestinian factions have reconciled.
Unfortunately, all these outlets know that Hamas is skewing the data. Their contradictory reports even say so:
- They admit that the Hamas-run Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants
- They admit that it inflated the numbers of victims in al-Ahli hospital blast
- They admit it’s almost impossible to reach a definite number of casualties amid the debris and rubble
So why are they dedicating entire pieces to defending this source of twisted information? Why can’t they just include a skeptical line in every relevant piece saying the tally by the Hamas-run Ministry cannot be independently verified? Why do they try to “counterbalance” any such caveat with a false doubt cast on Israel’s tally of its own victims, which is publicly available?
Why do they fail to accept that a terror group which can slaughter, rape and kidnap to achieve its goals can also, quite easily, just lie?
Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more!
Photo Credit: DAWOOD NEMER/AFP via Getty Images
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Fake Numbers
HonestReporting-tweet-12February2024-Washington Post fake numbers
Hey, @washingtonpost, why is it ok for you to diminish the number of Israeli civilians killed (it was mainly civilians, not “many of them”) while failing to point out that the Palestinian figures are supplied by Hamas and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/
ReneJayeee-tweet-12February2024-no difference between civilians and combatants
As far as I’m concerned there is no difference between civilians and combatants–all are combatants having been radicalized by UNRWA from childhood to hate and murder Israelis. Its generational, since 1949. Their leadership considers them expendable and for use as human shields. It puts its babies and children in harm’s way for their propaganda value.
These are foreign concepts to the Western mind which doesn’t comprehend how the Palestinian Arabs are so radicalized that parents look forward to their children being needlessly martyred to equality needless killing.
 HonestReporting-tweet-12February2024-Washington Post fake numbers
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Not Reported
Hillel Fuld-tweet-11April2024-Not Reported
Just thought I’d let you know that the chances of you hearing about this in the press are zero.
So here, a nice Palestinian woman just approached soldiers and when they picked up on suspicious behavior and stopped her, this is what they found on her. After interrogation, she admitted she was there to commit a terrorist attack.
Ya know, because today is a good day to kill Jews, right? Do they ever have a day that’s NOT a good day to kill Jews?
The only chances you’ll hear about this is if some “journalist” reports that “IDF soldiers arrested an innocent Palestinian woman.”
But you also don’t hear about the constant Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
You don’t hear about the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who were displaced from their homes in this war.
You won’t hear about the rocks that Palestinian kids throw at Israeli cars daily, and by rocks, I mean boulders.
You won’t hear about the daily Palestinian attempts to run civilians over with their car.
You won’t hear about the mass marches in support of Hamas throughout Palestinian towns and villages.
Listen, I can go on. You won’t hear about any of that. You’ll only hear about it if Israel retaliates.
Dead Jews don’t get clicks.
Happy to be your source of truthful information because truth is a novelty nowadays.
You’re welcome.
The Palestinian culture is rotten to the core and they are indoctrinated from age zero.
This is a population, as politically incorrect as it may be to say, that needs to be uprooted the same way Nazi Germany was.
If that statement offends you, I’d go searching for your moral compass.
Hamas and its supporters = Modern day Nazis.
 Hillel Fuld-tweet-11April2024-Not Reported
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The Journalists are the Terrorists
AP, Reuters, NY Times deny any prior knowledge, say their job is to cover news; CNN suspends ties with freelancer; Israel warns those present could be held accountable for crimes
By Stuart Winer 9November2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-demands-clarification-from-global-media-over-photographers-during-hamas-assault/
 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip enter Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7, 2023, amid a massive assault by the Hamas terror group. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah) Israel on Thursday demanded that international media outlets explain the circumstances under which photographers in their pay were present at the scene of the surprise October 7 assault by the Hamas terror group on southern Israel, and warned they could be held complicit in the crimes.
The move came after the pro-Israel watchdog group Honest Reporting published a report Wednesday showing that photographers used by The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, and CNN provided images taken as the attack was ongoing from the border area and including from inside Israel — intimating they may have had advance knowledge of the assault.
The report also raised questions about the relationship between some of the photographers and the Hamas terror group that rules Gaza.
AP, Reuters and The New York Times all denied having any prior knowledge of the attack and reiterated that their role is to cover breaking news events. CNN said it had cut ties with one of the photographers named in the report even though it had no reason to doubt the “journalistic accuracy” of his work.
The National Information System, a department of the Prime Minister’s Office, said in a statement Thursday that it “takes very seriously the phenomenon of journalists working with international media joining [with attackers] to cover the brutal massacres by Hamas terrorists on Saturday 10/7/2023 in the communities surrounding Gaza.”
It said the Government Press Office “issued an urgent letter to the heads of the media systems where these photographers are employed, and asked for clarification on the matter.”
Still, without receiving answers, it concluded that: “These media people are complicit in crimes against humanity.”
“This is a violation of the rules of professional ethics,” the statement said. “The National Information System demands that immediate action be taken.”
 Gazans celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the broken Israel-Gaza border fence, east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud) Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi also sent a letter to The New York Times asserting that photographers and others at the paper had prior knowledge of the attack and urging the paper to investigate.
“I write to you with deep concern regarding recent reports about your employees’ alleged involvement in the tragic events in southern Israel,” Karhi wrote. “It has come to our attention that certain individuals within your organization, including photographers and others, had prior knowledge of these horrific actions and may have maintained a troubling connection with the perpetrators.”
“I urgently request a thorough investigation into this matter,” Karhi wrote. “The gravity of the situation demands a swift and thorough response.”
The New York Times rejected the accusations, saying regarding photographer Yousef Masoud that “There is no evidence for Honest Reporting’s insinuations.”
While noting Masoud was not working for the paper on the day of the attack itself, the paper added: “Our review of his work shows that he was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded.”
It added that freelance photojournalists’ jobs “often require them to rush into danger to provide first-hand witness accounts and to document important news.”
Minister Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet set up to oversee the conflict, said in a post to his X (formerly Twitter) feed: “Journalists found to have known about the massacre – and still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered – are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”
On October 7, Hamas led over 3,000 terrorists who burst through the Gaza Strip border and rampaged murderously through southern Israel. The gunmen overran communities, slaughtering some 1,400 people, the vast majority of them civilians in their homes or at a massive outdoor music festival. At least 240 people were taken hostage and dragged into Gaza. Hundreds of cases of brutality and abuse were recorded.
Many of the attackers recorded their acts on body cameras or other video equipment and the images were published by Hamas.
The onslaught, which began at around 6:30 a.m., came under the cover of thousands of rockets fired at Israel. It was reportedly planned under great secrecy with only senior Hamas commanders being aware of the full scale and scope of the attack before it went ahead.
In its report, Honest Reporting asked: “Is it conceivable to assume that ‘journalists’ just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists? Or were they part of the plan?”
“Some of [the Hamas terrorists’] atrocities were captured by Gaza-based photojournalists working for The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies whose early morning presence at the breached border raises serious ethical questions,” it wrote.
The website listed four photojournalists whose names appear in Associated Press pictures from the Israel-Gaza border area on the day of the attack: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.
Eslaiah, it said, crossed the border into Israel and took pictures of a burning IDF tank. He also photographed attackers entering Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where dozens of civilians were massacred. The report said that in now-removed tweets posted to his X feed, Eslaiah was seen in front of the tank but not wearing a press vest that would identify him as a member of the media.
A photo has also emerged online of Eslaiah being kissed by Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar. It is not clear when the photo was taken, but it seems to have been prior to the October 7 attack.
HonestReporting-tweet-8November2023-In the hours following our expose
In the hours following our expose, new material is still coming to light concerning Gazan freelance journalist Hassan Eslaiah whom both AP & CNN used on Oct. 7.
Here he is pictured with Hamas leader and mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar.
HonestReporting-tweet-8November2023-And here is footage of Eslaiah
And here is footage of Eslaiah after he crossed into Israel and took photos of a burning Israeli tank. He then captured infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza.
Note that he is not identifiable as a member of the press. But AP & CNN deemed it acceptable to use his services.
 HonestReporting-tweet-8November2023-In the hours following our expose
Honest Reporting said Masoud also took pictures of a destroyed tank.
Mahmud and Ali both took pictures of people being abducted from Israel into Gaza, the report said.
The names of several of the photographers have since been removed from images of the attacks in the AP database, the watchdog said. (At time of writing, Eslaiah’s credit had indeed been removed in AP’s database from the photo at the top of this article and from other photographs he took on October 7.)
Reuters published images from two photographers, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih. Both men apparently crossed into Israel from Gaza to photograph a burning tank, according to the report.
“Even if they didn’t know the exact details of what was going to happen, once it unfolded did they not realize they were breaching a border? And if so, did they notify the news agencies? Some sort of communication was undoubtedly necessary — before, after or during the attack — in order to get the photos published,” the watchdog asked.
“Either way, when international news agencies decide to pay for material that has been captured under such problematic circumstances, their standards may be questioned and their audience deserves to know about it. And if their people on the ground actively or passively collaborated with Hamas to get the shots, they should be called out to redefine the border between journalism and barbarism.”
 Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah) Israel’s Channel 12 stated on Thursday, without attribution, that these photographers “were not there at 6:30 in the morning” when the border fence was breached in multiple locations, “and apparently not in the first wave after the breach.”
The arguments are over “the second wave and a little after that, at around 8 in the morning,” the TV report said.
In a response to the Ynet outlet, CNN said it has stopped working with Eslaiah.
“We are aware of the article and photo concerning Hassan Eslaiah, a freelance photojournalist who has worked with a number of international and Israeli outlets. While we have not at this time found reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us, we have decided to suspend all ties with him,” CNN said.
The Associated Press said in a statement that it “had no knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks before they happened. The role of the AP is to gather information on breaking news events around the world, wherever they happen, even when those events are horrific and cause mass casualties.”
“AP uses images taken by freelancers around the world, including in Gaza,” it said.
The Reuters news agency also denied having any prior knowledge of the assault.
Update: Israel demands clarification from global media over photographers during Hamas assault
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-Notice the AP reporter
AP “journalists” who entered Israel on October 7 together with the Palestinian terrorists: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.
They documented some of the kidnappings. Did these “journalists” know of the plan ahead of time?
Ali Mahmud and Hatem Ali shot pictures of the abductions of Israelis into Gaza. Mahmud also captured the pickup truck carrying the body of Shani Louk.
Great expose—- https://honestreporting.com/photographers-without-borders-ap-reuters-pictures-of-hamas-atrocities-raise-ethical-questions/
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
Notice how the AP “reporter” “reported” the nude body of Shani Louk as an “Israeli soldier” —
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
Of course all of this explains why AP was renting office space from Hamas in the first place.
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
🚨 Obama’s former spokesperson talked to the people who were in the AP/Hamas building in Gaza and it turns out that AP lied, people in that building knew they were sharing office space with Hamas.
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
Dovi Safier-tweet-8November2023-
I guess I wasn’t the only one wondering why the @AP had photographers embedded with the terrorists on 10/7?
 Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-Notice the AP reporter  Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-AP had photographers embedded with the terrorists
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‘Post’ revelations show Hassan Eslaiah likely knew about the planned massacre ahead of time and expressed support as he watched the murders
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
11NOVEMBER2023 Updated:12NOVEMBER2023 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/gaza-news/article-772827
 A photograph taken by Gaza photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah. (photo credit: Screenshots from Telegram)
CNN hired a photojournalist who just three days before posted videos and photos of himself inside Israel during the Hamas massacre, including with an Israeli tank and a room of bloody, dead bodies.
Gaza photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah crossed into Israel on October 7 to document the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis. His photos from the scene appeared on several international news outlets, including The Associated Press, the Jerusalem-based watchdog HonestReporting revealed last week.
The watchdog’s story sparked a series of questions and international outcry, ultimately leading to his being let go from the two institutions.
However, CNN said in a statement last week that their working relationship with the freelancer began after the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, on October 10. It also noted that despite its decision to stop working with Eslaiah, it did not have “any reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us,” as reported by Ynet and confirmed by The Jerusalem Post.
 Images taken by Gaza photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah, who worked for both AP and CNN, of the Hamas massacre on October 7. (credit: Screenshots from Telegram)
The Post confirmed that Eslaiah was not fired for his work on the 7th but for a separate but related concern.
It was unclear if CNN knew about Eslaiah’s posts on Telegram before offering him work.
CNN told the Post it will not be commenting further on the matter.
Crossing the line: Did a photojournalist support the massacre of Israelis?
The issue goes beyond issues of accuracy or bias but is more about the lines that get crossed when a photojournalist appears to act with delight in response to witnessing the killing of civilians, while working for a major news outlet.
HonestReporting showed a screenshot of a now-removed post of the photojournalist on X standing in front of the Israeli tank without a press vest or helmet. The tweet read, “Live from inside the Gaza Strip settlements.” A similar image still appears on his Telegram page.
HonestReporting also published a separate image from well before the massacre showing Eslaiah buddying up with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
However, by scrolling through Eslaiah’s personal Telegram channel, the Post has found that Eslaiah posted much more than a tank on the 7th, including items that indicate that not only did he likely know about the planned massacre before it began at around 6:30 a.m., but that he supported the deaths of the innocent Israelis he watched being murdered.
Eslaiah’s first post on October 7 was at 5:59 a.m.: “We wake up to the great gifts of God,” he posted, according to a translation by ChatGPT. “The spirit has returned, and our blessings have increased.”
Within half an hour, he is posting about the rockets being launched at Israel and the sounds of the Iron Dome intercepting them over Khan Yunis. Then, between 6:55 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., he posts multiple variations: “To follow the latest news moment by moment, follow me on my media platforms.”
At 8:29 a.m., he appears “live from inside the settlements near the Gaza Strip” with a picture of a burning tank in the background.
At 8:36 a.m., after witnessing nearly 10 minutes of the massacre, he posts images from the scene with a verse from the Koran: “ And on that day, the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah” and the hashtag “#AqsaFlood.”
At 9:25 a.m., the most gruesome of posts is revealed: a video with his watermark: “Filmed by Hassan Eslaiah” in the center, depicting a room full of dead, bloody bodies.
This particular video does not appear to have been published anywhere else. In the background, you hear a calm voice that sounds like his from other videos, and is spoken in his Arabic dialect, stating the following: “[Animal] carcasses, carcasses. God is great. This is the path to Jerusalem.”
There is another video at 9:49 a.m. of his standing in front of burning Jewish homes as terrorists run by. And a final video one minute later of his leaving Israel on the back of someone’s motorbike.
Is this the kind of photojournalist that major news outlets should be hiring? What kind of vetting process should be required before hiring someone in a foreign country?
Perhaps these are the questions that all international outlets should now be asking themselves.
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Terrorist as journalists
Israel Advocacy Movement-tweet-21January2024-Terrorist as journalists
The media falsely claims that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in any conflict since WWII.
This is a lie… watch as we unmask the so-called journalists and expose how 75% of them aren’t who the media portrays them to be.
 Israel Advocacy Movement-tweet-21January2024-Terrorist as journalists
Michael Elgort-tweet-11February2024-Muhammad Washah Hamas-Al Jazeera journalist
A laptop that belonged to Muhammad Washah, an @AlJazeera journalist, was recovered by @IDF in the northern Gaza Strip. It has pics proving he also serves as a senior Hamas military operative in the anti-tank missile system and worked in the R&D of aerial weapons News via @N12News
 Michael Elgort-tweet-11February2024-Muhammad Washah Hamas-Al Jazeera journalist
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The Associated Press-POYIPICS Winner-Hamas-journalist 2024! Her name is SHANI LOUK
The Persian Jewess-tweet-28March2024-Her name is SHANI LOUK
Her name is SHANI LOUK.
🔥She was RAPED.
Raped so brutally her legs were broken and bent backwards from her body
🔥She was MURDERED.
Her murderers paraded her dead body through Gaza and defiled it.
🔥She was DECAPITATED.
Her body has yet to be recovered, only a piece of her skull was found.
@AP and POYIPICS you’re an absolute disgrace.
 The Persian Jewess-tweet-28March2024-Her name is SHANI LOUK  The Associated Press-POYIPICS Winner-Hamas-journalist 2024
The Persian Jewess-tweet-4April2024-And the world is silent
A Heartbreaking Message from Nicole Louk Naccache, Shani Louk’s Grandmother:
“Three men shouting “Allah and Akbar.” One vile photograph and my crushed granddaughter.
And the world is silent.
My dead granddaughter stars in a photograph that won a prestigious photography competition.
And the world is silent!!!
The body of my granddaughter, after she was brutally murdered and taken to Gaza as a sign of victory, is displayed for all to see.
And the world is silent!!!!
My granddaughter’s body, after the vile murderers broke her bones so she could get into the back of the van, this body that was only a few hours ago so full of life, love, and light. Tossed as a victory trophy for terrorists and vile photographers.
And the world is silent!!!!
My beautiful dead granddaughter, surrounded by three bloodthirsty murderers. This is the heroic photo that was chosen first in a prestigious photography competition.
And the world is silent.
And I’m screaming, how could you??
And when in the history of photography did the photo of a body win a prize?
And how much more pain can we contain?
And the world is silent.
And the world is silent.”
#AntizionismIsAntisemitism
#StandWithIsrael
 The Persian Jewess-tweet-4April2024-And the world is silent
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The RJI’s Pictures of the Year award spits on Shani Louk’s grave
HonestReporting-tweet-9April2024-the RJI’s Pictures of the Year award spits on Shani Louk’s grave
The glaring, ethical issue behind the RJI’s Pictures of the Year award is that the photojournalists who photographed Shani Louk’s lifeless body, explicitly or implicitly, were doing so with Hamas’ consent.
 HonestReporting-tweet-9April2024-the RJI’s Pictures of the Year award spits on Shani Louk’s grave
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Jerusalem police have arrested a journalist employed by NBC for posts lauding the Hamas invasion of Israel.
Israel National News
18November2023 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/380527
Maariv reports that Mirvat al-Azzeh, a 45-year-old journalist who works for NBC, was arrested on Thursday on suspicions of inciting terror and identifying with a terrorist organization. The arrest comes after she published posts on Facebook commenting on the Hamas invasion of Israel
Police claim that she arrived at the station “ready to be arrested,” without her mobile phone and with the telephone numbers written on her leg. During her investigation, she admitted to the deeds ascribed to her. A representative of the police summarized the interrogation at the court hearing Friday in Jerusalem: “This is a serious crime during a declared war, during which the defendant is living and employed in the country that is under attack, and still decided to incite and praise the attacks against citizens.”
Her attorney commented: “The woman in question is an ordinary woman, who works as a journalist and whose work is important to us all. She was asked during her investigation about her employment. I believe she admitted to all the deeds described to her, and cooperated fully with the investigation. She did not attempt to conceal the offenses or claim that her accounts had been hacked. Even when she didn’t have a mobile phone, which is the main tool involved, she still said, ‘Yes, those are my posts.'”
“This makes many more steps completely superfluous. You have her confession and there is no further need to investigate. I request that she be released on any conditions that the court seems appropriate. She is from a very respected family.”
At the end of the hearing, her detention was extended. Over the past month, the police has asked the prosecution for a permit to investigate the journalist and the permit was granted last week. The journalist, as stated, was arrested two days ago by Jerusalem police, and her detention was extended in a court hearing for four days.
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There has reportedly been turmoil in the BBC’s Middle East offices since Hamas launched its brutal October 7 attack on Israel after some of the broadcaster’s own journalists turned against their employer and accused the…
Rachel O’Donoghue , 16November2023 https://honestreporting.com/head-of-bbc-global-service-told-journalists-that-hamas-is-no-less-credible-than-israel-october-7-attack-should-not-be-called-a-massacre/
 Lilliane Landor_BBC There has reportedly been turmoil in the BBC’s Middle East offices since Hamas launched its brutal October 7 attack on Israel after some of the broadcaster’s own journalists turned against their employer and accused the BBC of promoting a “pro-Israel” narrative in its coverage.
Allegations of such slanted reportage will, no doubt, come as a surprise to many — not least because the BBC’s reporting has repeatedly come under fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including when it backtracked after falsely reporting that an Israeli strike on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza had killed hundreds
The BBC has also shied away from addressing concerns about its coverage, preferring instead to issue mealy-mouthed apologies about how such mistakes merely “fell below the BBC’s editorial standards.”
HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-That’s a pretty low bar these days
“We apologize for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards.”
That’s a pretty low bar these days, @BBCNews.
We Stand With Israel-tweet-15November2023-
WATCH
@bbcnews have just issued an on air apology (again) for their report last night that stated the ‘IDF are targeting medical teams and Arab speakers’
Not good enough. Time and again they defame & smear Israel and think a simple apology will suffice after the damage is done
 HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-That’s a pretty low bar these days
But accusations by staff of a pro-Israel bias were reportedly enough to compel the director of the BBC’s Global Service, Liliane Landor, to hold a series of meetings with employees to address their concerns.
According to BBC journalists quoted in Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, Landor is said to have asked staff for evidence of the alleged pro-Israel bias while assuring them that both Hamas and the Palestinians “should not be considered less credible than the Israelis.”
Landor also reportedly said that “it is wrong to use expressions like massacre to describe Hamas’s behavior and avoid using them to describe Israeli attacks” on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
One journalist who attended the meeting is quoted in Al-Ahram saying that they “have never seen such a widespread revolution, comprehensive dissatisfaction, and open anger from Arab journalists since [they] joined the institution more than 22 years ago.”
Another journalist working in the BBC’s Jordan office is said to have cried and told Landor: “I never imagined that the BBC would follow double standards in covering the war. I can no longer be proud to be a journalist at the BBC.”
One staff member reportedly warned that the “BBC does not realize or appreciate the extent of dissatisfaction in the Middle East from our shameful coverage that makes us threatened in our countries.”
Following the meetings, it is claimed a special team was formed that would specifically deal with staff complaints about the coverage and receive opinions on rectifying harm caused by the alleged bias.
The new measure, however, was apparently not enough to quell staff outrage and a journalist told Al-Ahram that discussions are underway for Arab service journalists to take part in a strike “unless the management takes urgent measures to fix the clear professional flaw in the BBC’s coverage of the current war on Gaza.”
At least two journalists — one in the BBC’s Beirut office and another correspondent based in Tunisia — reportedly resigned in protest at the corporation’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
HonestReporting has reached out to the BBC to comment on the remarks made by Landor, specifically if it is the UK taxpayer-funded corporation’s official position that Hamas should not be considered less credible than the Israeli government and whether the BBC agrees with Landor that the October 7 attack should not be described as a “massacre.”
In addition, we asked whether the broadcaster wished to address reports that two journalists had resigned from their jobs.
We received no response.
We wonder whether saying a terrorist group that slaughtered 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians should be considered as trustworthy as the democratically elected government of Israel lives up to the BBC’s supposedly high editorial standards.
Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more!
Photo credit: AIB (Association for International Broadcasting) via Flickr
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In summarizing its mission as the publicly-funded broadcaster in the United Kingdom, the BBC states it must “provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.” This involves…
Rachel O’Donoghue December 6, 2023 https://honestreporting.com/can-the-bbc-ever-be-trusted-again-after-israel-hamas-war/
In summarizing its mission as the publicly-funded broadcaster in the United Kingdom, the BBC states it must “provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.”
This involves — the corporation promises — providing accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming” that conforms to the highest editorial standards.
The commitment to impartiality is — or should be — what sets the BBC apart from other media organizations that nail their political colors to their mast.
While the BBC has staunchly defended itself against criticism that it has a deep-seated bias against Israel, its critics have pointed to many examples over the years of the broadcaster’s journalists brazenly breaking the corporation’s impartiality guidelines.
But the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 has seen criticism of the BBC reach a climax amid accusations of an abject failure by the organization to report on the Israel-Hamas war fairly, accurately and transparently.
Spreading Misinformation
There is an irony in the BBC’s publishing of a piece one week after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel that asked: “Who’s behind Israel-Gaza disinformation and hate online?”
The article, by the corporation’s so-called “disinformation and social media correspondent” Marianna Spring, reported how social media was “awash with false claims, conspiracy theories and hateful content surrounding what’s happening in Israel and Gaza.”
This, Spring warned, was resulting in successful attempts to distort and confuse the online conversation,” which “can have serious implications for the international community when it comes to investigating allegations of war crimes, providing aid and figuring out what’s happening where.”
Yet, the BBC itself has been guilty of spreading its distortions and false claims about the Israel-Hamas war online.
One of the most damaging was undoubtedly the corporation’s reporting on the Al-Ahli Hospital explosion in Gaza, which saw the BBC print unverified (and later debunked) claims by Hamas-linked officials that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed in an Israeli airstrike at the hospital.
Even as Israel said it was investigating the blast and as facts were still emerging, the corporation doubled down on its misinformation when BBC correspondent Jon Donnison announced live on air that he thought it was most likely that Israel was to blame.
And when conclusive evidence emerged that a misinformed Islamic Jihad rocket was responsible, the BBC still sought to defend its coverage on the basis that while it made a mistake, it was a “fast-moving story,” where there were “claims and counter-claims” and where its journalists were “reporting in difficult and dangerous conditions.”
HonestReporting-tweet-3November2023-Hamas-A BBC reporter
.@BBCNews likes to tell us that Israeli videos “cannot be verified.” But they’ve got no problem broadcasting footage featuring a Palestinian who has appeared in multiple videos playing different characters, including one where he fakes his own death.
We Stand With Israel-tweet-3November2023-New Job-A BBC reporter
Seems the man who has pretty much done every job in Gaza (including dying and coming back to life) has yet another job. A BBC reporter.
It was only a matter of time I guess https://twitter.com/TheMossadIL/status/1720495432550273287
The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome-tweet-3November2023-This guy’s got more lives than Super Mario
This guy’s got more lives than Super Mario.
 HonestReporting-tweet-3November2023-Hamas-A BBC reporter The Obsession With Balance
Balance is important when it comes to the news: outlets have a duty to report both sides of the story.
However, the BBC has been accused of having a fetish with its attempts at balance in its reports on the current war.
But giving equal weighting to claims made by an internationally recognized terrorist group to those of a democratic state such as Israel is simply absurd.
The absurdity of this was perfectly encapsulated in the BBC’s refusal to call Hamas what it actually is — a terrorist organization.
The BBC’s world affairs editor John Simpson even defended the decision not to call Hamas terrorists because, “terrorism is a loaded word, which people use about an outfit they disapprove of morally. It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn — who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.”
HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-According to BBCNews
According to @BBCNews, “It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn – who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.”
And yet the BBC does a damn good job of portraying Israel as the bad guys.
BBC News (World)-tweet-11October2023-John Simpson
Why BBC doesn’t call Hamas militants ‘terrorists’ – John Simpson
 HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-According to BBCNews
While the corporation eventually walked back from its insistence that it would refer to terrorists as “militants” following a considerable backlash — announcing that in future coverage it would make clear that Hamas is a UK-proscribed terrorist organization — the fact that the BBC couldn’t decide who’s the good guy and the bad guy between Israel and Hamas speaks volumes.
Another example of the BBC trying to offer “two sides” in a report where none exists was during the IDF’s raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, which for many years has been used as a Hamas command center.
HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-BBCNews reinterprets it to libel the IDF
The IDF clearly states it is bringing medical teams & Arabic speakers into Al-Shifa Hospital to help patients.
@BBCNews reinterprets it to libel the IDF as *targeting* medical teams & Arabic speakers.
Just how much lower can the BBC go?
We Stand With Israel-tweet-15November2023-Israel WILL NOT be targeting medical teams
What the actual fuck @bbcnews?!
You’re happily disseminating Hamas propaganda without bothering to check its veracity
Israel WILL NOT be targeting medical teams. Hamas terrorists are hiding in the hospital
How many times must you fuck up before you learn your lesson?
 HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-BBCNews reinterprets it to libel the IDF
When the IDF provided real-time evidence of how Hamas had embedded itself within the hospital, the BBC seemed to work overtime to try and undermine and discredit as much of the IDF’s proof as possible.
Included in the many instances of its disturbing tendency to give weight to the claims of a bloodthirsty terror group, the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen suggested that the caches of weaponry uncovered by Israeli soldiers inside Al-Shifa may have belonged to the hospital security team.
HonestReporting-tweet-17November2023-BowenBBC
Utterly incredible. @BowenBBC trying to “normalize” the presence of weapons in a Gaza hospital. Anything to avoid acknowledging that Hamas could be using Al Shifa for nefarious means.
Keep going, Jeremy. Maybe you’ll end up on Israel’s favorite satirical comedy show next week.
Edward Levey-tweet-17November2023-BowenBBC strains every sinew
“It’s not inconceivable that the pile of kalashnikovs belonged to the hospital security department”.
Rather than applying Occam’s Razor, @BowenBBC strains every sinew to cast doubt on the claim that the hospital was being used by Hamas terrorists.
 HonestReporting-tweet-17November2023-BowenBBC
Turmoil Among BBC Staff
The BBC is also facing what appears to be growing anger from within its own ranks at how the corporation is covering the Israel-Hamas war.
HonestReporting recently revealed that the head of the BBC’s Global Service, Liliane Landor, was forced to address allegations from reporters based in the Middle East that the corporation is biased in favor of Israel.
Yet, rather than robustly challenge staff who threatened to walk out in protest, Landor reportedly promised to set up a special team to handle staff complaints and receive opinions on rectifying harm caused by the alleged pro-Israel bias.
Meanwhile, bosses at the BBC’s London HQ denied permission for journalists to attend a massive march against antisemitism using guidelines that prevent employees from attending demonstrations deemed “controversial.” This despite the BBC having a policy that allows staff to demonstrate in “opposition to racism [which] is a fundamental democratic principle.”
HonestReporting-tweet-1December2023-But for BBCNews
The fighting resumed after Hamas fired rockets at Israel before the ceasefire had expired.
That’s a fact. But for @BBCNews, the Hamas ceasefire violation is couched in terms of an Israeli “accusation.”
Because the BBC can only ever see Israel as the aggressor.
 HonestReporting-tweet-1December2023-But for BBCNews
Why the Must BBC Rebuild Trust
As mentioned, allegations of an anti-Israel bias have dogged the BBC for years.
But the barrage of criticism aimed at the BBC over its coverage of the current Israel-Hamas war has shown that the corporation cannot continue burying its head in the sand where this issue is concerned.
The BBC will lose all credibility if it does not.
Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more!
Photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib via Flash90
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 BBC Broadcasting House, London There is onslaught against Israel and the Jews from an unholy alliance between extremist Muslims, the left and the political class, and we need to start taking the fight to them
Melanie Phillips January 17, 2024 https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/we-need-to-face-up-to-the-scale-of-the-axis-against-israel-xz0m5uxt
The Conservative MP Andrew Percy has accused the BBC of putting British Jews directly at risk through its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Absolutely. The BBC’s relentless portrayal of the Israelis not as the victims of genocidal terror but as hard-hearted, vengeful and wanton killers of children and the innocent has channelled ancient antisemitic tropes of Jewish blood-lust and helped fuel an enormous increase in attacks on Jews.
As Percy said, the BBC’s double standards on Israel, treating patently absurd civilian casualty figures from Hamas as reliable while casting doubt on Israeli statements, present Israel rather than Hamas as the aggressor and rogue actor.
A principal offender has been the Today programme presenter, Mishal Husain. Interviewing the Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on Monday, she unleashed a barrage of distorted and out-of-context quotes to demonise Israel as a bloodthirsty aggressor.
Claiming that the IDF spokesman, Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari, had said in October that “our focus is on creating damage not precision,” and that Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, had said “we will eliminate everything” in Gaza, Husain said these remarks suggested Israel wasn’t acting within international law and might be why “so many Palestinians have died”.
Yet as the Guardian acknowledged on 5 December, Hagari had been mistranslated. He had actually said: “While balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage”.
Gallant’s words have been taken out of context. He had said: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before, and Hamas will not exist. We will eliminate everything”. He meant eliminating Hamas, not Gaza’s civilians.
In any event, what matters is not what’s said but what Israel does. For the ratio of civilians to combatants killed by Israel is around two to one.
This is far fewer than the proportion of civilians killed in war by any other nation’s army — and when taking into account the Hamas rockets falling short into Gaza and killing its people, fewer still.
Most disgusting of all was how Husain twisted Benjamin Netanyahu’s reference to the ancient Israelites’ biblical foe, Amalek, when he said: “We remember, and we are fighting.”
Husain claimed that “Amalek” involved the injunction to spare no-one and destroy “every man, woman and child, sheep, camel and donkey”. And she suggested this was the cause of Israel’s rate of death and destruction in Gaza.
This was grotesque. Amalek was the genocidal enemy of the Jewish people, whose attack was so lethal that the Jews have a religious commitment to “remember” him in order to destroy any such enemy before it can wipe out the Jewish people again.
Yet Husain and other Israel-haters have abused this sacred duty to defend the Jewish people against genocide by claiming obscenely that it meant Israel intends to wipe out the Palestinians as an act of malign aggression.
The government has supported Israel over its show trial at the International Court of Justice. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, has said South Africa’s accusation against Israel of “genocide” is wrong because “genocide” involves an intention to wipe out an entire people whereas Israel is merely defending itself in Gaza.
Defending Israel, however, takes more than objecting to “when did you stop beating your wife” harassment. It involves calling out the murderous lies that are circulating about Israel’s behaviour, and stating the truth instead.
But instead, Cameron took aim at Israel with a few poisonous barbs of his own. He was “worried,” he told a parliamentary committee, that Israel “might be in breach of international law” in Gaza and that “on lots of occasions” its compliance was “under question”.
Since he offered no evidence of any such breaches, his remarks served merely as yet another smear against an Israel fighting for its life according to international law and yet being demonised for doing so.
The Jews find themselves in the hallucinatory situation of being under unprecedented physical and verbal assault by a western world determined to erase genocidal Jewish victimisation and instead delegitimise Israeli Jews as enemies of humanity.
This has been building up for years. Yet the community’s leadership has chosen not to call out publicly the enemies of the Jews in British society. Instead it has sought to appease, to genuflect and to grovel.
Last week the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, indicated the desperate failure of that approach when he called for British Jews to be “brave” and challenge Muslims over Israel following the “deeply disappointing” Muslim attacks on the Jewish state since the October 7 pogrom.
Candidly, Mirvis regretted that he hadn’t always prioritised Israel in interfaith dialogue, which mostly “focused on what unites us”.
The community needs to start calling out the unique evil of the onslaught against Israel and the Jews from the unholy alliance between extremist Muslims, the left and the political class.
Instead of responding with instantly forgettable rallies against antisemitism to the malevolent falsehoods raining down daily from the intelligentsia, the church and the Hamas Broadcasting Corporation, British Jews should start taking the fight in public and by name to those intent on destroying truth, justice and the Jewish people.
Melanie Phillips is a Times columnist
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Captured Hamas Terrorist: False Claims
HonestReporting-tweet-9December2023-Captured Hamas Terrorist: False Claims
Conspiracy theories surrounding this picture are spreading like wildfire.
❌ Mass graves.
❌ Humiliation.
❌ Torture.
❌ Abducted civilians who are never seen again.
In reality, there are already reports that some of these men have been released…
Stuart374-tweet-9December2023
I was mostly surprised about how fat Hamas’ “fighters” are.
Hohisier-tweet-9December2023
All that food aid they stole from the people. Evidently terrorizing builds a hell of an appetite
 HonestReporting-tweet-9December2023-Captured Hamas Terrorist: False Claims
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Unabated, Unhinged, Orgiastic Jew-hatred!
Gad Saad-tweet-24October2023-Over the past two weeks, the reality has been unabated, unhinged, orgiastic Jew-hatred. They are coming from all directions. I do not see a way out of this. Nothing seems to temper the attacks, the delusions, the hateful fervour. I’m trying to play out different scenarios and it looks so bleak. I always believe in the power of reason but not if your predators are foaming with genocidal zeal. I truly think that this might be a historical tipping point in the West. Good night.
 Gad Saad-tweet-24October2023-the reality has been unabated unhinged orgiastic Jew-hatred
Charlie Kirk-tweet-23October2023-TThis is our @TPUSA staffer, Peter Christos, who is Christian, not Jewish. Yesterday, he was violently attacked while he and another TPUSA staffer were trying to escort an elderly Jewish couple away from a pro-Israel rally. On the way to their cars, they encountered pro-Hamas supporters who assaulted them, punched them repeatedly, and hit them with a flag pole before cops could pull them away to safety.
All of these thugs need to be arrested and charged with hate crimes.
 Charlie-Kirk-tweet-23October2023-This-is-our-TPUSA-staffer-Peter-Christos-who-is-Christian
The BBC
Michael Yifrah-tweet-28October2023-The BBC
 Michael Yifrah-tweet-28October2023-The BBC Watch the latest “news” from the BBC [Antisemitic BBC reporting from Israel]
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Mainstream Media use of ‘Palestinian Journalist’
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-
When Palestinians tried to connect with Israelis to build a better future, @Hind_Gaza
turned them into Hamas. This is who @washingtonpost
considers a credible journalist?
#JournalistOrTerrorist
 HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-When Palestinians tried to connect with Israelis to build a better future, @Hind_Gaza
turned them into Hamas. This is who @washingtonpost
considers a credible journalist?  HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-When Palestinians tried to connect with Israelis to build a better future, @Hind_Gaza
turned them into Hamas. This is who @washingtonpost
considers a credible journalist?
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One of the more widely discussed facets of the Israel-Hamas war has been the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7. The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and…
Chaim Lax 22February2024
https://honestreporting.com/who-are-the-killed-gazan-journalists-affiliated-with-palestinian-terror-groups/
One of the more widely discussed facets of the Israel-Hamas war has been the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7.
The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and the Financial Times are just some of the mainstream media organizations that have featured in-depth reports on the Palestinian journalist casualties in Gaza.
However, what these reports fail to disclose is that a substantial number of these Gaza-based journalists were either members of proscribed Palestinian terror organizations or affiliated with these groups. These groups include Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Based on information provided by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), of the 83 Palestinian journalists identified by the CPJ as being killed in Gaza to date (February 22, 2024), 45 (roughly 55%) were either members or affiliates of a Palestinian terrorist group.
The following is a list of the killed Palestinian journalists who were associated with Gaza-based terror groups:
- Alaa Al-Hams (passed away on February 12, 2024 from a prior wound) – She had previously worked for the Houthi-affiliated Al Masira TV Network and the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
- Mohammed Atallah (reported killed on January 29, 2024) – He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Resalah news website.
- Iyad El-Ruwagh (reported killed on January 25, 2024) – He worked as a host for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Voice Radio.
- Mohamed Jamal Sobhi Al-Thalathini (reported killed on January 11, 2024) – He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
- Ahmed Bdeir (reported killed on January 10, 2024) – He worked for Bawabat al-Hadaf, which is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
- Hamza Al Dahdouh (reported killed on January 7, 2024) – He worked for Al Jazeera. He reportedly served in Islamic Jihad’s electronic engineering unit and previously served as a deputy commander in the Zeitoun Brigade’s rocket force.
- Mustafa Thuraya (reported killed on January 7, 2024) – He worked as a freelancer for AFP. He reportedly served as a deputy squad commander in Hamas’ Gaza City Brigade.
- Akram Elshafie (passed away on January 5, 2024 from injuries sustained in October 2023) – He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Safa news agency.
- Jabr Abu Hadrous (reported killed on December 29, 2023) – He worked as a reporter for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
- Ahmed Khaireddine (reported killed on December 28, 2023) – He worked as a cameraman for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster Al-Qouds Al-Youm and for the Hamas-affiliated Quds Feed.
- Mohamad Al-Iff (reported killed on December 24, 2023) – He worked as a journalist and photographer for the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
- Mohamed Azzaytouniyah (reported killed on December 24, 2023) – He worked as a sound engineer for the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
- Ahmad Jamal Al-Madhoun (reported killed on December 24, 2023) – He served as the deputy director of the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
- Mohamed Naser Abu Huwaidi (reported killed on December 22, 2023) – He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated newspaper, Al-Istiklal.
- Mohamed Khalifeh (reported killed on December 22, 2023) – He served as a director at the Hamas-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Adel Zorob (reported killed on December 19, 2023) – He was freelance journalist who worked with a variety of media outlets in Gaza, including the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Voice Radio.
- Abdallah Alwan (reported killed on December 18, 2023) – He worked for Al Jazeera and also as a radio host at the Islamic University in Gaza, a Hamas-affiliated organization.
- Haneen Kashtan (reported killed on December 17, 2023) – He worked for the Fatah-affiliated Al-Kofiya TV and for Tzut Alutan, a radio station affiliated with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
- Hassan Farajalla (reported killed on December 3, 2023) – According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he held a senior position at Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV. According to the Meir Amit Center, he held a senior position at the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
- Shaima El-Gazzar (reported killed on either December 3 or 4, 2023) – She worked for the Al-Majedat network and was reportedly also a Hamas activist.
- Abdullah Darwish (reported killed on December 1, 2023) – He worked as a cameraman for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Mostafa Bakeer (reported killed on November 24, 2023) – He worked as a cameraman and journalist for the Hamas-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Assem Al-Barsh (reported killed on November 22, 2023) – He worked for the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
- Mohamed Nabil Al-Zaq (reported killed November 22, 2023) – He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated media network, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
- Abdelhalim Awad (reported killed November 18, 2023) – He served as a media worker and driver for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Mostafa El Sawaf (reported killed November 18, 2023) – He worked for the local news website MSDR News. He joined Hamas at its founding and previously served as a member of Hamas’ Gaza leadership.
- Amro Salah Abu Hayah (reported killed on November 18, 2023) – He worked in the broadcast department of Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Yahya Abu Manih (reported killed on November 7, 2023) – He worked as a journalist for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Radio.
- Mohamad Al-Bayyari (reported killed on November 2, 2023) – He worked as a journalist for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Iyad Matar (reported killed on November 1, 2023) – He worked as a journalist for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Majed Kashko (reported killed on October 31, 2023) – He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated media channel, Palestine Today.
- Yasser Abu Namous (reported killed on October 27, 2023) He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Sahel media organization.
- Duaa Sharaf (reported killed on October 26, 2023) – She worked as a host for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Radio.
- Jamal Al-Faqaawi (reported killed on October 25, 2023) – He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Mithaq Media Foundation.
- Saed Al-Halabi (reported killed on October 25, 2023) – He worked as a journalist for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Ahmed Abu Mhadi (reported killed on October 25, 2023) – He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Mohammed Imad Labad (reported killed on October 23, 2023) – He worked for the Hamas-affiliated news website, Al-Resalah.
- Khalil Abu Aathra (reported killed on October 19, 2023) – He worked as a videographer for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Sameeh Al-Nady (reported killed on October 18, 2023) – He worked as a journalist and director for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Mohammad Balousha (reported killed on October 17, 2023) – He worked as a journalist and administrator for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated media channel, Palestine Today.
- Issam Bhar (reported killed on October 17, 2023) – He worked for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
- Husam Mubarak (reported killed on October 13, 2023) – He worked as a journalist for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa radio station.
- Ahmed Shehab (reported killed on October 12, 2023) – He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated radio station, Voice of the Prisoners. He had previously been imprisoned by Israel and was released during the 2011 Shalit deal.
- Mohammad Al-Salhi (reported killed on October 7, 2023) – He worked as a photojournalist for the Fourth Authority news agency and was also responsible for public relations for the Hamas-affiliated Dar al-Quran al-Karrem wal-Sunnah organization.
- Mohammad Jarghoun (reported killed on October 7, 2023) – He worked as a journalist for Smart Media and reportedly served in Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades.
*= Since 2010, Al-Aqsa TV has been designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of the Treasury.
Note: This list is based on the number of Palestinian journalists recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists and does not include journalists who are solely affiliated with Fatah or the Palestinian Authority.
The list will be periodically updated.
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Hamas Oscar Nominations 2024
 Hamas Oscar Nominations 2024
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Cycle of Violence-misleading terminology
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-Media shorthand to say, “Israelis and Palestinians are at each other’s throats again. We’re too lazy to provide you meaningful context.”
 HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-Cycle of Violence-misleading terminology
 Cycle of Violence-misleading terminology
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Over the years, media outlets have become islands of ideological conformity, where the need to affirm supersedes the obligation to inform. In the case of Israel, the subordination of Truth to ideology by some of…
GuestPost [Mark Sachs]
26October2023 https://honestreporting.com/how-in-the-world-did-we-get-here/
Over the years, media outlets have become islands of ideological conformity, where the need to affirm supersedes the obligation to inform. In the case of Israel, the subordination of Truth to ideology by some of the most revered international news outlets has led to levels of global antisemitism not seen since the Holocaust.
Under the guise of “objective journalism,” journalists frame information in such a way that ignites our confirmation bias while trying to mask their own biases and agendas. Given the constant bombardment of information from these sources, seeking out alternative views requires Herculean discipline, which few of us possess.
Media bias did not light the fuse for recent events, but it certainly fanned the flames. The dangers of media bias cannot be underestimated.
Sadly, bias presumes unconscious intent, and I do not believe the rush to judgment by the BBC, New York Times, and others in blaming Israel for the purported attack on the Gaza hospital, or in CNN’s case, equivocating over the likely culprit, was unconscious. It was malicious and intentional.
Their false reporting based on verifiably false information led to violent global protests and raised the prospect of a world war. It’s only natural to ask, “How in the world did we get here?”
I’ll try to shed light on how we got here by exploring the convergence of four cultural trends in Western nations, most notably the US and the UK, and the ensuing psychological prisons that capture minds.
The Role of the Universities
Let’s start with the trend affecting the media and proceed from there. Many journalists are educated in elite institutions like Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Oxford, Stanford, and Yale. Even those who attended other institutions of higher learning could be considered somewhat elite since approximately only 38% and 26% of the US and UK populations earned a bachelor’s degree.
Unfortunately, elite institutions possess very little viewpoint diversity. As I wrote in my book, The Cancel Culture Curse, “At Brown, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and Princeton, liberal students outnumber conservative ones by a ratio of at least 4:1.” It’s safe to assume that Columbia, NYU, and Stanford suffer the same lack of viewpoint diversity.
Notice that the elite universities with the lowest viewpoint diversities are the very same universities now hosting pro-Hamas and “pro-Palestinian” protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and signing letters pronouncing Israel as the aggressor while ignoring the atrocities perpetrated against Israelis. In the US, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Penn, and Stanford have become ground zero for antisemitism and anti-Israelism.
While being a college liberal in no way guarantees a student is anti-Israel and pro-Hamas, every pro-Hamas or “pro-Palestinian” protester at the dozens of protests across the US and the UK falls decidedly in the liberal camp.
I can hear some of you questioning, “What about the far right?!” The far right does in fact have a “Jew problem,” and they no doubt are aligning in words and deeds with their brethren on the far left. However, the trends I’m discussing, and which are playing out in colleges and media outlets across the country are not being driven by the right.
The UK has its own long history of antisemitism and anti-Israelism, but British universities are likely on par with US universities when it comes to viewpoint diversity. Hence, the BBC, the Financial Times, and The Guardian are bastions of anti-Israel viewpoints.
The changing college milieus in which current and would-be journalists are cultivated is a trend that profoundly impacts what and how “news” is presented and received. Now, let’s explore why these educational environments became ground zero for anti-Israel sentiment.
Saudi-Funded Programs
For decades, Saudi Arabia funneled billions of dollars into hundreds of American universities to fund Islamic studies and international relations programs as well as other programs in science and technology. In 2019 alone, 144 American universities received a total of $270 million from Saudi Arabia. When Qatar and China are added to the mix, the total amount is estimated to be $43,000,0000,000 since 1990. Yes, forty-three BILLION dollars.
The well-funded Islamic Studies and International Affairs programs helped lay the groundwork for pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel narratives to take hold throughout the US and no doubt the UK as well.
The promotion of these viewpoints created fertile ground to enable these Islamist and pro-Palestinian voices to ingratiate themselves into left-wing politics. Once inside, these voices started appropriating left-wing causes as their own: aligning themselves with African-American activism by referring to themselves as “people of color,” describing Israel as a colonial power, and conflating Palestinian rights with reproductive justice, gay rights, and transgender rights.
That’s how we get a group called SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Campaign conflating reproductive justice, which does not exist in Gaza, with the understanding “that Palestine and the freedom of the Palestinian people is an issue of reproductive justice.” Freedom from whom, we all know to be Israel, not Hamas.
Once these alliances were formed, they started to snowball.
Despite the fact that upwards of 70% of Israelis could be classified, using the left’s definition, as “people of color,” all Israelis, in fact, all Jews, are viewed as white oppressors. These identitarian gymnastics are the result of intersectionality, a framework to classify groups of people as oppressors and oppressed.
According to intersectionality, Jews are white oppressors and Israel is a white colonial oppressive nation. Palestinians and Muslims, on the other hand, are considered oppressed “people of color.”
Each of these trends has dramatically changed college education and culture, and it is on these campuses where many current and most future American and British journalists were and are nurtured. They then take their viewpoints to the media outlets that employ them.
These outlets have become ideologically homogenous echo chambers that promote intersectionality either consciously or unconsciously. As such, conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians can be viewed as a conflict between the “oppressor” and “oppressed” or the powerful and the powerless.
Regardless of the sheer magnitude of the atrocities perpetrated by the “oppressed” Palestinians, outlets such as the BBC will rationalize such violence based on the status of oppression.
“Intelligent Stupidity” and Cognitive Dissonance
The coalescing of these trends has resulted in two dangerous consequences. The first is amathia, a Greek word that can be defined as lacking wisdom, or as “intelligent stupidity.”
Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of philosophy, explains amathia in this way: “It is the opposite of wisdom, a kind of dis-knowledge of how to deal with other human beings, and it results in awful actions undertaken by otherwise perfectly functional, intelligent human beings. Moreover, people characterized by amathia cannot simply be persuaded by reasoned argument, because they understand the argument but are crucially deficient in their character, which…is developed over time by a combination of instincts, environment influences [author’s note: college, media, social media], and reason.”
Those protesting on elite college campuses and journalists at the NYT, CNN, and BBC are all intelligent, very much so. However, their characters are flawed. But for the fact that our laws prevent them from dismembering or killing people, these people possess the intelligence to rationalize any form of violence against people they don’t like. The only check on their reason would be to possess the right character. This is the danger of intelligent stupidity. It leads to what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil.
The second is cognitive dissonance, which is the tension created when someone is faced with information that conflicts with their strongly held beliefs. To resolve that tension, people tend to double down on their beliefs with more aggression and conviction rather than change their position.
Amathia and Cognitive Dissonance help explain why Ivy League protesters, purportedly the brightest among us, having been birthed in anti-Israel incubators, not only look askance to the reports of horrific atrocities perpetrated by the Palestinians but double down on their support of Hamas.
Only those who suffer from amathia and cognitive dissonance could argue that slaughtering babies, disemboweling mothers, and burning alive innocent people are fair acts of resistance.
Signs of Resistance
Knowing from where all this came can be instructive for how to move forward from here. Thankfully, we are seeing signs of resistance.
1) Huge donors to Ivy League schools in the US have finally started speaking with their dollars. While losing millions here and there when an endowment has billions, may not have a huge financial impact. But, it sends a powerful message of “no more.”
2) Exposure is the best disinfectant against dangerous ideological viruses. Americans are now seeing what has been lurking in certain corners of American educational institutions, and most Americans are disgusted by what they are seeing. Finally.
3) This is one issue that is not partisan. The overwhelming populations in Western nations are banding together to confront this assault on reason, compassion, and humanity. The lines are no longer left versus right. Instead, the battle lines are between wisdom and amathia, civilized and uncivilized, and good and evil.
Each of us has a role to play. Sapir Journal has put out a comprehensive list of actionable steps each of us can take: signing college petitions, taking political action, and seeking out news sources that more fairly present information. You are sure to find something constructive from Sapir’s list. It’s on all of us to toe the line.
Mark Sachs is the founder of Orwell Grey Strategic Communications and a long-time pro-Israel activist. Mark co-authored the book, The Cancel Culture Curse.
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Propaganda vs Reality
GUERNICA BY Pablo Picasso
Elon Musk’s Revelation – He Didn’t Know it Was About Israel: The Land of Israel Fellowship
Elon Musk-tweet-31October2023-The real battle
The real battle is between the extinctionists and the humanists.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Elon Musk-tweet-31October2023-The real battle is between the extinctionists and the humanists. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Islamic Conquest between 7th and 9th Century
Islamic Conquest between 7th and 9th Century-Map
Map of the 12 Tribes of Israel
Excerpted from The Chanukah Scroll by Hagi Ben Artzi:
[When Antiochus sent a demand for the return of captured ‘Greek cities’ in Eretz Yisrael] …Shimon rebuffed these demands…, and responded in resolute and firm terms:
“We didn’t take a foreign land and we didn’t exist on the spoils of other nations, but on the lands of our fathers that through the years was illegally seized by our enemies. We, when we had the opportunity, restored our birthright.” – Shimon Maccabee to the Greek Antiochus 2158 year ago. 3626 -136BCE
Judenstern_Yellow Star of David
Symbol that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, so that they could be identified as Jews.
South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN) for the Gaza War
Israel Hamas War RANT
Yishai Fleisher @YishaiFleisherTV https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1EasxeXGzoXJb2y3HTMsLA
Excerpted from The Chanukah Scroll by Hagi Ben Artzi:
[When Antiochus sent a demand for the return of captured ‘Greek cities’ in Eretz Yisrael] …Shimon rebuffed these demands…, and responded in resolute and firm terms:
“We didn’t take a foreign land and we didn’t exist on the spoils of other nations, but on the lands of our fathers that through the years was illegally seized by our enemies. We, when we had the opportunity, restored our birthright.” – Shimon Maccabee to the Greek Antiochus 2158 year ago. 3626 -136BCE
Those Inspiring Maccabees!
1 Tevet 5784 12December2023 http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2023/12/those-inspiring-maccabees.html
Rosh Chodesh
6th Candle of Hanukkah<
Following is a sampling of inspiring speeches made by the Maccabean leaders which aroused the Jewish neshamahs of their followers to greatness in the Name of Hashem. Excerpted from The Chanukah Scroll by Hagi Ben Artzi:
[To the Greek officer who bid him come and sacrifice a pig on the altar to Zeus,]…Matityahu’s response was delivered in a loud and confident voice, and was clearly heard throughout the city square. Matityahu said: “Even if all the nations in the Kingdom of Antiochus hearken to him and abandon their traditions and customs and follow the paths of the Greeks, I, and my sons and my brothers will continue to walk in the ways of our Forefathers, and will not betray the covenant of our God. We dare not leave our Torah and our national tradition! We will not follow and will not hearken to the words of King Antiochus, for the God Who dwells in Heaven is our King.”
…”Jews, we are going out to war! Whoever is zealous for the Torah, whoever is loyal to the covenant with our God, follow me to fight for our faith and our Torah!”
[Even from his deathbed, Matityahu persevered]…”My sons, be zealous for the Torah; give your very souls for the sake of the covenant of your Forefathers. Remember the actions of your fathers, how they gave their lives and brought salvation to their nation. Remember Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov; remember Moshe and Pinchas; remember Yehoshua and Calev; remember David and Eliyahu; remember Daniel, Chanayah, Mishael and Azaryah.
Carefully reflect on the previous generations; learn from them that one need not fear an evil man, even if he is strong and threatening. Our fathers trusted in God, and He came to their salvation. You, as well: Believe in God, and become strong with Torah – for only this way will bring you pride. In your war with the enemies of our nation, Yehuda will be your Chief of Staff and commander, and Shimon will be your advisor and father. Gather to you all those who uphold the Torah, and avenge the honor of your people. Give the Gentiles what they deserve, and hold fast on to the Torah’s commandments.”
With these words, Matityahu passed away….
…when Yehuda’s few men saw the great Syrian army marching towards them, great fear fell upon them. They called to their commander Yehuda: “We are few and weak; how will we be able to fight this great camp?” Yehuda then gathered all the men together, and strengthened their spirit with words of faith.
Thus he said to them: “Nothing can prevent God from saving us, whether we are few or many. It is not great numbers of soldiers or heavy weaponry that brings victory in war. It is rather a spirit of valor, one that stems from true faith. We are fighting for our nation and our Torah, whereas they are coming upon us with haughtiness and evil, to destroy us, our wives and our children, and to take our property. The God of our fathers will not abandon us; He will smite them before us.
Arise, my brothers! Go out and fight without fear!”
When Yehuda finished speaking, a spirit of valor overtook his men, and they fell upon their enemies with great force.
[When the war had continued many years, Shimon, the last of the Maccabees] …gathered a large crowd in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem, and encouraged them and raised their spirits. He said to them: “You know that which we have done – I, my brothers, and my father’s house – on behalf of the Torah and the Temple. All my brothers died in the great war, in which they gave their lives for their people; I, alone, remain. Do not fear that their deaths have caused me to be afraid or to seek my own personal safety, for I know that I am no better than my brothers. Just as they did, I will continue to lead you in the way of the Torah and to fight the wars of God.”
[When Antiochus sent a demand for the return of captured ‘Greek cities’ in Eretz Yisrael] …Shimon rebuffed these demands…, and responded in resolute and firm terms:
“Not foreign land did we take, and not over property of foreigners did we take control. We have returned to the inheritance of our forefathers, from which we were unjustly banished by our enemies. And now, with the help of our God, we have returned to the inheritance of our fathers.”
AMEN AND AMEN!!
And the Spirit of the Maccabees lives on…
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Our Holiday, Our Land
How do you describe the simple pleasure of celebrating Chanukah in a place where everyone is also rushing home to light their menorah? Our holiday, our land…
Natalie Kovan | Posted on 09October2023 | https://breslev.com/366335/
Our Holiday, Our Land by Natalie Kovan
I can’t believe we’ve been here for a few years. Even so, when it comes to Chanukah, I still feel that same excitement I felt the first time we celebrated it as new olim (immigrants) in our homeland. I didn’t realize just how deep the disconnection with all things secular in America was until a recent conversation with my Mom. As she described my brother’s vacation on the 23rd and 24th of December, I asked her if it was a holiday or something.
Silence.
“It’s X-mas!” my mother piped up, in total disbelief. Like, only the entire world knows what holiday falls on those dates! What my mother forgets is that here in our Blessed Land we are not constantly bombarded or reminded since the end of October when the pumpkins are just being put away, and the Jack-o lanterns are beginning to rot. My mailbox is not overflowing with ‘holiday’ themed catalogs, and red and green trees are not to be seen. The flora and fauna around me don’t suddenly sprout colorful blinking lights. Reindeer (especially those sporting red noses) are basically extinct. In short—Gan Eden! And after five plus years of breathing in the kedusha (holiness) of Eretz Yisrael, the 23rd and 24th of December became just that—two regular days in the Gregorian calendar.
The first and most obvious pleasure of being in Israel this time of year is that the only men you see with long white beards are those who are wearing black coats. No man in the red suit in sight. No flashing-colored lights. No green and red plastered on any store fronts. Not a one. Here, we are absolutely oblivious on what day the ‘big day’ actually falls. Yes, there is actually a place on this earth where the big arm of the catalog behemoth does not reach, and we are blessed to be totally clueless about the latest twenty-eight-inch Bob Sponge whatever –his-name-is who dances and sings and twirls in a 360-degree pirouette with accompanying ukulele accoutrements—all for the low price of $28.99!
Sufganiyot at Mahane Yehuda shuk
Here we have been overdosing on suffganyot (fried doughnuts filled with jelly—or caramel as the case may be) since Simchat Torah. Supermarkets display an endless supply of menorahs, chocolate covered Chanukah gelt (“money”), candles, oil—you name it. The entire nation puts aside their differences for eight days, as they wish each other a Chanukah sameach (Happy Chanukah!). Everything shuts down early—so that everyone can light their menorahs with their loved ones. As you stand on the street after dark, you see menorah upon menorah—lights upon lights—lights belonging to us, bridging century upon century of Jews keeping the fires of Yiddishkeit burning, living—in our Land.
Even the dreidel—a simple dreidel brings home the knowledge that living in Israel is, well—miraculous. Our son, looking at an Israeli dreidel for the first time, suddenly burst out, “hey—there’s no ‘Shin’ on this dreidel!’. Upon closer inspection, we found a ‘Pey’ where the shin should have been. In the rest of the world, the letters ‘Nun, Gimmel, Hay, Shin’ (נ ג ה ש) for “a big miracle happened THERE’. But for us living in Eretz Israel, it’s “Nun, Gimmel, Hay, Pey’ (נ ג ה פ) “— a big miracle happened HERE’. Here. In our backyard (almost literally—Modiin is but a drive away). Here. Not there, but here. Jews all over the world light menorahs and celebrate a miracle that happened not too far away from our living room, in a place that is still seeing miracles to this very day.
How do you describe the simple pleasure of celebrating Chanukah in a place where everyone is also rushing home to light their menorah? It’s a communal event, where every single one of your neighbors is celebrating with you. Our holiday. Our land. Here we don’t take second place as ‘the consolation holiday ‘. Here, our holiday is THE holiday. Here everything stops for Chanukah. Everything revolves around lighting the menorah, not the other way around. No jingles in the supermarket overloading your subconscious. In their stead, Jewish children walk around singing Chanukah songs, filling the air with their pure words. How does one grasp it? Here it is a tangible. You are enveloped in it day and night, not just as you huddle with your family around the menorah. I can’t describe how wonderful it is not to have to endure another “Merry (insert name of holiday here)”, while internally screaming, “But I’m Jewish!” No generic “Happy holiday” greetings either. Here, your taxi driver wishes you a “Chanukah sameach,” and your soul responds, because it feels right. That’s the magic of living in Israel.
The other major difference is that Chanukah in Israel is not so much about the presents—it’s about the miracle. When you live in a country that exists because of one long continuous miracle sustained by Hashem—it’s the miracle that counts. When a sonic boom breaks the silence of the night sky, as army planes ‘do their job’ up North—and the realization that this little country with a spirit which is too big to fill its borders—is being guarded by Hashem and His emissaries because we have a right to be here—then the miracle that is Israel—that is Chanukah—takes on a whole new meaning.
As we read about the battles fought by Judah Maccabee and his army, the mind can’t help but marvel at the fact that not much has changed since those days, except for the fact that technologically, warfare has evolved drastically, to say the least. We are still the few against the many. A small nation surrounded by those who would love nothing more than to see our destruction. The story of Chanukah is not a quaint and inspiring story that we celebrate as part of our past—it is also the story of our present.
I remember two years ago, during Operation Cast Lead, as we lit our menorahs with the backdrop of a war going on at several of our borders. Stories of soldiers requesting tzitzit before they would go into battle streamed out to the public. And that is what Chanukah is about. Keeping our identity separate and whole from the rest of the nations as we do spiritual and physical battle with our adversaries. Looking at our uniqueness not as an impairment, but an asset to be celebrated and protected at all costs. For when we act like Jews, proud in ourselves, our Land and our Torah—then defeating our enemies becomes a reality, with the help of our Creator.
It is only by the benevolence of Hashem that Israel and the Jewish people exist. Without the Land of Israel, there is no nation, and vice versa. It is here that the plans for Am Israel took root, and it is here where they will culminate when Mashiach comes (may it be speedily in our days). Even though we wandered for centuries without a ‘home’, Hashem has gifted us in the last 60 years with concrete borders to come home to. A Kotel to pray at. Land to be populated and bring back to life. He is setting the stage for our ultimate return and Redemption (may it be His will). To be here and call this home—despite the hardships—is a miracle. As painful as it is to be so far from loved ones, friends and all things familiar—there is nothing like the miracle of finally coming home. Home where the soul and body are finally in alignment for the very first time. That is a miracle all its own.
Even as I write, it is impossible to describe in mere words the enormity of living here. Sometimes it’s a struggle, sometimes it’s a cultural shock, sometimes it’s just plain hard. And sometimes, while standing at the top of a hill, looking out at the valley, and at cities that were not here that long ago, brimming with Jews—and the eyes fill at the intensity of the knowledge that you are home—finally—then you say, “Thank You, Hashem, for the miracle that is Israel. Thank You for bringing me home.”
Shiri_Sabra-tweet-23April2024-Passover Seder in Jerusalem 1919
Jewish soldiers of the British Army who liberated the Land of Israel at Passover Seder in Jerusalem, 1919.
Shiri_Sabra-tweet-23April2024-Passover Seder in Jerusalem 1919
The Persian Jewess-tweet-23April2024-Jews are Indigenous to Israel
Jews are Indigenous to Israel.
Palestinians are Arabs who rebranded their “ethnicity” in 1964.
“Palestinians” have ZERO historical, religious or anthropological ties to Israel, Gaza or the West Bank.
#StandWithIsrael
The Persian Jewess-tweet-23April2024-Jews are Indigenous to Israel
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Hashem Signals our Settlers
Often, when we look below the surface of what appears to be a dismal situation, we can find the hidden solution. So too, in our current situation in Eretz Yisrael, we see the glimmer of redemption!
David Ben Horin | Posted on 13December2023 | https://breslev.com/4078471/
Hashem Signals our Settlers by David Ben Horin
On the surface, the news looks like one series of uppercuts to the head of Am Israel. Look deeper, and you will see Hashem’s blessings.
In 1914, there was a convention of Sages from Agudat Israel in Switzerland. They wanted to discuss Zionism – were they for it or against it?
They invited Rav Avraham Kook to come and speak. He resisted. His heart was in the Land of Israel, and to him, a mere moment outside the paradise God gave him was like an eternity in Gehinnom. Reluctantly, for the sake of Israel, he left the Land to attend the conference. When he arrived, World War I broke out. As a result, he was stranded in Europe and couldn’t get back to Israel.
On the surface, it was a nightmare.
He made his way to England and became a powerful voice in the British Jewish community. By 1917, the British Parliament debated whether to declare the Land of Israel the homeland of the Jewish People.
The loud voice of assimilated Jews lobbied the MPs to reject the proposal. They protested that they were English first and shouldn’t be branded as dual loyalists.
Rabbi Kook was asked to present a counter claim in favor of the proposal before the House of Commons. He gave a passionate speech. When he met objections, the non-Jewish lawmakers stood up and said, “Look at the man. Head to toe, he lives in the service of God. He represents the Jews.”
Had Rav Kook remained in Israel, would Britain’s Balfour Declaration that gave political backing “to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine” become reality?
A Hundred Years Later
In November 2023, American President Joe Biden issued a statement which decreed that anyone in the “occupied territories who acts in opposition to peace will be denied entry into the US.” (The Caroline Glick Show In-Focus|Nobody is Decrying Jewish Genocide (@10:18-15:08) ).
It doesn’t specify “violent settlers” or “Jewish extremists.” President Biden refers to anyone who lives in what is called “occupied territories,” which includes most of Jerusalem.
On the surface, this is a disaster. The city of Efrat has thousands of people with dual citizenship who make their livelihoods going back and forth from America to Israel. Thousands of residents throughout Yesha are dual citizens who may be torn apart from their families living abroad.
Think about how COVID-19 split families. How many tragedies did we hear about mothers not being able to see their daughters and fathers not being able to see their sons because of the pandemic?
Major Miracles
Hashem is bringing His children home. He is encouraging countless Jews outside of Israel to come here as often as possible.
What about the residents of Judea and Shomron? Hashem is giving them the ultimate gift. He is keeping them in Israel. Could this be to protect them from catastrophe in America?
Could Mashiach be HERE and Hashem doesn’t want His precious children to be anywhere else when He reveals His anointed to the world? Are these decrees a signal from God that everyone should be in Israel right now – that we shouldn’t leave, not even for a moment?
The Tanya Rebbe Yehuda writes that just before Mashiach comes, Jews living along the borders of Israel will be without homes and will wander from city to city. (Sanhedrin 97a) Currently, 100,000 Israelis in Kiryat Shemona (near the Israel-Lebanese border) and in border towns along the Gaza belt are relocated in temporary living quarters throughout the land.
Has the time come?
From Woke to Awakening
Whenever you hear “From the River to the Sea,” follow it up by saying “Hashem natan ha’aretz li” (God gave the Land to me)!
Non-Jews can’t say that!
***
David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.
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Large “Palestinian” families and tribes in Israel are from:
Ottoman Empire History-1699-1914-Map
Visegrád 24-tweet-20April2024-large ‘Palestinian’ families and tribes in Israel are from
Most anti-Israel protesters in the West don’t understand that many of the Palestinians arrived first in the late 19th century during huge internal migration flows within the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, many Jews arrived from Europe and the Middle East
Large “Palestinian” families and tribes in Israel:
– Al-Masri
– Masarawa
– Al-Fium
– and Al-‘Asi are all from Egypt
– Al-Baghdadi
– Obeid
– and Al-Tikriti are all from Iraq
– Halabi
– Nashashibi
– and Al-Horani are from Syria
– Al-Lubnani
– Al-Sourani are from Lebanon.
– Al-Kurd are from Kurdistan
– Al-Zarqawi are from Jordan
– Al-Hijazi
– Kabah are from Saudi Arabia
– Al-Maghrebi
– Al-Jazeir
– Al-Arge are from North Africa
– Abid are from Sudan
– Al-Shishani are from Chechnya
Visegrád 24-tweet-20April2024-large Palestinian families and tribes in Israel are from
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Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs-NOT INDIGENOUS
Hussain Abdul-Hussain-tweet-22February2024-Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs
Yeah, except that Palestinians are not a race, neither are two billion Muslims. Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs who think they are the center of the universe. All Palestinians on the planet would barely fill half of New York City.
The number of Palestinian dead and displaced over the past century of conflict with Israel remains a fraction of those killed and displaced in other Mideastern conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen. The disproportionate attention that Palestinians have received makes much bigger Arab problems look irrelevant.
Palestinians want to “put things in context” and liberate Palestine “by any means necessary,” including through the terrorism of Hamas, that’s on them. Just stop making it the end of the world. It’s just another Middle Eastern war. Had Jews and Israel not been involved, it wouldn’t have made it to the bottom of the last page of any newspaper.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain-tweet-22February2024-Palestinians are a tiny bunch of whining Arabs
Yiskah Chaya-tweet-23February2024-WHAT’S AN ARAB?
WHAT’S AN ARAB? https://twitter.com/i/status/1710627833750384813
“Arab” is a cultural & linguistic term. It refers to those who speak Arabic as their first language. United by culture & history, Arabs are not a race. Some have blue eyes & red hair; others are dark skinned; many are somewhere in between.
idan segal-tweet-7October2023-The truth about the issue And the Palestinian
האמת על ה״סוגייה״
ועל ה״פלסטינים״
“The truth about the “issue”
“And the “Palestinians”
Yiskah Chaya-tweet-23February2024-WHAT’S AN ARAB?
JonJon from SF-tweet-3February2024-Today’s Palestinians are descendants of immigrants
Notes:
– Today’s Palestinians are descendants of immigrants who came to Palestine seeking economic opportunities due to Zionism.
(NOT INDIGENOUS)
– According to historical sources like De Hass History and the 1911 Encyclopaedia Brittanica, these immigrants hailed from various places including the Balkans, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Armenia, and more.
– Reports from the 1860s and 1937 document significant Arab immigration from places like Sinai, Transjordan, and Syria.
– Even Winston Churchill in 1939 noted the substantial increase in the Arab population in Palestine.
– CG Smith’s Studies on Palestine reveals the Turkish policy of planting Circassian colonies in the region.
– Historical documentation by De Haas mentions the establishment of permanent Egyptian colonies by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian conqueror.
JonJon from SF-tweet-3February2024-Palestinians are NOT INDIGENOUS
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Why Israel can’t accept a ceasefire
Hamas has dictated the parameters of victory
BY Edward Luttwak
23December2023 https://unherd.com/2023/12/why-israel-cant-accept-a-ceasefire/
During their protected wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s leaders and generals could never define victory. Hamas, by contrast, has a clear understanding of what it looks like. Now that the terror group has demonstrated the failure of Israel’s deterrence, it insists it will not any more short ceasefires in exchange for hostages, but only a complete end to Israel’s offensive, which would of course leave it in full control of Gaza.
What would this entail? Most immediately, this would also hand Hamas the millions of dollars in aid that will arrive from Western nations, as well as the billions coming from Qatar, Kuwait and other oil-rich countries. And while these funds are intended for welfare distributions and for civilian reconstruction, Hamas will of course use them to rebuild its underground tunnel networks, and to fund its military training, propaganda and political units in and out of Gaza.
The reason it would get away with this is straightforward: Hamas has never pretended to be fighting for the well-being of Gaza’s population, or for Palestine as a national cause. It serves global Islam —the Umma — that rejects all nationalisms and demands supremacy over all other religions. In other words, it accepts no responsibility for the dead and wounded of the war, or for Gaza’s reconstruction.
Hence, if there is a permanent ceasefire, Hamas can start to prepare its next surprise attack, hoping for another October 7 of indiscriminate killings and rapes. If anyone in Gaza objects, Hamas will also act as it did in the past, shoving sacks over their heads and shooting them in front of crowds.
And yet, steadfastly ignoring this inevitability, retired generals and even, in an unguarded moment, Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, have urged the Israelis to reduce their bombing or even their attacks altogether, in order to win over Gaza’s population. Yet this is to forget that such a formula failed in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan: populations dominated by brutal extremists cannot be “won over”.
For the Israelis, however, there is clarity: because Hamas defines its victory so clearly, so can the Israelis. While the “complete end of the offensive” that Hamas, the UN and countless American and British undergraduates demand would mean a complete defeat for Israel, the continuation of the war — sine die, as they say in diplomacy — is the essential precondition of victory.
In this sense, little has changed since 1948: the Israelis might have to keep fighting on their own without US support. As soon as the first of Israel’s wars started on May 15, 1948, the US and the British, then very much the senior partner in the Middle East, imposed a total arms embargo on everyone involved. This favoured the Arab armies, who already had their British-supplied kits of small arms, machine-guns, field artillery and even a few aircraft and tanks, while the Jews only had rifles and submachine guns. It was very much the goal of the British Foreign Office and US State Department that the newly proclaimed State of Israel should be defeated as soon as possible, so as to preserve the stability of British power over the region.
But, then, something entirely unexpected happened: the Jews started winning. As a result, having favoured war to put a quick end to Israel, the Brits then had to end it to save their collapsing Arab allies. And the resourceful Foreign Office had the necessary remedy, promptly backed by the obedient State Department: on June 11, 1948, the UN Security Council imposed a total ceasefire, after 26 days of fighting. Had the Israelis not resumed fighting on July 9, Israel could not have emerged as a viable state.
Even so, this set the pattern for all subsequent UN ceasefires in the region: as soon as Israel launches its counteroffensives and starts winning, the UN General Assembly demands an immediate ceasefire, and pressure builds on the UN Security Council to actually order one.
But here the continuity ends. Everything else is very different now that Israel is a stronger, more self-sufficient military power. The US can certainly help to deter Hezbollah, and is the only power that can disarm the Houthi menace in the Red Sea and Suez Canal. But only Israel can incapacitate Hamas, by fighting in one alley, tunnel and bunker after another right across the Gaza Strip.
Very reasonably, the Biden Administration has been asking the Israelis to hurry up with their fighting, instead of prolonging the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. And just as reasonably, the Biden Administration has been asking the Israelis to use less air power, less artillery and more infantry to reduce civilian casualties. But to move faster in Gaza’s intricate urban terrain would sharply increase Israeli casualties. The same is true of any imposed reduction in artillery fire and air strikes. And to do both simultaneously would not just add to Israeli casualties but multiply them.
Because the leaders on both sides know those things, and because they respect each other, there is a back-and-forth process of mutual accommodation day by day. But the unavoidable reality is that Israel cannot end its offensive, nor even accept protracted ceasefires in exchange for hostages.
Instead, its forces must persist until every basement and tunnel has been cleared and Hamas’s cadre of trained fighters has been drastically reduced. Nor is the capture of Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, a realistic goal — with the help of Sinai Bedouin smugglers, it would be all too easy for him to escape and join Hamas’s other leaders in their five-star suites in Doha.
Of course, although essential, destroying the military power of Hamas cannot by itself bring about a permanent state of peace in Gaza. But if Hamas can no longer subject Gaza’s population to its perpetual war, it will be victory enough.
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A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:
Please send this to anyone at a School, College or University. Parents, Students, Administrators and Teachers. These are Felony Death Threats. This violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/antisemitism-dcl.pdf
Click to download PDF file UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION-OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS-antisemitism-dcl
This is not free speech.
Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies
Re-upping this meme for those who witnessed the disgusting worldwide demos on Shabbat.
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:
A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:
The Proper Jewish Response:
“Hashem natan ha’aretz li” (God gave the Land to me)!
“Eretz Yisrael Yehudi ” (Eretz Yisrael is Jewish land)
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Pallywood: Palestinian Propaganda
Pallywood: “it’s just an act mommy”
Imam of Peace-tweet-12November2023-Pallywood-it’s just an act mommy
This is gold. A Palestinian mother sees images online showing her son injured. She races to the hospital only to find it all fake. He is fine, it’s just an act mommy. It’s called Pallywood.
Imam of Peace-tweet-12November2023-Pallywood-it’s just an act mommy
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Time to debunk the media’s anti-Israel narrative: You have blood on your hands
Opinion: The only way to end the all-pervasive anti-Israel bias in so much of the media is to shake their underlying narrative, which forms part of the greatest slur campaign in history
Col. Richard Kemp |2023-10-22 | https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjqi11m7ma
Much of Western media has blood on its hands. Following the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, many news outlets have been acting as willing tools of the genocidal terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip that perpetrated it. This is neither new nor unpredictable. An anti-Zionist narrative has for many years displaced media objectivity in every conflict involving Israel.
The strategic objective of Hamas’s attacks is to incite international condemnation of Israel by compelling it to take military action in which Gaza civilians will inevitably be killed despite unparalleled IDF measures to prevent it. Whenever this happens, like Pavlov’s dogs a chorus of reporters, tame analysts and newscasters immediately appear on the airwaves to accuse Israel of war crimes. Such accusations are loudly echoed in universities, human rights groups and international bodies. Exactly as Hamas intended.
Pro-Palestinian demonstration following reports of Al Ahli Hospital blast, in Rabat, Morocco, April 18, 2023
(Photo: AP Photo)
That in turn encourages Hamas to do the same thing again and again and is the real “cycle of violence” that many journalists love to accuse others of but are in fact themselves active participants.
When Donnison retweeted a photo of a girl from Syria, as Palestinian
A few days ago, an explosion occurred in the parking lot at Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip. No one outside Gaza knew what had caused it. Immediately, the Hamas disinformation machine swung into action, accusing Israel of attacking the hospital and causing hundreds of casualties. Across the world, media parroted their accusations without question or challenge.
Pro-Israel rally outside BBC studios, in London, October 14, 2023
(Photo: Carl Court / GettyImages)
One of the worst offenders was the BBC, by far the most influential media organization in the UK, and with one of the largest audiences internationally. It is regarded by many as the most authoritative and impartial news organization in the world and has been seen as a beacon of truth going back to the Second World War.
“Hundreds killed in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital — Palestinian officials,” was the BBC headline. The next day, the British Financial Times splashed with: “Gaza Health Ministry says hundreds killed in Israeli air strike on hospital”. Across the Atlantic, the New York Times, among others, reported the Al Alhi incident in similarly false terms.
BBC reporter John Donnison told viewers: “It is hard to see what else this could be really given the size of the explosion other than an Israeli air strike or several air strikes.” Well, if he was incapable of comprehending the other obvious possibility — a terrorist rocket falling short, which it turned out to be — then perhaps he should have restrained himself from venturing any opinion at all.
Donnison has a track record. During an earlier Gaza conflict in 2012, he retweeted a picture of a young girl lying in hospital with bloodied clothes, presented as a casualty of Israeli strikes in Gaza. In fact, it was a photograph from Syria.
Terrorists attacking Israel are always “militants”
He is far from alone. Six BBC Arabic language journalists “liked” X.com postings praising the 7th October attacks, with one reporter celebrating the slaughter as a “morning of hope.” And back in 2009, the BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, now World Editor, was censured by the BBC’s editorial standards body over complaints of impartiality and inaccuracy in his reporting on Israel. In 2004, after complaints about anti-Israel bias at the corporation, the BBC commissioned its own investigation which resulted in the 20,000-word Balen Report. Since it was written, the BBC has spent more than $425,000 in legal fees to contest demands that it should be published. It remains under wraps nearly 20 years later.
Even after the 7th October massacre, the BBC still refuses to call Hamas what everybody else knows they are: “terrorists”. Instead, terrorists attacking Israel are always referred to as “militants”. Meanwhile, the BBC are happy to brand as terrorists the 9/11 attackers, the London suicide bombers in 2005 and the 2017 Manchester Arena bombers. And despite digging their heels in against complaints over their stance on Hamas, the BBC described a shooting in Brussels last week as a “terrorist attack”.
BBC studios covered in red paint in protest of coverage of Israel-Hamas war, in London, October 14, 2023
(Photo: Reuters / Susannah Ireland)
The same deliberate mischaracterisation of terrorists attacking Israelis is shared on the UK’s Sky News, who have also referred to Hamas as a “political organization”. This is much more than mere semantics: it can only reflect these media outlets’ real view of Hamas and their cause.
Wider concerns about the BBC help shed light on what lies behind their anti-Israel bias. In 2021, the Simon Wiesenthal Center rated the corporation as number three on its annual “Global Antisemitism Top Ten”. Iran was number one with Hamas in second place.
Jewish students at colleges – physically attacked
One example of the BBC’s alleged antisemitism cited by Wiesenthal was their reporting of an attack on a bus containing Jewish teenagers in London’s Oxford Street as they celebrated Hanukkah. Rabbi Mervin Hier, the center’s chief, said: “The BBC falsely reported that a victim on the bus used an anti-Muslim slur”. The BBC had misinterpreted the words of a distressed Jewish man speaking in Hebrew appealing for help. Again, they instinctively leapt to the wrong conclusion, but the one that fitted their narrative.
Discussing the Al Alhi hospital incident with a British reporter, I was told the accusation against Israel was made because it was “a fast-moving news situation”, and that corrections were published by many papers and broadcasters as the situation became clearer. But “clarification” usually meant substituting the false assertions against Israel with reports that “both sides traded blame”. As though there can be any equivalence between a proscribed terrorist murder gang and the official statements of democratically accountable armed forces.
I got no answer from the reporter on why Hamas statements were automatically given immediate credence, including the grossly exaggerated casualty figures churned out by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. When media did correct their fake news it was too late and their stories had already been eagerly recycled, including by politicians such as Canada’s Justin Trudeau and former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as well as human rights organizations like Amnesty International, well known for their anti-Israel bias.
Aftermath of Al Ahli Hospital blast, in Gaza City, October 18, 2023
(Photo: AP / Abed Khaled)
Such stories are also seized on in the streets, leading to mass protests, violence and even terrorism. Three days after media accused the IDF of the Al Ahli incident, the Daily Telegraph reported that a terrorist attack occurred in Britain; when arrested the perpetrator told police he had done it for “Palestine”. No further details have yet been published, supposedly for legal reasons.
In the last few days, Jewish students at colleges in the U.S. and UK have been set on and physically attacked as a result of disinformation spread by the media, which stokes and inflames pre-existing anti-Zionist movements so rife on many university campuses. Police in London report a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared to the same period last year.
During a Sky News interview a few years ago, I contested the standard falsehoods about illegal occupation, illegal settlements and the old trope of “Israeli apartheid”. Afterwards, a veteran Sky Middle East correspondent told me privately that he agreed with me. I asked him why, then, did his reporting always reflect the opposite perspective? He told me if it did not he would be fired.
This sums up the intractable problem that dominates the editorial policies of the BBC, Sky and so much of U.S. and European media. That is the lie that Israel is an illegitimate state that deliberately oppresses innocent, peace-loving Palestinians whose land has been stolen. They may not say as much publicly, but the dominant view, even after such horrific attacks as 7th October, is that the Israelis had it coming, or at least have a major share in the blame.
Colonel Richard Kemp
(Photo: Courtesy)
The flimsy mask seemed to slip last week when Sky News journalist Kay Burley claimed the head of the Palestinian Authority mission to the UK had said Israel “had it coming”, a remark he did not make.
Perhaps a case of projection of her own views and so many of her media colleagues? The only way to end the all-pervasive anti-Israel bias in so much of the media is to shake their underlying narrative, which forms part of the greatest slur campaign in history. And how, exactly, do you do that?
Colonel Richard Kemp is a former UK Armed Forces commander
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Fact-Checking Website Snopes Shills For Hamas & Debates Beheaded Babies in Sickening ‘Debunking’ Articles
Snopes is one of the most well-known “fact-checker” websites worldwide, regularly posting articles debunking online conspiracy theories, dispelling media misinformation and separating satire from serious news. Its website boasts of the stringent process its editorial…
Rachel O’Donoghue October 23, 2023 https://honestreporting.com/fact-checking-website-snopes-shills-for-hamas-debates-beheaded-babies-in-sickening-debunking-articles/
Snopes is one of the most well-known “fact-checker” websites worldwide, regularly posting articles debunking online conspiracy theories, dispelling media misinformation and separating satire from serious news.
Its website boasts of the stringent process its editorial team undertakes to ensure the veracity of information, including contacting primary sources, finding experts who have relevant expertise in the subject at hand, and using non-partisan information and data sources to inform its pieces.
However, since the outbreak of the October 7 war against Israel, Snopes has been producing some dubious content that requires some fact-checking of its own.
Here are just a few examples of Snopes’ problematic fact-checking on the Israel-Hamas war:
Sneaky Editing on Gaza Hospital Blast
The explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital sparked a flurry of media misinformation and social media disinformation.
From the New York Times headline that an “Israeli airstrike” was responsible for “killing 500″ to the BBC’s correspondent Jon Donnison confidently announcing live on-air that he found it “hard to see” who else could be responsible other than the IDF, the lie that Israel bombed a civilian hospital spread like wildfire.
But then the truth emerged. The Israeli military released satellite imagery, videos of the blast, and tapped phone recordings that proved it was a misfired rocket shot by Islamic Jihad that was responsible.
What’s more, further evidence came out that the rocket did not directly hit the hospital and that nowhere near 500 people died.
On October 19, two days after the explosion, Snopes published an article asking, “Did Israel Warn Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza to Evacuate?” written by former Al Jazeera journalist Nur Ibrahim.
In addition to relying on widely discredited reporting on the events from the New York Times for its “fact-checking,” the article also fails to acknowledge the many pieces of evidence released by Israel that exonerate itself, as well as the United States’ own findings that Islamic Jihad was responsible.
Perhaps owing to her employment history, Ibrahim uses a statement given to Al Jazeera without noting the outlet is a state-run propaganda arm of the Qatari government and fails to note that the “unnamed senior health official in Gaza” who spoke to Al Jazeera would be affiliated with Hamas, which controls the Gazan health authorities.
It is also clear that Snopes did some sneaky editing of the article where it had initially made errors.
An original version of the piece states unequivocally that “500 people were killed” which was later amended to read “hundreds of people” even though that figure is still in dispute.
Did Israel Warn Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza to Evacuate-old version.
Did Israel Warn Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza to Evacuate-new version.
Fact-Finding Over Beheaded Babies
One of the most disgusting “debates” that has taken place during the war is whether Hamas terrorists beheaded babies or shot them during their murderous onslaught in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.
Also written by Nur Ibrahim, the Snopes article allegedly debunking the claim flippantly describes the atrocity as a “viral rumor spread by news media, the US president, and so on.”
It also includes this disturbing paragraph: “As we looked into the claim, we found contradictory reports from journalists, Israeli army officials, and almost no independent corroborations of the alleged war crime, leading to concerns among fact-checkers that such a claim may be premature or unsubstantiated.”
This is a lie.
In addition to numerous eyewitness accounts, including from independent journalists who saw the aftermath of the massacre and photographic evidence, there is enough proof to say that babies were indeed beheaded during the Hamas rampage.
More importantly, Ibrahim’s insistence on calling it an “alleged war crime” is baffling. For, even if babies had not been beheaded, what Hamas did would have still amounted to a war crime — there is nothing “alleged” about the events of October 7.
Lastly, Ibrahim claims details of the massacre being released could lead to hatred toward Muslims, explaining that people should be “wary of claims that echo Islamophobic rhetoric, or statements that compare the violence in Kfar Aza to ‘ISIS-style’ killings — i.e., beheadings that have taken place in a different context and were committed by a different group” because they have the “potential to become dangerous propaganda.’
HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-
BREAKING: Israeli official confirms two important details.
⭕ Babies were decapitated at Kibbutz Be’eri.
⭕ Women were raped next to the bodies of fellow festivalgoers at Re’im. They were “killed twice, first raped and then murdered,” the official said.
HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-Israeli official confirms two important details
Shilling for the Iranian Ayatollah
Ibrahim acted as an apologist for another Islamist regime in an October 10 article that asked, “Did Iran Say It Will Hit Israel with Missile Strikes from Lebanon, Yemen and Iran if Attacked?”
According to the Snopes piece, the following claim that appeared in the Wall Street Journal remains unproven: “During the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Iranian officials said that if Iran were attacked, it would respond with missile strikes on Israel from Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, and send Iranian fighters into Israel from Syria.”
Citing the fact the WSJ only cited one source for the threat, Ibrahim concluded Snopes “cannot independently verify whether such a threat was sanctioned by the Iranian state.”
But just days after the Snopes article was published, Iran effectively confirmed its threats when its foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned the regime may take “preemptive action” against Israel via its proxies, which happen to be based in Lebanon and Yemen.
“Today, when we talk about the resistance in the region, it is not only Hezbollah, and we are witnessing the activities of various resistance groups in the region,” Amir-Abdollahian added.
Did Snopes update its article to reflect this? Nope.
Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more!
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Media Rush To Defend Hamas Ministry Providing Skewed Data on Gaza Casualties
It was impossible not to notice a disturbing trend that took place last week, as respectable news outlets rushed to publish almost identical reports defending their only source of information on Gaza casualties: The Hamas-run…
Rinat Harash 29October2023
https://honestreporting.com/media-rush-to-defend-hamas-ministry-providing-skewed-data-on-gaza-casualties/
It was impossible not to notice a disturbing trend that took place last week, as respectable news outlets rushed to publish almost identical reports defending their only source of information on Gaza casualties: The Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Reuters, AP, The New York Times, The Guardian, Time Magazine and The Washington Post included all or most of the following elements in their pieces: The release by the Hamas-run Ministry of a list of victims, flawed reasoning, attributions to the same problematic sources, and ridiculous attempts to claim that the Ministry was actually run by the PA, Hamas’ rival. This orchestrated pattern seemed like it carried the heavy footprints of an agenda-driven effort that journalists were all too happy to parrot.
Victims List and Logical Fallacy
All of the outlets mentioned above based their apologetic reports on the release of a list of Palestinian victims that the Hamas-run Health Ministry sent out after US President Joe Biden had questioned its reliability. The list — which was not published — reportedly included the names and identity numbers of 6,747 Palestinians who according to the Ministry had been killed in Israeli bombardments of the enclave.
But almost all outlets failed to notice or mention that the document included 471 victims from the blast at al-Ahli hospital, which according to analyses of several intelligence services was the fault of a misfired Palestinian missile and not an Israeli strike. And that number, which is still disputed, was modified from an earlier estimation of 500 fatalities falsely provided by the ministry in the immediate aftermath of the blast.
Related Reading: Gaza Hospital Explosion: The Evidence
But this is just one symptom of a deeper problem. When analyzing the reasoning behind these reports, a logical fallacy emerges. Here’s how AP makes its case:
How does the fact that other bodies rely on a sole source make it reliable? They simply don’t have any other choice.
So the argument fails. But it fails also because some of the bodies quoted as part of this equation — like the UN’s OCHA and Human Rights Watch — are problematic in their own right.
Agenda-driven Attributions
The main talking head in all of the reports is none other than Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch.
Yet no report mentions that Shakir is far from being impartial when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Shakir was forced to leave Israel in November 2019 after his work visa was not renewed due to his support of the controversial Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Both Reuters and AP also quote OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) as a body whose reliance on the data provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry is a testament to its accuracy.
But OCHA, as detailed by NGO Monitor, is a body that oversees funding for anti-Israeli NGOs, including some that engage in blatantly antisemitic activities and have ties to the PFLP, a proscribed terrorist organization.
AP also mentions Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra, who is described as a logistical genius:
While this may be true, al-Qidra is working for Hamas. As former Reuters bureau chief Luke Baker recently wrote on X/Twitter, “any health official stepping out of line and not giving the death tolls that Hamas wants reported to journalists risks serious consequences.”
HonestReporting-tweet-25October2023-
A former @Reuters Jerusalem bureau chief spells out the clear problems with the media coverage of Gazan casualty figures:
The numbers are supplied by Hamas and Hamas can’t be trusted.
HonestReporting-tweet-25October2023-The numbers are supplied by Hamas and Hamas can’t be trusted
Moreover, an Israeli think tank estimated in 2014 that al-Qidra was a former Hamas activist who has been affiliated with the terrorist movement since the 1990s.
It is no wonder, then, that several media outlets added a ridiculous argument to their case, defying reason and reality altogether: The Gaza-Health Ministry is actually not run by Hamas.
Denying Hamas’ Responsibility
Three media outlets — Reuters, AP and The New York Times — have made a special effort to distort reality by falsely claiming that the Gaza Health Ministry is supervised by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’ rival which holds sway in the West Bank.
Here is Reuters’ version:
And AP’s:
And The New York Times:
Did these outlets forget the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007? Do they not know that a Gazan civil servant who doesn’t abide by Hamas’ dictates risks his or her life? Why are they parroting agenda-driven talking points without adding a shred of factual context? Their absurd description makes Gaza look like a pluralistic society in which the two rival Palestinian factions have reconciled.
Unfortunately, all these outlets know that Hamas is skewing the data. Their contradictory reports even say so:
So why are they dedicating entire pieces to defending this source of twisted information? Why can’t they just include a skeptical line in every relevant piece saying the tally by the Hamas-run Ministry cannot be independently verified? Why do they try to “counterbalance” any such caveat with a false doubt cast on Israel’s tally of its own victims, which is publicly available?
Why do they fail to accept that a terror group which can slaughter, rape and kidnap to achieve its goals can also, quite easily, just lie?
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Photo Credit: DAWOOD NEMER/AFP via Getty Images
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Fake Numbers
HonestReporting-tweet-12February2024-Washington Post fake numbers
Hey, @washingtonpost, why is it ok for you to diminish the number of Israeli civilians killed (it was mainly civilians, not “many of them”) while failing to point out that the Palestinian figures are supplied by Hamas and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/
ReneJayeee-tweet-12February2024-no difference between civilians and combatants
As far as I’m concerned there is no difference between civilians and combatants–all are combatants having been radicalized by UNRWA from childhood to hate and murder Israelis. Its generational, since 1949. Their leadership considers them expendable and for use as human shields. It puts its babies and children in harm’s way for their propaganda value.
These are foreign concepts to the Western mind which doesn’t comprehend how the Palestinian Arabs are so radicalized that parents look forward to their children being needlessly martyred to equality needless killing.
HonestReporting-tweet-12February2024-Washington Post fake numbers
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Not Reported
Hillel Fuld-tweet-11April2024-Not Reported
Just thought I’d let you know that the chances of you hearing about this in the press are zero.
So here, a nice Palestinian woman just approached soldiers and when they picked up on suspicious behavior and stopped her, this is what they found on her. After interrogation, she admitted she was there to commit a terrorist attack.
Ya know, because today is a good day to kill Jews, right? Do they ever have a day that’s NOT a good day to kill Jews?
The only chances you’ll hear about this is if some “journalist” reports that “IDF soldiers arrested an innocent Palestinian woman.”
But you also don’t hear about the constant Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
You don’t hear about the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who were displaced from their homes in this war.
You won’t hear about the rocks that Palestinian kids throw at Israeli cars daily, and by rocks, I mean boulders.
You won’t hear about the daily Palestinian attempts to run civilians over with their car.
You won’t hear about the mass marches in support of Hamas throughout Palestinian towns and villages.
Listen, I can go on. You won’t hear about any of that. You’ll only hear about it if Israel retaliates.
Dead Jews don’t get clicks.
Happy to be your source of truthful information because truth is a novelty nowadays.
You’re welcome.
The Palestinian culture is rotten to the core and they are indoctrinated from age zero.
This is a population, as politically incorrect as it may be to say, that needs to be uprooted the same way Nazi Germany was.
If that statement offends you, I’d go searching for your moral compass.
Hamas and its supporters = Modern day Nazis.
Hillel Fuld-tweet-11April2024-Not Reported
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The Journalists are the Terrorists
Israel demands clarification from global media over photographers during Hamas assault
AP, Reuters, NY Times deny any prior knowledge, say their job is to cover news; CNN suspends ties with freelancer; Israel warns those present could be held accountable for crimes
By Stuart Winer 9November2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-demands-clarification-from-global-media-over-photographers-during-hamas-assault/
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip enter Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7, 2023, amid a massive assault by the Hamas terror group. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
Israel on Thursday demanded that international media outlets explain the circumstances under which photographers in their pay were present at the scene of the surprise October 7 assault by the Hamas terror group on southern Israel, and warned they could be held complicit in the crimes.
The move came after the pro-Israel watchdog group Honest Reporting published a report Wednesday showing that photographers used by The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, and CNN provided images taken as the attack was ongoing from the border area and including from inside Israel — intimating they may have had advance knowledge of the assault.
The report also raised questions about the relationship between some of the photographers and the Hamas terror group that rules Gaza.
AP, Reuters and The New York Times all denied having any prior knowledge of the attack and reiterated that their role is to cover breaking news events. CNN said it had cut ties with one of the photographers named in the report even though it had no reason to doubt the “journalistic accuracy” of his work.
The National Information System, a department of the Prime Minister’s Office, said in a statement Thursday that it “takes very seriously the phenomenon of journalists working with international media joining [with attackers] to cover the brutal massacres by Hamas terrorists on Saturday 10/7/2023 in the communities surrounding Gaza.”
It said the Government Press Office “issued an urgent letter to the heads of the media systems where these photographers are employed, and asked for clarification on the matter.”
Still, without receiving answers, it concluded that: “These media people are complicit in crimes against humanity.”
“This is a violation of the rules of professional ethics,” the statement said. “The National Information System demands that immediate action be taken.”
Gazans celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the broken Israel-Gaza border fence, east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi also sent a letter to The New York Times asserting that photographers and others at the paper had prior knowledge of the attack and urging the paper to investigate.
“I write to you with deep concern regarding recent reports about your employees’ alleged involvement in the tragic events in southern Israel,” Karhi wrote. “It has come to our attention that certain individuals within your organization, including photographers and others, had prior knowledge of these horrific actions and may have maintained a troubling connection with the perpetrators.”
“I urgently request a thorough investigation into this matter,” Karhi wrote. “The gravity of the situation demands a swift and thorough response.”
The New York Times rejected the accusations, saying regarding photographer Yousef Masoud that “There is no evidence for Honest Reporting’s insinuations.”
While noting Masoud was not working for the paper on the day of the attack itself, the paper added: “Our review of his work shows that he was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded.”
It added that freelance photojournalists’ jobs “often require them to rush into danger to provide first-hand witness accounts and to document important news.”
Minister Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet set up to oversee the conflict, said in a post to his X (formerly Twitter) feed: “Journalists found to have known about the massacre – and still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered – are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”
On October 7, Hamas led over 3,000 terrorists who burst through the Gaza Strip border and rampaged murderously through southern Israel. The gunmen overran communities, slaughtering some 1,400 people, the vast majority of them civilians in their homes or at a massive outdoor music festival. At least 240 people were taken hostage and dragged into Gaza. Hundreds of cases of brutality and abuse were recorded.
Many of the attackers recorded their acts on body cameras or other video equipment and the images were published by Hamas.
The onslaught, which began at around 6:30 a.m., came under the cover of thousands of rockets fired at Israel. It was reportedly planned under great secrecy with only senior Hamas commanders being aware of the full scale and scope of the attack before it went ahead.
In its report, Honest Reporting asked: “Is it conceivable to assume that ‘journalists’ just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists? Or were they part of the plan?”
“Some of [the Hamas terrorists’] atrocities were captured by Gaza-based photojournalists working for The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies whose early morning presence at the breached border raises serious ethical questions,” it wrote.
The website listed four photojournalists whose names appear in Associated Press pictures from the Israel-Gaza border area on the day of the attack: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.
Eslaiah, it said, crossed the border into Israel and took pictures of a burning IDF tank. He also photographed attackers entering Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where dozens of civilians were massacred. The report said that in now-removed tweets posted to his X feed, Eslaiah was seen in front of the tank but not wearing a press vest that would identify him as a member of the media.
A photo has also emerged online of Eslaiah being kissed by Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar. It is not clear when the photo was taken, but it seems to have been prior to the October 7 attack.
HonestReporting-tweet-8November2023-In the hours following our expose
In the hours following our expose, new material is still coming to light concerning Gazan freelance journalist Hassan Eslaiah whom both AP & CNN used on Oct. 7.
Here he is pictured with Hamas leader and mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar.
HonestReporting-tweet-8November2023-And here is footage of Eslaiah
And here is footage of Eslaiah after he crossed into Israel and took photos of a burning Israeli tank. He then captured infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza.
Note that he is not identifiable as a member of the press. But AP & CNN deemed it acceptable to use his services.
HonestReporting-tweet-8November2023-In the hours following our expose
Honest Reporting said Masoud also took pictures of a destroyed tank.
Mahmud and Ali both took pictures of people being abducted from Israel into Gaza, the report said.
The names of several of the photographers have since been removed from images of the attacks in the AP database, the watchdog said. (At time of writing, Eslaiah’s credit had indeed been removed in AP’s database from the photo at the top of this article and from other photographs he took on October 7.)
Reuters published images from two photographers, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih. Both men apparently crossed into Israel from Gaza to photograph a burning tank, according to the report.
“Even if they didn’t know the exact details of what was going to happen, once it unfolded did they not realize they were breaching a border? And if so, did they notify the news agencies? Some sort of communication was undoubtedly necessary — before, after or during the attack — in order to get the photos published,” the watchdog asked.
“Either way, when international news agencies decide to pay for material that has been captured under such problematic circumstances, their standards may be questioned and their audience deserves to know about it. And if their people on the ground actively or passively collaborated with Hamas to get the shots, they should be called out to redefine the border between journalism and barbarism.”
Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
Israel’s Channel 12 stated on Thursday, without attribution, that these photographers “were not there at 6:30 in the morning” when the border fence was breached in multiple locations, “and apparently not in the first wave after the breach.”
The arguments are over “the second wave and a little after that, at around 8 in the morning,” the TV report said.
In a response to the Ynet outlet, CNN said it has stopped working with Eslaiah.
“We are aware of the article and photo concerning Hassan Eslaiah, a freelance photojournalist who has worked with a number of international and Israeli outlets. While we have not at this time found reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us, we have decided to suspend all ties with him,” CNN said.
The Associated Press said in a statement that it “had no knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks before they happened. The role of the AP is to gather information on breaking news events around the world, wherever they happen, even when those events are horrific and cause mass casualties.”
“AP uses images taken by freelancers around the world, including in Gaza,” it said.
The Reuters news agency also denied having any prior knowledge of the assault.
Update: Israel demands clarification from global media over photographers during Hamas assault
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-Notice the AP reporter
AP “journalists” who entered Israel on October 7 together with the Palestinian terrorists: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.
They documented some of the kidnappings. Did these “journalists” know of the plan ahead of time?
Ali Mahmud and Hatem Ali shot pictures of the abductions of Israelis into Gaza. Mahmud also captured the pickup truck carrying the body of Shani Louk.
Great expose—- https://honestreporting.com/photographers-without-borders-ap-reuters-pictures-of-hamas-atrocities-raise-ethical-questions/
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
Notice how the AP “reporter” “reported” the nude body of Shani Louk as an “Israeli soldier” —
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
Of course all of this explains why AP was renting office space from Hamas in the first place.
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
🚨 Obama’s former spokesperson talked to the people who were in the AP/Hamas building in Gaza and it turns out that AP lied, people in that building knew they were sharing office space with Hamas.
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-
Dovi Safier-tweet-8November2023-
I guess I wasn’t the only one wondering why the @AP had photographers embedded with the terrorists on 10/7?
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-Notice the AP reporter
Marina Medvin-tweet-8November2023-AP had photographers embedded with the terrorists
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Crossing the lines of integrity with a Hamas-praising photojournalist – analysis
‘Post’ revelations show Hassan Eslaiah likely knew about the planned massacre ahead of time and expressed support as he watched the murders
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
11NOVEMBER2023 Updated:12NOVEMBER2023 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/gaza-news/article-772827
A photograph taken by Gaza photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah. (photo credit: Screenshots from Telegram)
CNN hired a photojournalist who just three days before posted videos and photos of himself inside Israel during the Hamas massacre, including with an Israeli tank and a room of bloody, dead bodies.
Gaza photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah crossed into Israel on October 7 to document the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis. His photos from the scene appeared on several international news outlets, including The Associated Press, the Jerusalem-based watchdog HonestReporting revealed last week.
The watchdog’s story sparked a series of questions and international outcry, ultimately leading to his being let go from the two institutions.
However, CNN said in a statement last week that their working relationship with the freelancer began after the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, on October 10. It also noted that despite its decision to stop working with Eslaiah, it did not have “any reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us,” as reported by Ynet and confirmed by The Jerusalem Post.
Images taken by Gaza photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah, who worked for both AP and CNN, of the Hamas massacre on October 7. (credit: Screenshots from Telegram)
The Post confirmed that Eslaiah was not fired for his work on the 7th but for a separate but related concern.
It was unclear if CNN knew about Eslaiah’s posts on Telegram before offering him work.
CNN told the Post it will not be commenting further on the matter.
Crossing the line: Did a photojournalist support the massacre of Israelis?
The issue goes beyond issues of accuracy or bias but is more about the lines that get crossed when a photojournalist appears to act with delight in response to witnessing the killing of civilians, while working for a major news outlet.
HonestReporting showed a screenshot of a now-removed post of the photojournalist on X standing in front of the Israeli tank without a press vest or helmet. The tweet read, “Live from inside the Gaza Strip settlements.” A similar image still appears on his Telegram page.
HonestReporting also published a separate image from well before the massacre showing Eslaiah buddying up with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
However, by scrolling through Eslaiah’s personal Telegram channel, the Post has found that Eslaiah posted much more than a tank on the 7th, including items that indicate that not only did he likely know about the planned massacre before it began at around 6:30 a.m., but that he supported the deaths of the innocent Israelis he watched being murdered.
Eslaiah’s first post on October 7 was at 5:59 a.m.: “We wake up to the great gifts of God,” he posted, according to a translation by ChatGPT. “The spirit has returned, and our blessings have increased.”
Within half an hour, he is posting about the rockets being launched at Israel and the sounds of the Iron Dome intercepting them over Khan Yunis. Then, between 6:55 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., he posts multiple variations: “To follow the latest news moment by moment, follow me on my media platforms.”
At 8:29 a.m., he appears “live from inside the settlements near the Gaza Strip” with a picture of a burning tank in the background.
At 8:36 a.m., after witnessing nearly 10 minutes of the massacre, he posts images from the scene with a verse from the Koran: “ And on that day, the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah” and the hashtag “#AqsaFlood.”
At 9:25 a.m., the most gruesome of posts is revealed: a video with his watermark: “Filmed by Hassan Eslaiah” in the center, depicting a room full of dead, bloody bodies.
This particular video does not appear to have been published anywhere else. In the background, you hear a calm voice that sounds like his from other videos, and is spoken in his Arabic dialect, stating the following: “[Animal] carcasses, carcasses. God is great. This is the path to Jerusalem.”
There is another video at 9:49 a.m. of his standing in front of burning Jewish homes as terrorists run by. And a final video one minute later of his leaving Israel on the back of someone’s motorbike.
Is this the kind of photojournalist that major news outlets should be hiring? What kind of vetting process should be required before hiring someone in a foreign country?
Perhaps these are the questions that all international outlets should now be asking themselves.
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Terrorist as journalists
Israel Advocacy Movement-tweet-21January2024-Terrorist as journalists
The media falsely claims that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in any conflict since WWII.
This is a lie… watch as we unmask the so-called journalists and expose how 75% of them aren’t who the media portrays them to be.
Israel Advocacy Movement-tweet-21January2024-Terrorist as journalists
Michael Elgort-tweet-11February2024-Muhammad Washah Hamas-Al Jazeera journalist
A laptop that belonged to Muhammad Washah, an @AlJazeera journalist, was recovered by @IDF in the northern Gaza Strip. It has pics proving he also serves as a senior Hamas military operative in the anti-tank missile system and worked in the R&D of aerial weapons News via @N12News
Michael Elgort-tweet-11February2024-Muhammad Washah Hamas-Al Jazeera journalist
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The Associated Press-POYIPICS Winner-Hamas-journalist 2024! Her name is SHANI LOUK
The Persian Jewess-tweet-28March2024-Her name is SHANI LOUK
Her name is SHANI LOUK.
🔥She was RAPED.
Raped so brutally her legs were broken and bent backwards from her body
🔥She was MURDERED.
Her murderers paraded her dead body through Gaza and defiled it.
🔥She was DECAPITATED.
Her body has yet to be recovered, only a piece of her skull was found.
@AP and POYIPICS you’re an absolute disgrace.
The Persian Jewess-tweet-28March2024-Her name is SHANI LOUK
The Associated Press-POYIPICS Winner-Hamas-journalist 2024
The Persian Jewess-tweet-4April2024-And the world is silent
A Heartbreaking Message from Nicole Louk Naccache, Shani Louk’s Grandmother:
“Three men shouting “Allah and Akbar.” One vile photograph and my crushed granddaughter.
And the world is silent.
My dead granddaughter stars in a photograph that won a prestigious photography competition.
And the world is silent!!!
The body of my granddaughter, after she was brutally murdered and taken to Gaza as a sign of victory, is displayed for all to see.
And the world is silent!!!!
My granddaughter’s body, after the vile murderers broke her bones so she could get into the back of the van, this body that was only a few hours ago so full of life, love, and light. Tossed as a victory trophy for terrorists and vile photographers.
And the world is silent!!!!
My beautiful dead granddaughter, surrounded by three bloodthirsty murderers. This is the heroic photo that was chosen first in a prestigious photography competition.
And the world is silent.
And I’m screaming, how could you??
And when in the history of photography did the photo of a body win a prize?
And how much more pain can we contain?
And the world is silent.
And the world is silent.”
#AntizionismIsAntisemitism
#StandWithIsrael
The Persian Jewess-tweet-4April2024-And the world is silent
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The RJI’s Pictures of the Year award spits on Shani Louk’s grave
HonestReporting-tweet-9April2024-the RJI’s Pictures of the Year award spits on Shani Louk’s grave
The glaring, ethical issue behind the RJI’s Pictures of the Year award is that the photojournalists who photographed Shani Louk’s lifeless body, explicitly or implicitly, were doing so with Hamas’ consent.
HonestReporting-tweet-9April2024-the RJI’s Pictures of the Year award spits on Shani Louk’s grave
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NBC journalist arrested for inciting terrorism
Jerusalem police have arrested a journalist employed by NBC for posts lauding the Hamas invasion of Israel.
Israel National News
18November2023 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/380527
Maariv reports that Mirvat al-Azzeh, a 45-year-old journalist who works for NBC, was arrested on Thursday on suspicions of inciting terror and identifying with a terrorist organization. The arrest comes after she published posts on Facebook commenting on the Hamas invasion of Israel
Police claim that she arrived at the station “ready to be arrested,” without her mobile phone and with the telephone numbers written on her leg. During her investigation, she admitted to the deeds ascribed to her. A representative of the police summarized the interrogation at the court hearing Friday in Jerusalem: “This is a serious crime during a declared war, during which the defendant is living and employed in the country that is under attack, and still decided to incite and praise the attacks against citizens.”
Her attorney commented: “The woman in question is an ordinary woman, who works as a journalist and whose work is important to us all. She was asked during her investigation about her employment. I believe she admitted to all the deeds described to her, and cooperated fully with the investigation. She did not attempt to conceal the offenses or claim that her accounts had been hacked. Even when she didn’t have a mobile phone, which is the main tool involved, she still said, ‘Yes, those are my posts.'”
“This makes many more steps completely superfluous. You have her confession and there is no further need to investigate. I request that she be released on any conditions that the court seems appropriate. She is from a very respected family.”
At the end of the hearing, her detention was extended. Over the past month, the police has asked the prosecution for a permit to investigate the journalist and the permit was granted last week. The journalist, as stated, was arrested two days ago by Jerusalem police, and her detention was extended in a court hearing for four days.
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Head of BBC Global Service ‘Told Journalists That Hamas Is No Less Credible Than Israel & October 7 Attack Should Not Be Called a Massacre’
There has reportedly been turmoil in the BBC’s Middle East offices since Hamas launched its brutal October 7 attack on Israel after some of the broadcaster’s own journalists turned against their employer and accused the…
Rachel O’Donoghue , 16November2023 https://honestreporting.com/head-of-bbc-global-service-told-journalists-that-hamas-is-no-less-credible-than-israel-october-7-attack-should-not-be-called-a-massacre/
Lilliane Landor_BBC
There has reportedly been turmoil in the BBC’s Middle East offices since Hamas launched its brutal October 7 attack on Israel after some of the broadcaster’s own journalists turned against their employer and accused the BBC of promoting a “pro-Israel” narrative in its coverage.
Allegations of such slanted reportage will, no doubt, come as a surprise to many — not least because the BBC’s reporting has repeatedly come under fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including when it backtracked after falsely reporting that an Israeli strike on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza had killed hundreds
The BBC has also shied away from addressing concerns about its coverage, preferring instead to issue mealy-mouthed apologies about how such mistakes merely “fell below the BBC’s editorial standards.”
HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-That’s a pretty low bar these days
“We apologize for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards.”
That’s a pretty low bar these days, @BBCNews.
We Stand With Israel-tweet-15November2023-
WATCH
@bbcnews have just issued an on air apology (again) for their report last night that stated the ‘IDF are targeting medical teams and Arab speakers’
Not good enough. Time and again they defame & smear Israel and think a simple apology will suffice after the damage is done
HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-That’s a pretty low bar these days
But accusations by staff of a pro-Israel bias were reportedly enough to compel the director of the BBC’s Global Service, Liliane Landor, to hold a series of meetings with employees to address their concerns.
According to BBC journalists quoted in Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, Landor is said to have asked staff for evidence of the alleged pro-Israel bias while assuring them that both Hamas and the Palestinians “should not be considered less credible than the Israelis.”
Landor also reportedly said that “it is wrong to use expressions like massacre to describe Hamas’s behavior and avoid using them to describe Israeli attacks” on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
One journalist who attended the meeting is quoted in Al-Ahram saying that they “have never seen such a widespread revolution, comprehensive dissatisfaction, and open anger from Arab journalists since [they] joined the institution more than 22 years ago.”
Another journalist working in the BBC’s Jordan office is said to have cried and told Landor: “I never imagined that the BBC would follow double standards in covering the war. I can no longer be proud to be a journalist at the BBC.”
One staff member reportedly warned that the “BBC does not realize or appreciate the extent of dissatisfaction in the Middle East from our shameful coverage that makes us threatened in our countries.”
Following the meetings, it is claimed a special team was formed that would specifically deal with staff complaints about the coverage and receive opinions on rectifying harm caused by the alleged bias.
The new measure, however, was apparently not enough to quell staff outrage and a journalist told Al-Ahram that discussions are underway for Arab service journalists to take part in a strike “unless the management takes urgent measures to fix the clear professional flaw in the BBC’s coverage of the current war on Gaza.”
At least two journalists — one in the BBC’s Beirut office and another correspondent based in Tunisia — reportedly resigned in protest at the corporation’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
HonestReporting has reached out to the BBC to comment on the remarks made by Landor, specifically if it is the UK taxpayer-funded corporation’s official position that Hamas should not be considered less credible than the Israeli government and whether the BBC agrees with Landor that the October 7 attack should not be described as a “massacre.”
In addition, we asked whether the broadcaster wished to address reports that two journalists had resigned from their jobs.
We received no response.
We wonder whether saying a terrorist group that slaughtered 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians should be considered as trustworthy as the democratically elected government of Israel lives up to the BBC’s supposedly high editorial standards.
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Photo credit: AIB (Association for International Broadcasting) via Flickr
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Can The BBC Ever Be Trusted Again After Israel-Hamas War?
In summarizing its mission as the publicly-funded broadcaster in the United Kingdom, the BBC states it must “provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.” This involves…
Rachel O’Donoghue December 6, 2023 https://honestreporting.com/can-the-bbc-ever-be-trusted-again-after-israel-hamas-war/
In summarizing its mission as the publicly-funded broadcaster in the United Kingdom, the BBC states it must “provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.”
This involves — the corporation promises — providing accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming” that conforms to the highest editorial standards.
The commitment to impartiality is — or should be — what sets the BBC apart from other media organizations that nail their political colors to their mast.
While the BBC has staunchly defended itself against criticism that it has a deep-seated bias against Israel, its critics have pointed to many examples over the years of the broadcaster’s journalists brazenly breaking the corporation’s impartiality guidelines.
But the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 has seen criticism of the BBC reach a climax amid accusations of an abject failure by the organization to report on the Israel-Hamas war fairly, accurately and transparently.
Spreading Misinformation
There is an irony in the BBC’s publishing of a piece one week after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel that asked: “Who’s behind Israel-Gaza disinformation and hate online?”
The article, by the corporation’s so-called “disinformation and social media correspondent” Marianna Spring, reported how social media was “awash with false claims, conspiracy theories and hateful content surrounding what’s happening in Israel and Gaza.”
This, Spring warned, was resulting in successful attempts to distort and confuse the online conversation,” which “can have serious implications for the international community when it comes to investigating allegations of war crimes, providing aid and figuring out what’s happening where.”
Yet, the BBC itself has been guilty of spreading its distortions and false claims about the Israel-Hamas war online.
One of the most damaging was undoubtedly the corporation’s reporting on the Al-Ahli Hospital explosion in Gaza, which saw the BBC print unverified (and later debunked) claims by Hamas-linked officials that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed in an Israeli airstrike at the hospital.
Even as Israel said it was investigating the blast and as facts were still emerging, the corporation doubled down on its misinformation when BBC correspondent Jon Donnison announced live on air that he thought it was most likely that Israel was to blame.
And when conclusive evidence emerged that a misinformed Islamic Jihad rocket was responsible, the BBC still sought to defend its coverage on the basis that while it made a mistake, it was a “fast-moving story,” where there were “claims and counter-claims” and where its journalists were “reporting in difficult and dangerous conditions.”
HonestReporting-tweet-3November2023-Hamas-A BBC reporter
.@BBCNews likes to tell us that Israeli videos “cannot be verified.” But they’ve got no problem broadcasting footage featuring a Palestinian who has appeared in multiple videos playing different characters, including one where he fakes his own death.
We Stand With Israel-tweet-3November2023-New Job-A BBC reporter
Seems the man who has pretty much done every job in Gaza (including dying and coming back to life) has yet another job. A BBC reporter.
It was only a matter of time I guess https://twitter.com/TheMossadIL/status/1720495432550273287
The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome-tweet-3November2023-This guy’s got more lives than Super Mario
This guy’s got more lives than Super Mario.
HonestReporting-tweet-3November2023-Hamas-A BBC reporter
The Obsession With Balance
Balance is important when it comes to the news: outlets have a duty to report both sides of the story.
However, the BBC has been accused of having a fetish with its attempts at balance in its reports on the current war.
But giving equal weighting to claims made by an internationally recognized terrorist group to those of a democratic state such as Israel is simply absurd.
The absurdity of this was perfectly encapsulated in the BBC’s refusal to call Hamas what it actually is — a terrorist organization.
The BBC’s world affairs editor John Simpson even defended the decision not to call Hamas terrorists because, “terrorism is a loaded word, which people use about an outfit they disapprove of morally. It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn — who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.”
HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-According to BBCNews
According to @BBCNews, “It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn – who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.”
And yet the BBC does a damn good job of portraying Israel as the bad guys.
BBC News (World)-tweet-11October2023-John Simpson
Why BBC doesn’t call Hamas militants ‘terrorists’ – John Simpson
HonestReporting-tweet-11October2023-According to BBCNews
While the corporation eventually walked back from its insistence that it would refer to terrorists as “militants” following a considerable backlash — announcing that in future coverage it would make clear that Hamas is a UK-proscribed terrorist organization — the fact that the BBC couldn’t decide who’s the good guy and the bad guy between Israel and Hamas speaks volumes.
Another example of the BBC trying to offer “two sides” in a report where none exists was during the IDF’s raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, which for many years has been used as a Hamas command center.
HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-BBCNews reinterprets it to libel the IDF
The IDF clearly states it is bringing medical teams & Arabic speakers into Al-Shifa Hospital to help patients.
@BBCNews reinterprets it to libel the IDF as *targeting* medical teams & Arabic speakers.
Just how much lower can the BBC go?
We Stand With Israel-tweet-15November2023-Israel WILL NOT be targeting medical teams
What the actual fuck @bbcnews?!
You’re happily disseminating Hamas propaganda without bothering to check its veracity
Israel WILL NOT be targeting medical teams. Hamas terrorists are hiding in the hospital
How many times must you fuck up before you learn your lesson?
HonestReporting-tweet-15November2023-BBCNews reinterprets it to libel the IDF
When the IDF provided real-time evidence of how Hamas had embedded itself within the hospital, the BBC seemed to work overtime to try and undermine and discredit as much of the IDF’s proof as possible.
Included in the many instances of its disturbing tendency to give weight to the claims of a bloodthirsty terror group, the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen suggested that the caches of weaponry uncovered by Israeli soldiers inside Al-Shifa may have belonged to the hospital security team.
HonestReporting-tweet-17November2023-BowenBBC
Utterly incredible. @BowenBBC trying to “normalize” the presence of weapons in a Gaza hospital. Anything to avoid acknowledging that Hamas could be using Al Shifa for nefarious means.
Keep going, Jeremy. Maybe you’ll end up on Israel’s favorite satirical comedy show next week.
Edward Levey-tweet-17November2023-BowenBBC strains every sinew
“It’s not inconceivable that the pile of kalashnikovs belonged to the hospital security department”.
Rather than applying Occam’s Razor, @BowenBBC strains every sinew to cast doubt on the claim that the hospital was being used by Hamas terrorists.
HonestReporting-tweet-17November2023-BowenBBC
Turmoil Among BBC Staff
The BBC is also facing what appears to be growing anger from within its own ranks at how the corporation is covering the Israel-Hamas war.
HonestReporting recently revealed that the head of the BBC’s Global Service, Liliane Landor, was forced to address allegations from reporters based in the Middle East that the corporation is biased in favor of Israel.
Yet, rather than robustly challenge staff who threatened to walk out in protest, Landor reportedly promised to set up a special team to handle staff complaints and receive opinions on rectifying harm caused by the alleged pro-Israel bias.
Meanwhile, bosses at the BBC’s London HQ denied permission for journalists to attend a massive march against antisemitism using guidelines that prevent employees from attending demonstrations deemed “controversial.” This despite the BBC having a policy that allows staff to demonstrate in “opposition to racism [which] is a fundamental democratic principle.”
HonestReporting-tweet-1December2023-But for BBCNews
The fighting resumed after Hamas fired rockets at Israel before the ceasefire had expired.
That’s a fact. But for @BBCNews, the Hamas ceasefire violation is couched in terms of an Israeli “accusation.”
Because the BBC can only ever see Israel as the aggressor.
HonestReporting-tweet-1December2023-But for BBCNews
Why the Must BBC Rebuild Trust
As mentioned, allegations of an anti-Israel bias have dogged the BBC for years.
But the barrage of criticism aimed at the BBC over its coverage of the current Israel-Hamas war has shown that the corporation cannot continue burying its head in the sand where this issue is concerned.
The BBC will lose all credibility if it does not.
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Photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib via Flash90
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BBC Broadcasting House, London
The BBC: We need to face up to the scale of the axis against Israel
There is onslaught against Israel and the Jews from an unholy alliance between extremist Muslims, the left and the political class, and we need to start taking the fight to them
Melanie Phillips January 17, 2024 https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/we-need-to-face-up-to-the-scale-of-the-axis-against-israel-xz0m5uxt
The Conservative MP Andrew Percy has accused the BBC of putting British Jews directly at risk through its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Absolutely. The BBC’s relentless portrayal of the Israelis not as the victims of genocidal terror but as hard-hearted, vengeful and wanton killers of children and the innocent has channelled ancient antisemitic tropes of Jewish blood-lust and helped fuel an enormous increase in attacks on Jews.
As Percy said, the BBC’s double standards on Israel, treating patently absurd civilian casualty figures from Hamas as reliable while casting doubt on Israeli statements, present Israel rather than Hamas as the aggressor and rogue actor.
A principal offender has been the Today programme presenter, Mishal Husain. Interviewing the Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on Monday, she unleashed a barrage of distorted and out-of-context quotes to demonise Israel as a bloodthirsty aggressor.
Claiming that the IDF spokesman, Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari, had said in October that “our focus is on creating damage not precision,” and that Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, had said “we will eliminate everything” in Gaza, Husain said these remarks suggested Israel wasn’t acting within international law and might be why “so many Palestinians have died”.
Yet as the Guardian acknowledged on 5 December, Hagari had been mistranslated. He had actually said: “While balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage”.
Gallant’s words have been taken out of context. He had said: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before, and Hamas will not exist. We will eliminate everything”. He meant eliminating Hamas, not Gaza’s civilians.
In any event, what matters is not what’s said but what Israel does. For the ratio of civilians to combatants killed by Israel is around two to one.
This is far fewer than the proportion of civilians killed in war by any other nation’s army — and when taking into account the Hamas rockets falling short into Gaza and killing its people, fewer still.
Most disgusting of all was how Husain twisted Benjamin Netanyahu’s reference to the ancient Israelites’ biblical foe, Amalek, when he said: “We remember, and we are fighting.”
Husain claimed that “Amalek” involved the injunction to spare no-one and destroy “every man, woman and child, sheep, camel and donkey”. And she suggested this was the cause of Israel’s rate of death and destruction in Gaza.
This was grotesque. Amalek was the genocidal enemy of the Jewish people, whose attack was so lethal that the Jews have a religious commitment to “remember” him in order to destroy any such enemy before it can wipe out the Jewish people again.
Yet Husain and other Israel-haters have abused this sacred duty to defend the Jewish people against genocide by claiming obscenely that it meant Israel intends to wipe out the Palestinians as an act of malign aggression.
The government has supported Israel over its show trial at the International Court of Justice. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, has said South Africa’s accusation against Israel of “genocide” is wrong because “genocide” involves an intention to wipe out an entire people whereas Israel is merely defending itself in Gaza.
Defending Israel, however, takes more than objecting to “when did you stop beating your wife” harassment. It involves calling out the murderous lies that are circulating about Israel’s behaviour, and stating the truth instead.
But instead, Cameron took aim at Israel with a few poisonous barbs of his own. He was “worried,” he told a parliamentary committee, that Israel “might be in breach of international law” in Gaza and that “on lots of occasions” its compliance was “under question”.
Since he offered no evidence of any such breaches, his remarks served merely as yet another smear against an Israel fighting for its life according to international law and yet being demonised for doing so.
The Jews find themselves in the hallucinatory situation of being under unprecedented physical and verbal assault by a western world determined to erase genocidal Jewish victimisation and instead delegitimise Israeli Jews as enemies of humanity.
This has been building up for years. Yet the community’s leadership has chosen not to call out publicly the enemies of the Jews in British society. Instead it has sought to appease, to genuflect and to grovel.
Last week the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, indicated the desperate failure of that approach when he called for British Jews to be “brave” and challenge Muslims over Israel following the “deeply disappointing” Muslim attacks on the Jewish state since the October 7 pogrom.
Candidly, Mirvis regretted that he hadn’t always prioritised Israel in interfaith dialogue, which mostly “focused on what unites us”.
The community needs to start calling out the unique evil of the onslaught against Israel and the Jews from the unholy alliance between extremist Muslims, the left and the political class.
Instead of responding with instantly forgettable rallies against antisemitism to the malevolent falsehoods raining down daily from the intelligentsia, the church and the Hamas Broadcasting Corporation, British Jews should start taking the fight in public and by name to those intent on destroying truth, justice and the Jewish people.
Melanie Phillips is a Times columnist
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Captured Hamas Terrorist: False Claims
HonestReporting-tweet-9December2023-Captured Hamas Terrorist: False Claims
Conspiracy theories surrounding this picture are spreading like wildfire.
❌ Mass graves.
❌ Humiliation.
❌ Torture.
❌ Abducted civilians who are never seen again.
In reality, there are already reports that some of these men have been released…
Stuart374-tweet-9December2023
I was mostly surprised about how fat Hamas’ “fighters” are.
Hohisier-tweet-9December2023
All that food aid they stole from the people. Evidently terrorizing builds a hell of an appetite
HonestReporting-tweet-9December2023-Captured Hamas Terrorist: False Claims
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Unabated, Unhinged, Orgiastic Jew-hatred!
Gad Saad-tweet-24October2023-Over the past two weeks, the reality has been unabated, unhinged, orgiastic Jew-hatred. They are coming from all directions. I do not see a way out of this. Nothing seems to temper the attacks, the delusions, the hateful fervour. I’m trying to play out different scenarios and it looks so bleak. I always believe in the power of reason but not if your predators are foaming with genocidal zeal. I truly think that this might be a historical tipping point in the West. Good night.
Gad Saad-tweet-24October2023-the reality has been unabated unhinged orgiastic Jew-hatred
Charlie Kirk-tweet-23October2023-TThis is our @TPUSA staffer, Peter Christos, who is Christian, not Jewish. Yesterday, he was violently attacked while he and another TPUSA staffer were trying to escort an elderly Jewish couple away from a pro-Israel rally. On the way to their cars, they encountered pro-Hamas supporters who assaulted them, punched them repeatedly, and hit them with a flag pole before cops could pull them away to safety.
All of these thugs need to be arrested and charged with hate crimes.
Charlie-Kirk-tweet-23October2023-This-is-our-TPUSA-staffer-Peter-Christos-who-is-Christian
The BBC
Michael Yifrah-tweet-28October2023-The BBC
Michael Yifrah-tweet-28October2023-The BBC
Watch the latest “news” from the BBC [Antisemitic BBC reporting from Israel]
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Mainstream Media use of ‘Palestinian Journalist’
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-
When Palestinians tried to connect with Israelis to build a better future, @Hind_Gaza
turned them into Hamas. This is who @washingtonpost
considers a credible journalist?
#JournalistOrTerrorist
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-When Palestinians tried to connect with Israelis to build a better future, @Hind_Gaza
turned them into Hamas. This is who @washingtonpost
considers a credible journalist?
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-When Palestinians tried to connect with Israelis to build a better future, @Hind_Gaza
turned them into Hamas. This is who @washingtonpost
considers a credible journalist?
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Who Are the Killed Gazan Journalists Affiliated With Palestinian Terror Groups?
One of the more widely discussed facets of the Israel-Hamas war has been the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7. The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and…
Chaim Lax 22February2024
https://honestreporting.com/who-are-the-killed-gazan-journalists-affiliated-with-palestinian-terror-groups/
One of the more widely discussed facets of the Israel-Hamas war has been the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7.
The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and the Financial Times are just some of the mainstream media organizations that have featured in-depth reports on the Palestinian journalist casualties in Gaza.
However, what these reports fail to disclose is that a substantial number of these Gaza-based journalists were either members of proscribed Palestinian terror organizations or affiliated with these groups. These groups include Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Based on information provided by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), of the 83 Palestinian journalists identified by the CPJ as being killed in Gaza to date (February 22, 2024), 45 (roughly 55%) were either members or affiliates of a Palestinian terrorist group.
The following is a list of the killed Palestinian journalists who were associated with Gaza-based terror groups:
*= Since 2010, Al-Aqsa TV has been designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of the Treasury.
Note: This list is based on the number of Palestinian journalists recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists and does not include journalists who are solely affiliated with Fatah or the Palestinian Authority.
The list will be periodically updated.
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Hamas Oscar Nominations 2024
Hamas Oscar Nominations 2024
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Cycle of Violence-misleading terminology
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-Media shorthand to say, “Israelis and Palestinians are at each other’s throats again. We’re too lazy to provide you meaningful context.”
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-Cycle of Violence-misleading terminology
Cycle of Violence-misleading terminology
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How In The World Did We Get Here?
Over the years, media outlets have become islands of ideological conformity, where the need to affirm supersedes the obligation to inform. In the case of Israel, the subordination of Truth to ideology by some of…
GuestPost [Mark Sachs]
26October2023 https://honestreporting.com/how-in-the-world-did-we-get-here/
Over the years, media outlets have become islands of ideological conformity, where the need to affirm supersedes the obligation to inform. In the case of Israel, the subordination of Truth to ideology by some of the most revered international news outlets has led to levels of global antisemitism not seen since the Holocaust.
Under the guise of “objective journalism,” journalists frame information in such a way that ignites our confirmation bias while trying to mask their own biases and agendas. Given the constant bombardment of information from these sources, seeking out alternative views requires Herculean discipline, which few of us possess.
Media bias did not light the fuse for recent events, but it certainly fanned the flames. The dangers of media bias cannot be underestimated.
Sadly, bias presumes unconscious intent, and I do not believe the rush to judgment by the BBC, New York Times, and others in blaming Israel for the purported attack on the Gaza hospital, or in CNN’s case, equivocating over the likely culprit, was unconscious. It was malicious and intentional.
Their false reporting based on verifiably false information led to violent global protests and raised the prospect of a world war. It’s only natural to ask, “How in the world did we get here?”
I’ll try to shed light on how we got here by exploring the convergence of four cultural trends in Western nations, most notably the US and the UK, and the ensuing psychological prisons that capture minds.
The Role of the Universities
Let’s start with the trend affecting the media and proceed from there. Many journalists are educated in elite institutions like Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Oxford, Stanford, and Yale. Even those who attended other institutions of higher learning could be considered somewhat elite since approximately only 38% and 26% of the US and UK populations earned a bachelor’s degree.
Unfortunately, elite institutions possess very little viewpoint diversity. As I wrote in my book, The Cancel Culture Curse, “At Brown, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and Princeton, liberal students outnumber conservative ones by a ratio of at least 4:1.” It’s safe to assume that Columbia, NYU, and Stanford suffer the same lack of viewpoint diversity.
Notice that the elite universities with the lowest viewpoint diversities are the very same universities now hosting pro-Hamas and “pro-Palestinian” protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and signing letters pronouncing Israel as the aggressor while ignoring the atrocities perpetrated against Israelis. In the US, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Penn, and Stanford have become ground zero for antisemitism and anti-Israelism.
While being a college liberal in no way guarantees a student is anti-Israel and pro-Hamas, every pro-Hamas or “pro-Palestinian” protester at the dozens of protests across the US and the UK falls decidedly in the liberal camp.
I can hear some of you questioning, “What about the far right?!” The far right does in fact have a “Jew problem,” and they no doubt are aligning in words and deeds with their brethren on the far left. However, the trends I’m discussing, and which are playing out in colleges and media outlets across the country are not being driven by the right.
The UK has its own long history of antisemitism and anti-Israelism, but British universities are likely on par with US universities when it comes to viewpoint diversity. Hence, the BBC, the Financial Times, and The Guardian are bastions of anti-Israel viewpoints.
The changing college milieus in which current and would-be journalists are cultivated is a trend that profoundly impacts what and how “news” is presented and received. Now, let’s explore why these educational environments became ground zero for anti-Israel sentiment.
Saudi-Funded Programs
For decades, Saudi Arabia funneled billions of dollars into hundreds of American universities to fund Islamic studies and international relations programs as well as other programs in science and technology. In 2019 alone, 144 American universities received a total of $270 million from Saudi Arabia. When Qatar and China are added to the mix, the total amount is estimated to be $43,000,0000,000 since 1990. Yes, forty-three BILLION dollars.
The well-funded Islamic Studies and International Affairs programs helped lay the groundwork for pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel narratives to take hold throughout the US and no doubt the UK as well.
The promotion of these viewpoints created fertile ground to enable these Islamist and pro-Palestinian voices to ingratiate themselves into left-wing politics. Once inside, these voices started appropriating left-wing causes as their own: aligning themselves with African-American activism by referring to themselves as “people of color,” describing Israel as a colonial power, and conflating Palestinian rights with reproductive justice, gay rights, and transgender rights.
That’s how we get a group called SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Campaign conflating reproductive justice, which does not exist in Gaza, with the understanding “that Palestine and the freedom of the Palestinian people is an issue of reproductive justice.” Freedom from whom, we all know to be Israel, not Hamas.
Once these alliances were formed, they started to snowball.
Despite the fact that upwards of 70% of Israelis could be classified, using the left’s definition, as “people of color,” all Israelis, in fact, all Jews, are viewed as white oppressors. These identitarian gymnastics are the result of intersectionality, a framework to classify groups of people as oppressors and oppressed.
According to intersectionality, Jews are white oppressors and Israel is a white colonial oppressive nation. Palestinians and Muslims, on the other hand, are considered oppressed “people of color.”
Each of these trends has dramatically changed college education and culture, and it is on these campuses where many current and most future American and British journalists were and are nurtured. They then take their viewpoints to the media outlets that employ them.
These outlets have become ideologically homogenous echo chambers that promote intersectionality either consciously or unconsciously. As such, conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians can be viewed as a conflict between the “oppressor” and “oppressed” or the powerful and the powerless.
Regardless of the sheer magnitude of the atrocities perpetrated by the “oppressed” Palestinians, outlets such as the BBC will rationalize such violence based on the status of oppression.
“Intelligent Stupidity” and Cognitive Dissonance
The coalescing of these trends has resulted in two dangerous consequences. The first is amathia, a Greek word that can be defined as lacking wisdom, or as “intelligent stupidity.”
Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of philosophy, explains amathia in this way: “It is the opposite of wisdom, a kind of dis-knowledge of how to deal with other human beings, and it results in awful actions undertaken by otherwise perfectly functional, intelligent human beings. Moreover, people characterized by amathia cannot simply be persuaded by reasoned argument, because they understand the argument but are crucially deficient in their character, which…is developed over time by a combination of instincts, environment influences [author’s note: college, media, social media], and reason.”
Those protesting on elite college campuses and journalists at the NYT, CNN, and BBC are all intelligent, very much so. However, their characters are flawed. But for the fact that our laws prevent them from dismembering or killing people, these people possess the intelligence to rationalize any form of violence against people they don’t like. The only check on their reason would be to possess the right character. This is the danger of intelligent stupidity. It leads to what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil.
The second is cognitive dissonance, which is the tension created when someone is faced with information that conflicts with their strongly held beliefs. To resolve that tension, people tend to double down on their beliefs with more aggression and conviction rather than change their position.
Amathia and Cognitive Dissonance help explain why Ivy League protesters, purportedly the brightest among us, having been birthed in anti-Israel incubators, not only look askance to the reports of horrific atrocities perpetrated by the Palestinians but double down on their support of Hamas.
Only those who suffer from amathia and cognitive dissonance could argue that slaughtering babies, disemboweling mothers, and burning alive innocent people are fair acts of resistance.
Signs of Resistance
Knowing from where all this came can be instructive for how to move forward from here. Thankfully, we are seeing signs of resistance.
1) Huge donors to Ivy League schools in the US have finally started speaking with their dollars. While losing millions here and there when an endowment has billions, may not have a huge financial impact. But, it sends a powerful message of “no more.”
2) Exposure is the best disinfectant against dangerous ideological viruses. Americans are now seeing what has been lurking in certain corners of American educational institutions, and most Americans are disgusted by what they are seeing. Finally.
3) This is one issue that is not partisan. The overwhelming populations in Western nations are banding together to confront this assault on reason, compassion, and humanity. The lines are no longer left versus right. Instead, the battle lines are between wisdom and amathia, civilized and uncivilized, and good and evil.
Each of us has a role to play. Sapir Journal has put out a comprehensive list of actionable steps each of us can take: signing college petitions, taking political action, and seeking out news sources that more fairly present information. You are sure to find something constructive from Sapir’s list. It’s on all of us to toe the line.
Mark Sachs is the founder of Orwell Grey Strategic Communications and a long-time pro-Israel activist. Mark co-authored the book, The Cancel Culture Curse.
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Arab Propaganda
Vs. Arab Reality
SEE: 30 November The Expulsion of the Jews in Arab Lands
Michael Shermer-tweet-2November2023-
“Israel is committing genocide”
—every critic
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”
—Inigo Montoya
Genocide: “the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group” or “a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.”
Israel could annihilate all of Gaza & the Palestinians if it wanted.
It doesn’t because it is not a genocidal nation.
Whose Genocide Is It Anyway?
Afshine Emrani MD FACC-tweet-2November2023-
Speaking of ethnic cleansing… @michaelshermer
Where are the Jews in Arab countries?
Afshine Emrani MD FACC-tweet-2November2023-Speaking of ethnic cleansing
Displacement of Jewish communities and when they were founded
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries
Dr. Eli David-tweet-22November2023-Ethnic Cleansing 101
Ethnic Cleansing 101
Dr. Eli David-tweet-22November2023-Ethnic Cleansing 101
This is Ethnic Cleansing
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Turkish genocide
HayAghchig-tweet-23April2024-Turkish genocide
Today we remember all the innocent victims of genocide 🖤
We will never forget:
HayAghchig-tweet-23April2024-Turkish genocide
Genocides committed by Turks during the last 200 years
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Arab lies
Hillel Fuld-tweet-9November2023-I can’t stand the lies anymore
Ok, enough is enough!!
I can’t stand the lies anymore!!!
I’m not referring to subjective opinions or analysis. I’m talking about facts, 100% objective, undeniable facts.
Does truth even matter anymore?
Well, I guess we can’t blame people for their ignorance unless we make sure the facts are accessible to them, so I’ll do my best.
Hopefully this post can be useful to others who face the lies on campuses, on the streets, and even in parliaments across the globe.
So let’s get to it. Lie by lie.
Watch the video.
Let’s see, what lies did I miss?
I’m sure there are many more but if you have a half a brain in your head, you’ll read this carefully and realize you’re being fed lies and propaganda by a globally recognized terrorist organization.
You’re choosing to believe the lies.
Stop buying the lies and use your brain.
None of what I wrote above is my opinion.
These are all hard facts backed up by indisputable evidence.
If you don’t accept any of the above facts, there are only really three choices.
1- You’re ignorant and refuse to learn history.
2- Your intelligence level prevents you from understanding facts.
3- You are a good ol’ fashioned Jew hater and have now successfully found a way to disguise your hatred of Jews by making things up to vilify the Jewish people.
So which one is it?
Stop believing lies. Stop spreading lies. Open your eyes. Believe what Hamas tells you when they say they want all Jews dead and then, they’ll come after all infidels.
Stop dismissing and discounting their words.
I hope this equipped you with some facts for you to let your Ivy League college friends know that they’re siding with actual genocidal lunatics who will absolutely come after them next.
Good will always prevail and that’s why Israel will be here in 50 years while Hamas will join ancient Egypt, the Romans, the Greeks, the Nazis, and anyone else who has tried to annihilate the Jews.
They are long gone but the Jews and their homeland is here, strong, united, and 100% set on sending Hamas straight where they belong.
Stand with Israel.
Hillel Fuld-tweet-9November2023-I can’t stand the lies anymore
Hamas attacked Central Gaza Humanitarian Aid Temporary Jetty
OSINTdefender-tweet-25April2024-Hamas attacked Central Gaza Humanitarian Aid Temporary Jetty
According to several Sources; the Temporary Jetty being Constructed in Central Gaza, which will eventually be utilized to receive Humanitarian Aid from the Floating Dock being Established by the U.S. Army and Navy off the Coast of Gaza, was Attacked earlier today during a U.N. Inspection by Small Arms and Mortar Fire launched by Hamas.
OSINTdefender-tweet-25April2024-Hamas attacked Central Gaza Humanitarian Aid Temporary Jetty
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Arab Diplomacy
Senator Ted Budd-tweet-17February2024-the Qataris promised
First the Qataris promised us they were “strong-arming” Hamas to release American and Israeli hostages. Then they said they have no leverage. Now they’re calling for a ceasefire regardless of whether hostages are released.
Enough.
Qatar is no longer a productive partner in securing the hostages’ freedom. They must expel Hamas terrorists out of their nation immediately, or risk repercussions.
Barak Ravid-tweet-17February2024-The Prime Minister of Qatar
ראש ממשלת קטאר בוועידת מינכן: שחרור החטופים לא צריך להיות תנאי להפסקת אש בעזה. המלחמה בעזה צריכה להיפסק מיד
Senator Ted Budd-tweet-17February2024-the Qataris promised
Barak Ravid-tweet-17February2024-The Prime Minister of Qatar
Gaza’s sky is black but Qatar is always sunny
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Hamas’ Hidden Strategy
Hillel Fuld-tweet->19November2023-Hamas’ Hidden Strategy
Very well said
Hillel Fuld-tweet-19November2023-Hamas’ Hidden Strategy
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What the “Arab Street” thinks of Hamas
Hussain Abdul-Hussain-tweet-14November2023-What the “Arab Street” thinks of Hamas
One of the biggest Western myths is that the “Arab Street” is unified behind Palestinian “resistance” and against #Israel.
When #Qatar sponsored a fake “spontaneous popular” campaign of World Cup Arab audience waving Palestinian flags, @NYT
argued that Abraham Accords were government peace not peoples’ peace, that if Arabs were given free choice, they’d oppose peace.
Now listen how this destitute Gaza man, interviewed live on Hamas’s Al-Jazeera, thrashes Hamas. Interviewer immediately turned away.
Hundreds of thousands of Arabs share his opinion, and like him are always shut down.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain-tweet-14November2023-What the Arab Street thinks of Hamas
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Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
Here comes a “new” Arab boycott
27December2023 https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2023/12/here-comes-new-arab-boycott.html
The Arab Parliament
The Arab Parliament, which is the legislative body of the Arab League, is trying to bring back the Arab boycott of Jews…I mean, Israel.
Ahead of a planned emergency session on Gaza tomorrow, the speaker of the Arab Parliament, Adel Al-Asoumi, called on the Arab people to adhere to the economic boycott of companies that support Israel.
Al-Asoumi said that the Arab Parliament has supported the Palestinian cause since the first day of the war on Gaza on the seventh of last October, which sure makes it sound as if they supported the massacre on October 7.
The funny part is that the Arab League boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, which started in late 1945, has never officially ended. Syria and Lebanon still adhere to it fully, everyone else abandoned it.
So this is a call to follow an existing 78 year old boycott. A boycott which was always against Jewish companies.
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Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
Arab antisemitic articles are getting worse: now they are praising Hitler, praying for genocide
30October2023 https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2023/10/arab-antisemitic-articles-are-getting.html
cairo24 hit-What did Hitler say about the Jews
Antisemitism in Arab media has been getting much worse lately.
Cairo24 uses the Gaza war as an excuse to praise Hitler:
They also publish the fake quote that antisemites ascribe to Hitler, “It was in my power to eliminate all the Jews of the world, but I left some of them so that you would know why I was exterminating them.” But they also favorably quoted some antisemitism from Mein Kampf.
That is only one article in the past 24 hours.
Algeria’s El Khabar has an article that says:
Egypt’s El Balad publishes a prayer for genocide of Jews. Here is a small part:
A columnist in Saudi Arabia’s Al Madina writes:
But while some articles ue the Quran to justify hating Jews, others claim that Jews are not really the Jews in the Quran to begin with. Dr. Ahmed Rabie , former dean of the Faculty of Islamic Dawa at Al-Azhar University, said that “today’s Jews are not descendants of our Prophet Jacob” and only arabs are the remaining descendants of Abraham.
But why seek consistency in the details? The main point remains: Jews are evil and must be destroyed.
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Arab Reality
Arab Blogger Tells You the Truth About Gaza
By Hana Levi Julian – 14 Tevet 5784 – 25December2023 – https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/hamas/the-gaza-you-thought-you-knew-versus-the-real-gaza/2023/12/25/
Muslim girls study the Koran during a summer camp at a mosque in Gaza City, June 13, 2023.
For decades, Palestinian Authority propaganda and misinformation conveyed to the European Union, the United States and various Arab nations by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has lamented a Gaza populated by downtrodden Arabs steeped in abject poverty and misery, blockaded, occupied and besieged by the State of Israel.
A Gaza with frequent electrical outages due to a lack of fuel. A people forced to live with unclean water due to old, broken-down sewage facilities. Families desperate for a little more food for their children.
Gazans suffering dying due to lack of medical facilities and quality medical care.
All the while, Gazans were apparently raking in the dough while living a better life than many of their Palestinian Arab peers in nations like Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and the like.
Arab blogger Hoda Jannat exposed the lies in a series of posts on the X social media platform, together with video footage to substantiate his claims.
Behold.
“This is Gaza before October 7th. The Arab mind was fooled on the basis that Gaza was besieged. There are Arab people in Arab countries who eat meat once a year, like the Algerian people,” the blogger writes in Arabic.
Hoda_jannat-tweet-25December2023-This is Gaza before October 7th
هذه غزة قبل السابع من أكتوبر
تم استحمار العقل العربي على أساس أن غزة محاصرة ..
وهنالك شعوب عربية في دول عربية تأكل اللحم مرة في السنة مثل الشعب الجزائري
This is Gaza before October 7th
The Arab mind was fooled on the basis that Gaza was besieged.
There are Arab people in Arab countries who eat meat once a year, like the Algerian people
Hoda_jannat-tweet-25December2023-This is Gaza before October 7th
In a separate tweet, @HodaJannat writes:
Suddenly we discovered that Gaza, which is inhabited by 2 million people… has 36 hospitals.
There are Arab countries with 30 million citizens and do not have this number of hospitals.
? Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was getting water, electricity, gas, and fuel for free from Israel.
Of course, there is no Arab citizen who does not pay water, electricity and fuel bills.
? Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was receiving $30 million a month from Qatar alone
And $120 million a month from UNRWA
And $50 million a month from the European Union
And 30 million dollars a month from America.
There are Arab countries drowning in debt and cannot find anyone to help them, even with one million dollars.
? Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was not besieged, and all goods were entering it, as were foreigners and people of foreign nationalities. Its residents were traveling to Egypt and from there to the rest of the world, and Fafo is the biggest example.
? Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was living better than many Arab countries…and its people were living better than many Arab peoples.
Suddenly…we discovered that our minds were besieged by a programmed lie…by the (Muslim) Brotherhood media.
gevwey-tweet-24December2023-Suddenly we discovered that Gaza
🔴فجأة اكتشفنا أن غزة التي يسكنها 2 مليون نسمة … فيها 36 مستشفى وهنالك دول عربية بها 30 مليون مواطن وما فيها هذا العدد من المستشفيات .
🔴فجأة اكتشفنا أن غزة كانت تحصل على الماء والكهرباء والغاز والوقود بالمجان من اسرائيل . طبعا ليس هنالك مواطن عربي لا يدفع فواتير الماء والكهرباء والوقود .
🔴فجأة اكتشفنا أن غزة كانت تصلها 30 مليون دولار شهريا من قطر وحدها و120 مليون دولار شهريا من الأونروا و50 مليون دولار شهريا من الاتحاد الأوربي و30 مليون دولار شهريا من امريكا. وهنالك دول عربية غارقة في الديون ولا تجد من يساعدها ولو بمليون دولار واحد .
🔴فجأة اكتشفنا أن غزة لم تكن محاصرة وكانت تدخلها كل السلع ويدخلها اجانب وأصحاب جنسيات أجنبية ..وكان سكانها يسافرون إلى مصر ومنها إلى باقي دول العالم وفافو اكبر مثال.
🔴فجأة اكتشفنا أن غزة كانت تعيش افضل من بلدان عربية كثيرة …وشعبها كان يعيش افضل من شعوب عربية كثيرة. فجأة …اكتشفنا أن عقولنا هي المحاصرة بكذب مبرمج …من قبل الإعلام الاخونجي.
🔴 Suddenly we discovered that Gaza, which is inhabited by 2 million people… has 36 hospitals
There are Arab countries with 30 million citizens and do not have this number of hospitals.
🔴 Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was getting water, electricity, gas, and fuel for free from Israel.
Of course, there is no Arab citizen who does not pay water, electricity and fuel bills.
🔴 Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was receiving $30 million a month from Qatar alone
And $120 million a month from UNRWA
And $50 million a month from the European Union
And 30 million dollars a month from America.
There are Arab countries drowning in debt and cannot find anyone to help them, even with one million dollars.
🔴 Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was not besieged, and all goods were entering it, as were foreigners and people of foreign nationalities. Its residents were traveling to Egypt and from there to the rest of the world, and Fafo is the biggest example.
🔴 Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was living better than many Arab countries…and its people were living better than many Arab peoples.
Suddenly…we discovered that our minds were besieged by a programmed lie…by the Brotherhood media.
gevwey-tweet-24December2023-Suddenly we discovered that Gaza
Surprisingly, Hoda Jannat is not the only one to expose the real quality of life enjoyed by Gazans prior to October 7th.
Meet social media poster @Imshin, who specializes in showing what life in Gaza was really like by showing videos and photos from Gazans themselves, including videos, blog posts, and news that was posted by middle-class and wealthy Gazans. Imshin posted this Feb. 2022:
Imshin-tweet-11February2022-Gaza Land of Contrasts
#Gaza Land of Contrasts.
#TheGazaYouDontSee – an introduction.
#Palestine #Hamas #HamasTerrorists
Imshin-tweet-11February2022-Gaza Land of Contrasts
And this was posted on Dec. 25, 2023, also by Imshin:
Imshin-tweet-25December2023-What was Gaza like before the hostilities
Text:
“What was Gaza like before the hostilities?”
“We lived well, no blockade or anything.
Enough with the lies!
Hamas came and destroyed everything for their own good.”
#TheGazaYouDontSee
#October7massacre
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNG6YS66/
Imshin-tweet-25December2023-What was Gaza like before the hostilities
And this:
Imshin-tweet-25December2023-Shopping in Gaza City before October7massacre
Shopping in Gaza City, before #October7massacre.
#TheGazaYouDontSee
Imshin-tweet-25December2023-Shopping in Gaza City before October7massacre
Was there hardship in Gaza? Yes. As in any other society — including that in Israel, and in the United States — there were families who had less; but they learned to make do. But those who suffered did so at the behest of their Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist rulers who were overwhelmingly, democratically, elected into power by Gaza voters themselves.
Israel withdrew any presence from the enclave well before the January 2006 elections won by Hamas against the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah faction in a vote of 74 to 45 seats.
Gaza hasn’t been “occupied” since August 2005, when the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon instituted the Disengagement from Gaza, expelling nearly 10,000 Jews from their homes and communities in the Gush Katif region of the enclave.
In response, Israel was rewarded with more than 10,000 rockets fired at its civilians by its neighbors in Judenrein Gaza, not to mention the series of mini-wars forced upon the Jewish State by Gaza since that time, and during which Israeli soldiers worked hard to “mow the lawn” and trim back the threat to Israel from Hamas.
But it didn’t work.
Between October 7 and December 25, 2023, Hamas and its ally, the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization have fired more than 12,500 rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians, and they continue to fire sporadically, whenever they manage to scurry out from beneath the rubble to launch another barrage.
Since October 7, IDF soldiers have uncovered at least 1,500 tunnel shafts leading to the subterranean labyrinth known locally as the “Gaza Metro” comprised of more than 500 miles of tunnels — a veritable underground city — built by Hamas during the years of its rule.
Hundreds of subsurface rocket launchers are so well concealed, they barely peek above the surface, and one practically has to stumble on to them before being able to see them and destroy them. Entire command and control complexes, all of them built 30 to 50 meters (98 feet 164 feet) below the surface — deeper than any grave.
However long it takes, Israel no longer has any choice but to completely wipe out Hamas and its terrorist allies in Gaza, because at this point, it’s either them or us.
Special thanks to Hoda Jannat and Imshin!
9 minutes of how Gaza used to look like before October 7th
Visegrád 24-tweet-17February2024-9 minutes of how Gaza used to look like before October 7th
9 minutes of how Gaza used to look like before October 7th.
Hamas ruined the lives of more than 2 million people
Visegrád 24-tweet-17February2024-9 minutes of how Gaza used to look like before October 7th
9 minutes of how Gaza used to look like before October 7th
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Does the UN hate the Gazans?
Or does it simply hate Israel so much it is willing to use Gazan Arabs as pawns and cannon fodder. The MUST READ concise history of Gaza. Op-ed.
Lt. Col.(res.) Maurice Hirsch / 8January2024 / https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/383231
Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch is the director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; a senior legal analyst for Human Rights Voices; and a member of the Israel Defense and Security Forum.
Over the last 500 years, at least, the Gaza Strip has been a backwater. No one has ever truly invested in Gaza or the Gazans. For the last 100 years, Gaza and the Gazans have increasingly been used as pawns, by both the Arabs and the international community, in their efforts to vilify Israel and the Jews.
When push came to shove, the international community, led by the United Nations, preferred dead Gazans over losing leverage against Israel. Paradoxically and entirely contrary to common perception, Israel did more for the Gazans and the Gaza Strip than any of its many rulers, and had the international community not hated the Gazans so much, their situation today could have been drastically different.
Gaza under the Ottomans
For 400 years (1517-1917), the area known today as the Gaza Strip was part of the Ottoman Empire. It was not recognized as an independent area or as being at all linked to Judea and Samaria. Under Ottoman rule, the Gaza Strip saw changing fortunes and investments, depending on the circumstances and the identity and connections of its appointed governor.
Gaza under the Mandate
In the aftermath of the First World War and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Gaza Strip was included in the area that came under the control of Great Britain. Following the Balfour Declaration (1917), the Paris Peace Conference (1919), the San Remo Conference (1920) and the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, Great Britain controlled the area with the sole purpose of it becoming part of the Jewish national homeland. One of the more substantial moves made by Great Britain during the period of the Mandate (1922-1948) was to finalize the official border separating Egypt from the Gaza Strip.
After Great Britain betrayed the Mandate and capitulated to Arab violence instead of giving the Jews the land designated for their national homeland, the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan (which suggested an Arab state and a tiny Jewish state on that same land), included the Gaza Strip in the territory of the “Arab State.” However, having ceremoniously rejected the Partition Plan, the Arab countries chose instead to wage war on the nascent Jewish state. While Israel managed to survive the onslaught of five Arab armies, when the fighting came to its end, it did not conquer the Gaza Strip, which would now be under Egyptian rule. Except for a short break between 1956 and 1957 duing the Sinai War, the Strip remained under Egyptian control from 1948 to 1967.
The Arab countries reject Israel
Positive proof of the disdain of both the Arab countries and the international community toward the Gazans appeared during this period.
According to U.N. records, during Israel’s War of Independence (9 months and 3 weeks, ed.), the population of the Gaza Strip swelled from about 70,000 people to 270,000 people. In the multilateral discussions that followed the war, Israel offered to include the Gaza Strip within the borders of the Jewish state and give all its residents full Israeli citizenship. Had the offer been accepted, the Gaza Strip would today be an integral part of Israel, all its residents would hold full citizenship and both the area and its residents would have shared and enjoyed the prosperity of Israel.
However, both the Arab states and the international community did not care about the fate of Gaza’s residents, old and new. The Arab countries rejected the offer, preferring to continue their fight against Israel’s very right to exist. For its part, the international community allowed the Arab countries to reject the offer without providing any substantial alternative.
Unlike Jordan’s unsuccessful claim of ownership of Judea and Samaria (also supposed to be part of the Jewish national homeland), Egypt never claimed to have any proprietary or sovereign claim to the Gaza Strip. It merely administered the Strip under perpetual military law, never granting its residents Egyptian citizenship.
The colossal UNRWA failure
The disdain of the international community for the Gazan residents was further expressed by its inaction.
While allowing the Egyptians to deny the Gazans any opportunity to settle, deny them citizenship and deny them rights, the international community simultaneously failed to provide the Gazans with any alternative. Between 1948 and 1967, no U.N. resolution ever called on Egypt to end its illegal occupation of the Strip and withdraw or to recognize the new Arab state envisaged by the Partition Plan. It was not called an occupier. The areas that are now so often referred to as the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” do not appear to have been considered “Palestinian territories” until they were liberated by Israel in 1967.
Instead of developing a comprehensive solution for the residents of Gaza, the Arab countries and the international community decided to establish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the U.N. organization dedicated solely to dealing with the non-Jewish so-called “Palestine refugees.”
UNRWA’s raison d’etre is to perpetuate the falsehood that the perpetual “Palestine refugees” will eventually flood Israel, thereby demographically and democratically destroying Israel as a Jewish state.
True to its mission and sadly for the Gazans, despite having received tens of billions of dollars of international aid in the 74 years since its creation, UNRWA has failed to settle the “Palestine refugees” permanently. The opposite is true. Since the creation of UNRWA, the number of “Palestine refugees” has swelled from 711,00 initially to over 6 million people. According to UNRWA, the original 200,000 “Palestine refugees” who settled in Gaza in 1948 have multiplied at a staggering rate and now number no fewer than 1,577,522 people, an unmatched 4th generation of “refugees”..
Amazingly, according to UNRWA statistics, over 20% of the original “refugees,” now all aged over 80 (41,842 people), are still alive and living in Gaza.
For 74 years, UNRWA has ensured that the Gazans and other “Palestine refugees” remain stateless, living in poverty and constantly dependent on international aid. (That is how it continues to exist and its staff retain their salaries, ed.)
Gaza under Israeli rule
Once Israel liberated Gaza from the Egyptian occupation, things started looking up for the Gazans. Israel not only allowed the Gazans to enter Israel to work, allowing for substantial growth, but also started linking Gaza to Israeli infrastructure, such as electricity and water.
Gaza under the Palestinian Authority
Despite the positive change, the Arab countries and the international community refused to accept the Israeli presence in the Strip, inventing the false claim that Israel was an “occupier.” Over time, the rhetoric against Israel as an “occupier” intensified until Israel agreed to enter into the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and pave the way for the creation of the Palestinian Authority.
Instead of promoting the needs of the Gazans, the P.A., with the help of the international community, again subjugated the Gazan population. While the PLO/P.A. promised peace and democracy, all it delivered was brainwashing to hate Israel, and incitement of violence, murder and terror.
Democracy was a fleeting incident, with elections taking place only twice, once in 1996 and then again in 2006. The first elections ushered in the dictatorial leadership of Yasser Arafat and his Fatah party, and the second ushered in the dictatorial rule of Hamas, an internationally designated terror organization.
Israel’s disengagement from Gaza
Pursuant to its agenda to destroy Israel, in September 2000, the PLO/P.A. launched a terror war. During the war, which raged till 2005, Palestinian Arab terrorists carried out thousands of terror attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to “disengage” from the area. Thus, in Sept. 2005, Israel completed the total expulsion of all the Israelis from the Gaza Strip (over 8000 people were displaced from thriving communities they had built with government encouragement, ed.) and withdrew all its forces, redeploying to the Armistice Line agreed upon in 1949 at the end of Israel’s war of independence.
Gaza in its entirety, including an advanced agricultural industry built by Israeli know-how and hard work, was handed to the P.A. (Gazans promptly set fire to the greenhouses that had previously provided Europe and Israel with a significant percentage of its flowers and vegetables, and had been donated to them to help them make sea-fronted Gaza into “the Singapore of the Middle East”, ed.)
Hamas takes control of Gaza
Shortly after the “disengagement” in January 2006, the P.A. held a general election. Again, showing its disdain for the Gazans, the P.A. and the international community persuaded Israel to agree to the participation of Hamas in the elections. While P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas did his utmost to manipulate the elections in favor of his Fatah party, Hamas won, receiving 74 of the 132 seats in the P.A. parliament. After a period of turmoil, a year later, in the summer of 2007, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. (It then murdered Fatah rivals, often by pushing them off the roofs of buildings, ed.)
Again, abandoning the Gazans to their fate, the international community did not protest the rulership of a terrorist organization over the area but instead developed a policy of wilful blindness, rebranding the terrorists as the “de facto” leadership of Gaza.
Under the guise of expressing concern for the Gazans, broad international support poured into Hamas coffers for 16 years. With the international aid, Hamas and its leadership grew rich, while the average Gazan remained poor and impoverished. Instead of using the aid to develop Gaza, the Hamas terrorists diverted their resources to build hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels.
Despite the Israeli “disengagement” and the fact that the Gaza Strip was controlled by a terror organization, the international community refused to hold the Gazans and their leadership responsible for their actions. Instead of demanding that Hamas and the Gazans abandon their desire to destroy Israel, the international community flouted international law and invented the sui generis claim that Israel remained an “occupier” of Gaza. In no other situation in the world is a country considered an “occupier” of another region without “boots on the ground” and without exercising effective control. (Israel does control the border into its territory as does every sovereign state, and after ships filled with arms tried to deliver them to Gaza, controls the sea border,, while Egypt controls its own border with Gaza, ed.)
From 2006 through Oct. 6, 2023, the terrorists in Gaza fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel, indiscriminately targeting its civilian population, and made hundreds of attempts, many successful, to infiltrate Israel and carry out terror attacks. These attacks inevitably ended in war-like “cycles of violence” between Israel and the Gazan terrorists.
Instead of condemning the terrorists and their homicidal actions and holding them responsible for their aggression, the international community again chose to abandon the Gazans to their fate and their terrorist leadership, preferring to focus all criticism on Israel’s self-defense.
The Oct. 7 massacre
If the disdain of the international community for the Gazans was unclear until now, their actions following the 10/7 massacre leave no room for doubt.
On Oct. 7, 2023, over 3,000 terrorists infiltrated Israel from Gaza, led by the Nukhba forces of Hamas. The terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and foreigners. Some were tortured, some, even infants, burned alive, some raped and some beheaded. An additional 240 people—men, women, children, babies, the disabled, the elderly and the sick—were taken hostage. ( A not insubstantial number of Gazan “civilians” also took part in the murder and pillage, ed.)
Israel responded by declaring all-out war on the Gazan terrorists. As part of the operation, the Israeli forces attacked thousands of targets from the air, the sea and the ground. In preparation for the ground operation, Israel recommended that the civilians living in the northern Gaza Strip leave their homes and travel south.
To put the situation into context, it is essential to note that the Gaza Strip is only 41 kilometers (25 miles) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 miles) wide, and has a total area of 365 square kilometers (141 square miles). Approximately 2 million people inhabit it. As a result of the fighting in the north, over 800,000 people were displaced.
Egypt and the international community refuse refuge for the Gazans
In normal circumstances, wars almost always results in the creation of refugees. Thus, for example, as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, over 6,332,700 Ukrainians became refugees. As a result of the Syrian civil war, approximately 5.5 million Syrians were forced to flee Syria, becoming refugees. (They will probably settle successfully in their new homes, as other refugees have throughout history, ed.)
Despite the high intensity of the war in Gaza, exacerbated by the confined space and high population density, astonishingly, the war created no refugees.
While Gaza is surrounded from the north and east by Israel and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza also shares a border with Egypt. Instead of welcoming their Arab brothers, Egypt refused to allow Gazans to cross into the Sinai Peninsula and seek refuge. Soon after the start of the war, Egypt reportedly lined up tanks and armored vehicles along the Gazan border specifically to prevent the Gazans from fleeing the war. Shamefully, despite clearly putting the Gazans in mortal danger, the international community remained silent in the face of the Egyptian cold-heartedness.
No U.N. resolution called upon Egypt to show humanity towards the Gazans, and no U.N. resolution condemned their decision to refuse the Gazans refuge. While Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, did offer the Gazans refuge in Scotland and called on the United Kingdom and the international community to provide refuge for the Gazans, nothing happened. Canada also made positive overtures and even adopted relaxed criteria to allow Gazans to seek refuge, but as yet, no Gazans have been able to take advantage of the change. (It is not too late – petition your government to rescue the Gazans, ed.)
The world hates the Gazans
Given the repeated approach of the international community and its consistent decisions to abandon the Gazans—even leaving them to face mortal danger—one would not be entirely mistaken to conclude that the world does hate the Gazans.
There is, however, another possible conclusion, which is no less nefarious.
The international community may not actually hate the Gazans. Rather, the international community hates Israel and is willing to do its utmost to vilify and condemn the Jewish state. (It may even intend to sit by placidly while the Gazans re-arm for their next try. After all, the arms came through the tunnels under the border with Egypt, with whom Israel signed a peace treaty, and no one knows how many terrorists were among the Gazans who fled south at Israel’s suggestion, ed.) To serve this goal, the international community uses the Gazans as pawns and cannon fodder.
Gazans’ lives don’t matter to the international community unless they can be weaponized against the Jews and the Jewish state.
Originally published by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
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NGO Propaganda
The International Community
Hillel Fuld-tweet-31December2023-The International Community
The absurdity knows no bounds:
Israel:
“They massacred, beheaded, and raped our women and children!”
The international community: “Yea, we don’t care until you prove it!”
“Ok, here are the testimonials.”
“Sorry, not good enough.”
“Sure. Photos.”
“Fake.”
“Ok, here’s video evidence.”
“Sorry, you’re gonna have to do better than that”
“Ok, here are the actual victims and their stories.”
“Liars!”
“Here is Hamas admitting it all!”
“They aren’t reliable. They don’t mean it.”
“Here are the bodies.”
“Prove that Hamas did that and not the IDF.”
Israel: 🙄
Hamas: “Israel killed 10 zillion people in Gaza, 100% of them are children. Trust us.”
The international community: “It’s a genocide!!
JerusalemCats-tweet-1January2024-What needs to be done
Israel needs to treat the International organizations as Hamas Agents or Supporters, then bring out the Tennis Rackets. Just say your filming a Supermarket Ad. We have Killer Prices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Mahmoud_Al-Mabhouh Just say your filming a Supermarket Ad. We have Killer Prices. https://www.jpost.com/Israel/Supermarket-chains-ad-spoof-on-Dubai-hit-set-to-go-viral
Hillel Fuld-tweet-31December2023-The International Community
JerusalemCats-tweet-1January2024-What needs to be done
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The Europeans
Danish ambassador, JPost’s Caroline Glick exchange verbal blows over EU attitude toward Israel
19January2015
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Israel needs to treat NGOs [Non-Government Organizations] as terror supporters until proven otherwise
Canary Mission-tweet-23November2023-humanitarian agencies have not condemned 7October
We’re still waiting for these “humanitarian” agencies to condemn Hamas’ Oct . 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis: @unicefchief, WHO head @DrTedros, @amnesty, International Red Cross @ICRC, United Nation High Commissioner on Human Rights @volker_turk, @UNHumanRights, @UNRWA, UN Special Rapporteur @FranceskAlbs, Human Rights Watch @hrw, @EU_Commission, @unwomenchief, Malala Yousafzai @Malala & @MalalaFund
Canary Mission-tweet-23November2023-humanitarian agencies have not condemned 7October
humanitarian agencies that still haven’t condemned 7October2023
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Lies against the IDF: Hamas PURPOSELY drew fire to the World Central Kitchens (NGO) truck
The Persian Jewess-tweet-7April2024-Hamas PURPOSELY drew fire to the World Central Kitchens truck
⚠️BREAKING⚠️ IDF has revealed that Hamas PURPOSELY drew fire to the WCK truck.
🔥At around 10 pm, the IDF noticed suspicious activity as the WCK vehicle was joined by a convoy of several other Hamas vehicles.
🔥 Hamas terrorists then climbed ONTO and INTO the WCK truck and FIRED several times indiscriminately into the air to ensure the IDF would see them.
🔥The convoy then split up and entered a hanger, where it became difficult to
distinguish between the Hamas vehicles and the WCK vehicle.
🔥IDF attempted to call both the WCK workers and WCK HQ on TWO separate occasions to confirm whether they were with the Hamas convoy but their calls remained unanswered.
🔥When the vehicles left the hangar OVER AN HOUR LATER the IDF drone unit misidentified the WCK vehicle for a vehicle from the Hamas convoy and mistakenly struck.
The IDF has provided their full findings to both WCK and Jose Andres, and are now requiring new stickers for aid vehicles which can be seen via drones even in the dark.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-795514
The Persian Jewess-tweet-7April2024-Hamas PURPOSELY drew fire to the World Central Kitchens truck
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-8April2024-When NATO kills-friendly fire When Israel kills-war crime
“When British or U.S. troops accidentally kill innocent civilians, journalists or aid workers it’s ‘friendly fire’ in the heat of battle. When Israel does likewise, it’s a deliberate war crime. The double-standards are nauseating.”
~ Richard Littlejohn, in Daily Mail.
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-8April2024-When NATO kills-friendly fire When Israel kills-war crime
JerusalemCat-tweet-3April2024-During World War 2 humanitarian aid workers WERE NOT in German or Japanese Cities While they were being Bombed
The Gaza Ministry of Health has a quota to fill and the journalists and humanitarian aid workers are slacking off. This is WAR. During World War 2 journalists and humanitarian aid workers WERE NOT in German or Japanese Cities While they were being Bombed!
JerusalemCats-tweet-3April2024-During World War 2 humanitarian aid workers WERE NOT in German or Japanese Cities While they were being Bombed
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Hamas was with the World Central Kitchens (NGO)
Sebastian Marinaio-tweet-10April2024-Hamas was with the WCK
Hi @chefjoseandres care to explain this picture? You’ve spent the week accusing Israel targeting @WCKitchen volunteers & now we know Hamas was riding with the vehicles. You also accused Israel of genocide which is an absolute lie. Now YOU can be seen hanging with Hamas. WTF???
Sebastian Marinaio-tweet-10April2024-Hamas was with the WCK
David Lange-tweet-11April2024-Some telling footage of WorldCentralKitchen workers around Hamas terrorists
Some telling footage of #WorldCentralKitchen workers around #Hamas terrorists. Not suggesting they are enabling them, but it puts the IDF investigation results into perspective. More here: https://www.israellycool.com/2024/04/11/world-central-kitchen-footage-shows-presence-of-hamas-terrorists-near-aid-trucks/
David Lange-tweet-11April2024-Some telling footage of WorldCentralKitchen workers around Hamas terrorists
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Tragic World Central Kitchen Aid Workers Incident Exposes Rank Hypocrisy
The tragic killing of the seven aid workers in Gaza in an IDF drone strike has undoubtedly changed the direction of Israel’s war against Hamas. As the IDF admitted making “grave mistakes” in the strike…
Rachel O’Donoghue 8April2024 https://honestreporting.com/the-rank-hypocrisy-exposed-by-the-tragic-world-central-kitchen-strike/
The tragic killing of the seven aid workers in Gaza in an IDF drone strike has undoubtedly changed the direction of Israel’s war against Hamas.
As the IDF admitted making “grave mistakes” in the strike on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicle convoy, pressure has piled on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire in the Strip, as well as other unpalatable terms Hamas put forward.
In the immediate aftermath, Israel dismissed two military officers and reprimanded several others.
The point that has been ignored by the vast majority of media pundits and politicians as they line up to criticize Israel is that holding up the WCK incident as proof there must be an immediate ceasefire is tantamount to saying that Hamas should stay in power.
Some of the harshest criticism leveled at Israel has come from its staunchest allies, including the United States and the United Kingdom, which have previously stopped short of calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
The UK’s foreign minister Lord David Cameron, for example, warned that Britain’s support for Israel was “not unconditional,” while describing the deaths of the WCK workers as “tragic and avoidable.”
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden released a statement on April 2 — mere hours after the incident — which called for a “thorough investigation” that brings full “accountability.”
“Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” the statement added.
Such criticism was mirrored in the international press
An editorial by The Observer argued that “only a ceasefire in Gaza can save [Israel] from its worst-ever crisis” and called for an “independent, international inquiry into last week’s outrageous killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers.”
“The IDF’s internal investigation and its limited admission of error do not begin to excuse or explain the army’s trigger-happy behaviour and ongoing, systemic problems with targeting,” it added.
Writing in The Guardian, Nesrine Malik described the World Central Kitchen incident as evidence that “Israel has gone rogue.”
The Wall Street Journal attempted to explore what it called the “deadly mistakes of Israel’s military in Gaza” in a piece that observed how the aid convoy strike had “crystallized a broad international backlash against Israel’s war in Gaza.”
However, the swift and unforgiving reaction to the WCK incident by both international leaders and the media has exposed another issue: a glaring hypocrisy where Israel is judged by a standard that is not applied to its allies.
Opinion writer Brendan O’Neill was among the handful of media pundits to call out this double standard in a piece for The Spectator:
Another op-ed in Newsweek by international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky and urban warfare expert John Spencer noted how one inevitable consequence of war is that “errors will occur” and that the US too had made similar errors during its conflicts:
A piece published in the Daily Mail by columnist Richard Littlejohn called out the “nauseating” double standards that the WCK strike has exposed.
Recounting the events that followed the death of his friend, ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd—who was killed alongside several other journalists in a US strike on their clearly marked vehicle on the outskirts of Basra, Iraq, in March 2003—Littlejohn wrote:
Every innocent person killed in this war is a tragedy, whether they are international aid workers or Palestinian civilians. However, suggesting that Israel’s tragic accidents are somehow unique or more severe than others is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.
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Qatar funded Human Rights Watch
i24NEWS English-tweet-23November2023-Qatar funded Human Rights Watch
A leaked document obtained by @MEMRIReports shows @hrw was given Qatari state funds
@BenWeinthal investigates
i24NEWS English-tweet-23November2023-Qatar funded Human Rights Watch
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JerusalemCats Comments: When you think of the Red Cross, Think of the Medieval Christian Knights Templar slaughtering Jews during the Crusades!
A knight of the Templar. Warrior Monk
הוועד הבינלאומי של ארגון הצלב האדום הוא רשע / The International Committee of the Red Cross is Evil
27December2023 http://esseragaroth.blogspot.com/2023/12/international-committee-of-red-cross-is.html
English follows the Hebrew.
עשר אגורות (2¢):
בדרך כלל אני מוכן להגיד שהדוח על ידי דניאל אדלסון מספיק כדי להבין את היסוד הרשע של הוועד הבינלאומי של ארגון הצלב האדום.
לא היום. אף פעם לא מספיק להדגיש דבר כזה כשיהודים עושים אותו הטעות פעם אחר פעם ומצפים לתוצאות שונות. איזה טעויות? לסמוך ותמוך בהוועד הבינלאומי של ארגון הצלב האדום, ולצפות מהם החלטות צדקות.
אני מזכיר לכם על האירועים שעברו על ידי הוועד הבינלאומי של ארגון הצלב האדום (הכתבות באנגלית):
אם אתם עדיין לא יכולים להבין שהוועד הבינלאומי של ארגון הצלב האדום רשע מכה אלה, אז לא נראה לי שאני מוסגל להוכיח לכם את זה.
סמל מגן דוד אדום נמחק
Red Magen David Adom (Red Shield of David) symbol getting erased.
Esser Agaroth (2¢):
Generally I am willing to say that the report by Daniel Adelson is enough to understand the evil element of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Not today. It is never enough to emphasize such a thing when Jews make the same mistake over and over and expect different results. What mistakes? To trust and support the International Committee of the Red Cross, and to expect it to make just decisions.
The original Hebrew says that Mirjana Spoljaric responded, “Surely, you can find ways to get these to them.”
Here are a few of the Red Cross’s past strikes against Israel and the Jewish People:
If you still cannot see how evil the Red Cross is, then I am not sure I can help you to see the light.
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Israel: Red Cross has ‘no right to exist’ if it can’t help hostages in Gaza
FM Eli Cohen’s remarks come after organization warns Israel over emergency law concerning conditions of security prisoners in Israeli jails
By ToI Staff 1November2023, href=”https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-red-cross-has-no-right-to-exist-if-it-cant-help-hostages-in-gaza/
Amid an ongoing spat with the Red Cross, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen demanded Wednesday that the group visit the 240 hostages Israeli believes are being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and harshly criticized the organization’s conduct.
The foreign minister told the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, that the ICRC must demand to meet and provide medical assistance to all the hostages, Cohen’s office said.
“The Red Cross has no right to exist if it does not succeed in visiting the hostages being held captive by the Hamas terror group,” Cohen told Spoljaric, and noted that “children, women and Holocaust survivors” are being held captive.
“The Red Cross must act decisively and with a clear voice and utilize all leverage it has to push for a visit to the hostages as soon as possible,” Cohen added.
Cohen’s statements came after the Red Cross sent a letter on Tuesday to the Israel Prison Service, cautioning the state about a wartime law passed in the Knesset two weeks ago that allows National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to worsen the conditions of security prisoners if a “prison emergency” were to be declared.
The foreign minister criticized the ICRC for focusing on Israel, “which is bound by international law and acts in accordance with it,” instead of the enormous humanitarian crisis created by Hamas.
Prison Service commissioner Katy Perry, in a statement Wednesday, said that the Red Cross would not be allowed to visit Palestinian terror prisoners held in Israeli jails until the organization is able to provide assistance to the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 with Hamas’s shock assault, which took the lives of some 1,400 people in Israel, the vast majority of them civilians. More than 240 people were taken captive as Hamas terrorists rampaged through the communities adjacent to Gaza.
Since then, while waging war against Hamas in Gaza, Israel has agitated for the International Red Cross to be allowed to visit the hostages held in the Strip, but so far the terror group has shown little inclination to permit such visits.
The Red Cross has also made multiple statements concerning the war, has cautioned Israel in regards to civilian casualties in Gaza, and is involved with providing humanitarian aid packages to Gaza. When two Israeli-American hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan, were released by Hamas on October 20, they were first turned over to the Red Cross.
Benjamin B@dejo-tweet-24November2023-The Red Cross sympathizes with terrorists
The Red Cross (@ICRC/@ICRC_ilot) just deleted their tweet saying they are “RELIEVED” that Palestinian prisoners — including convicted attempted murderers — were released and can now “hug their families” after a “long separation.” The Red Cross sympathizes with terrorists.
Benjamin B@dejo-tweet-24November2023-The Red Cross sympathizes with terrorists
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Red Cross in 1944: “We found no trace” Red Cross in 2023: “We found no evidence”
Dr. Eli David-tweet-26November2023-Red Cross in 1944-2023-We found no trace
Red Cross in 1944: “We found no trace of installations for exterminating civilian prisoners in Auschwitz” 👇
Red Cross in 2023: “We found no evidence of weapons or hostages being kept in hospitals in Gaza”
Dr. Eli David-tweet-26November2023-Red Cross in 1944-2023-We found no trace
Red Cross in 1944-We found no trace of installations for exterminating civilian prisoners in Auschwitz
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PROOF: Red Cross is Antisemitic
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-17December2023-
70+ DAYS and @ICRC still has not seen a single Israeli hostage in Gaza, obtained any proof of life or delivered any medicine.
The Red Cross prides itself on being unwaveringly neutral, but when it comes to Israeli lives, they are just unwaveringly absent! @ICRCPresident
JerusalemCats-tweet-17December2023-ICRC is Antisemitic
No, the ICRC is a Antisemitic, Nazi terrorist supporting Organization that has a long history of antisemitism. Such as demanding the Magen David Adom change it’s logo from the Red Star of David to something else.
JerusalemCats-tweet-17December2023-ICRC is Antisemitic
Red Cross asked to expel MDA over emblem violation
Pro-Palestinian groups say using Star of David shape in West Bank violates Geneva Convention protocol
By Tamar Pileggi
20September2015, https://www.timesofisrael.com/red-cross-to-weigh-expelling-mda-over-emblem-violation/
MDA paramedic Tal Rabin attends to displaced Nepalese locals in Kathmandu. (photo courtesy Magen David Adom)
A number of pro-Palestinian organizations have petitioned the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent to expel Israel’s national emergency medical service for using the emblem of the international federation on its ambulances operating in West Bank.
The Palestinian groups charge that Magen David Adom — the country’s medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service — is in violation of a Geneva Convention protocol stipulating Israeli paramedic teams use a neutral emblem while working outside the country, the Yedioth Aharonoth daily newspaper reported Sunday.
In 2006, the MDA emerged from decades of isolation and was admitted to the ICRC after agreeing to abide by a protocol adopted by Geneva Convention signatories the year before.
The protocol introduced a neutral “red crystal” emblem to be used by any relief teams in areas where there is sensitivity about Christian or Muslim symbols.
The MDA, along with IDF medics, were instructed to use the new symbol — a red square at an angle on a white background — when participating in operations outside Israel.
While operating in missions in conjunction with other ICRC agencies, the red crystal emblem was to be used in conjunction with MDA’s star of David. In Israel, MDA was allowed to keep its traditional logo.
According to the report, ICRC officials will discuss the complaint at the body’s annual meeting in December.
A Foreign Ministry official told the paper that the initiative was being followed up though diplomatic channels.
“We will not allow anyone to remove MDA from the Red Cross,” the official said, dismissing the complaint as mere “threats and catchphrases.”
“Its a shame that officials choose not to address the issues in Syria, Libya or Yemen and instead choose to focus on Israel — a country that provides emergency and standard medical services to Jews, Muslims, Christians, Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
Dror Futter’s Post
Dror Futter
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/drorfutter_what-is-missing-from-the-international-committee-activity-7123084504407097344-KGAl?trk=public_profile_like_view
Corporate Lawyer Focusing on Venture Formation and Financing, Mergers and Acquisitions and Commercial and IP Agreements | External GC
1mo
International Committee of the Red Cross List of Accepted Logos
What is Missing from the International Committee of the Red Cross List of Accepted Logos?
1️⃣ Notice that the Star of David is not present<
2️⃣ For 10 points, which faith uses the diamond as its symbol [hint: rhymes with none]?
▶ Although the ICRC contends that the symbols are not religious, evidently that logic applies solely to the Magen David (the Star of David) but not to the Christian cross or the Muslim crescent. For almost the first 60 years of its existence, based on opposition from Muslim countries, Israel’s Magen David Adom (Israel’s Red Star of David ie. its Red Cross) was denied admission to the ICRC.
▶ Israel was finally admitted in 2006, under heavy pressure for the American Red Cross. However, to do so, it was forced to agree that the Star of David would not be recognized as an official ICRC symbol. Instead, the ICRC created the red crystal. Here are the “rules” of the red crystal:
🔹 Within its own national territory, a national society can use either of the recognized symbols alone, or incorporate any of these symbols or a combination of them into the Red Crystal.
🔹 For indicative use on foreign territory, a national society which does not use one of the recognized symbols as its emblem has to incorporate its unique symbol into the Red Crystal, based on the previously mentioned condition about communicating its unique symbol to the state parties of the Geneva Conventions.
🔹 For protective use, only the symbols recognized by the Geneva Conventions can be used. Specifically, those national societies which do not use one of the recognized symbols as their emblem have to use the Red Crystal without incorporation of any additional symbol.
➡ Wrap your head around this. The ICRC “allows” Israel to use the Star of David in Israel. If it wants to display its symbol outside Israel, it can only do so if it displays it inside the diamond. Finally, if it wants the protective benefits of displaying the symbol outside of Israel (such as in combat) it cannot display the Star of David within the crystal.
▶ The ICRC website states: “The emblems are not religious symbols. They serve humanity. They are symbols of protection and convey that help is at hand. They also signify hope, and must be respected.” I guess if you are Jewish, you are only entitled to protection and hope if you do not identify as Jewish.
▶We are conditioned to give respect to humanitarian organizations. Many do not realize that many of these global organizations are structurally anti-Jews and anti-Israel.
▶ In the weeks to come, the news is likely to be full of statements about the war in Gaza from “humanitarian organizations.” Without minimizing the tragedy of the loss of an innocent on either side of the border, when you read and evaluate statements by the ICRC and organizations like the UN, Amnesty International, UNRWA and others, keep in mind their long standing prejudices with respect to the parties in the region. Heck, the ICRC isn’t even hiding it.
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‘Abandoned Twice’: Daughter of Freed Hostage in Critical Condition Rips Apart Red Cross
“The Red Cross refused to bring her her medications.”
Posted by Mary Chastain Monday, 27November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/abandoned-twice-daughter-of-freed-hostage-in-critical-condition-rips-apart-red-cross/
Elma Avraham, 84, a freed Hamas hostage, remains in critical condition.
Elma Avraham, 84, a freed Hamas hostage, remains in critical condition.
Tali Amano, her daughter, ripped apart the Red Cross for not bringing her mom the medications she needed. From The Times of Israel:
This is just awful:
i24NEWS English-tweet-27November2023-Red Cross-mother was abandoned twice
‘My mother was on the brink of death when she came to us’
Tal Amano, daughter of Elma Avraham, 84-year-old freed from #Hamas says her mother was abandoned twice. First on #October7 and then by all the organizations whose responsibility it was to save her
i24NEWS English-tweet-27November2023-Red Cross-Mother was abandoned twice
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The Red Cross is violating its neutrality principle
Blocked from visiting hostages, the aid organization should give Hamas an ultimatum: Let us see them or we’ll leave Gaza
Shlomo Levin 14December2023, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-the-red-cross-must-visit-the-hostages/
The International Committee of the Red Cross recently had a highly visible role, transporting released hostages out of Gaza in vans displaying plastered with the Red Cross logo and flying their flags. But this has also renewed criticism of the organization, as in spite of their heavy presence in Gaza helping Palestinians this is the first time they’ve done anything for the hostages. Some Israelis have called the Red Cross nothing more than an Uber service. It moved the hostages once they were released, but its job should have been to care for them all along.
Is that fair? What are the Red Cross’s responsibilities, and what can we reasonably expect? To answer, we have to understand the special legal status of the Red Cross and the code of conduct by which it operates.
A key principle of humanitarian law is that medical personnel and equipment, even if belonging to an enemy or treating enemy soldiers, cannot be the target of military attacks. The reason is that medical personnel take no part in military operations and exclusively work to help the wounded. There is therefore no military benefit in attacking them. Doing so would be uselessly destructive and is therefore not allowed. The Red Cross emblem serves as a sign making known to all combatants that an individual, vehicle, or other piece of equipment is being used solely for medical purposes and thereby enjoys this immunity from attack.
But this alone does not explain the Red Cross’s role in facilitating the release of hostages. For example, even though Hamas allowed the Red Cross to transport the hostages from Gaza, there is no way it would have allowed IDF medical units displaying the Red Cross symbol (or in this case the Magen David Adom) to do the same.
Impartiality and Neutrality
This is because the International Committee of the Red Cross commits to also following two additional principles. These are impartiality and neutrality. The Red Cross defines impartiality as being guided solely by the needs of people who are suffering, prioritized by the urgency of the case, without discriminating due to nationality, race, religion, or other status. They define neutrality as not taking sides in hostilities or engaging in controversies of a political, racial, religious, or ideological nature. You can see this on their website here.
This principle of neutrality in particular requires explanation. A simple way to look at it is that the Red Cross readily admits that it as an organization, as well as its individual members, take political and ideological positions. The best example is their commitment to humanitarian law itself. The Red Cross states clearly that taking hostages is wrong, and that it condemns Hamas for doing it. The Red Cross does not require itself to be neutral or non-committal about that point.
What neutrality means is that even though they have a clear position about what humanitarian law is and that it must be followed, acting in their official capacity they vow not to take any actions to stop humanitarian abuses or other wrongdoing they encounter of any sort. So in return for access to visit hostages, they pledge not to help them escape, not to reveal to the outside world where they are being held, and so forth. They even commit not to cooperate with any future war crimes investigations or the International Criminal Court. An Israeli medical unit, even though it is also legally shielded from attack and bears the proper logo, would never agree to that (and there is zero chance they would be believed even if they said they would).
The Red Cross believes that neutrality and impartiality taken together mean there should be no grounds for any party to a conflict to deny it access to anything. Since even if a group is committing the most heinous war crimes, such as holding civilian hostages and deliberately targeting civilians, the Red Cross while acting in its territory under its protection will take no actions to hinder those violations now or in the future, there is no valid reason to keep them out.
The Hostages
So why hasn’t the Red Cross visited the hostages? They’ve reassured Israel they want to and are trying. But they don’t know where the hostages are, and even if they did know the Red Cross cannot just barge in. They depend on Hamas to allow them access, and so far Hamas hasn’t obliged.
Now of course it’s true that they cannot visit the hostages without Hamas’s permission. The question becomes what their response should be as Hamas continues to refuse.
In the beginning, the Red Cross could have argued that the logistics of visiting the hostages are difficult and it takes time for them to reassure Hamas of their neutrality and work out a system for visiting without giving away information to Israeli intelligence. But by now it’s clear Hamas is just saying no.
This is in effect causing the Red Cross to violate its principle of impartiality. Surely the hostages are in grave need of medical and psychological assistance. But the Red Cross is discriminating against them. It’s helping only Palestinians in Gaza who need assistance, while it ignores Israelis (and other foreigners) being held in that same place.
I’m sure the Red Cross will argue that it’s vital that it remain in Gaza because of the immense need for medical services that it is helping to fulfill. But by doing so it is compromising its principles. The Red Cross could tell Hamas that either they allow it to treat everyone in order of need without regard to nationality, hostages included, or that it will pack its bags and leave. While various Israeli political leaders, joined recently by the US Secretary of State, have urged the Red Cross to continue pushing Hamas to grant access, it’s unclear to what extent they’ve demanded the Red Cross take such a stand.
It should be noted that Israel also has additional, unrelated complaints that the Red Cross has violated its commitment to impartiality and neutrality in other ways. But this demand that the Red Cross visit the hostages, reassure families about their condition, and provide them urgent medical attention, Israel can make clearly, unequivocally, and based on the Red Cross’s own guiding principles. If the Red Cross meekly accepts Hamas’s refusal and just goes on treating Palestinians without visiting the hostages, it should lose its lofty humanitarian status. Israel can also deny Red Cross workers some of their privileges of coming and going through Israeli territory, and internationally it should forfeit some funding as well.
About the Author
Shlomo Levin received Rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and Yeshivat Hamivtar, and an M.A. in International Law and Human RIghts from the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. He is the author of the Human Rights Haggadah, which highlights human rights issues in the Passover story with Jewish and secular sources along and questions for discussion. Learn more at www.hrhaggadah.com.
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ICRC appoint Palestinian activist next Director General
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-22December2023-ICRC appoint Palestinian activist next Director General
They’re just trolling us now!
Because @ICRC has not shown enough hostility towards Israel and outright indifference to Jewish lives, they are now set to appoint Palestinian activist and former head of @UNRWA, Pierre Krahenbuhl, as their next Director General.
Neutrality, hey?
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-22December2023-ICRC appoint Palestinian activist next Director General
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I Assure You The Red Cross Is Working As Hard As It Can To Facilitate Terrorism
by Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president, International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.preoccupiedterritory.com/i-assure-you-the-red-cross-is-working-as-hard-as-it-can-to-facilitate-terrorism/
Mirjana Spoljaric Egger
Geneva, January 25 – Since its founding in 1863, this organization has led the world in first aid and disaster response, and continues to do so even in the most dangerous locations worldwide. This mission includes the Gaza Strip, where the ICRC has responded to the most recent outbreak of violence by making every imaginable effort not to get in the way of Hamas’s operations, even going as far as to refrain from criticizing Hamas.
Unfair accusations have stemmed from the Red Cross’s handling of Israelis held hostage in Gaza: that we have neglected to insist on visiting them; that we have cooperated with a terrorist organization; that when some hostages were freed, we served as little more than couriers. Those charges are profoundly insulting to anyone who knows what our organization does, the values it upholds, and how it operates.
To begin with, open criticism of Hamas in a Hamas-controlled area would put our personnel at risk and threaten the crucial functions that the Red Cross plays in Gaza. Without a robust ICRC presence, Hamas might be forced to provide health care for Gaza residents, and that would hamper the group’s ability to, and resources toward, killing and torturing Israelis. Imagine how annoyed that would make Hamas! We cannot take that risk.
Thus our refusal to convey medications to hostages in need of it is understandable in context. The same for our silence on the question of hostages being raped or otherwise mistreated. We simply have to take Hamas at their word, since they are known for strict adherence to the truth in medical matters, such as the bombing of the Al-Ahli Hospital and the total absence of Hamas military infrastructure in or under health care facilities.
Also the death toll and classification of every single casualty as a noncombatant, which we all know to be unimpeachable and completely in line with every other urban combat situation in military history. The missiles into Israel are launching themselves!
Israeli sources enjoy no such credibility, as they contradict what everyone knows without checking. This is common knowledge. I cannot believe it requires explaining. It is precisely the attitude we were trying to get across when we told the family of an Israeli held hostage in Gaza, “Don’t you feel sympathy for the Palestinians?” Because that it hat one says to a suffering, grieving, terrified person.
If they’re Jewish.
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South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN) for the Gaza War
International Criminal Court trying October 7th 2023 Israeli Rape Victims
South Africa has one of the highest murder and gender based violence rates in the world
StopAntisemitism-tweet-12January2024-South Africa the highest murder rates takes Israel to the ICC for Gaza War
South Africa has one of the highest murder and gender based violence rates in the world.
So what is the country’s leadership focusing on?
Taking Israel to court for defending itself against maniacal Hamas terrorists determined to wipe out 7 million Jews.
🤯.
StopAntisemitism-tweet-12January2024-South Africa the highest murder rates takes Israel to the ICC for Gaza War
ICJ and Hamas-Israel Hayom-Caricature-28January2024
South Africa Lawfare against Israel
UK Lawyers For Israel-tweet-11January2024-South Africa Lawfare against Israel
Natasha Hausdorff, @UKLFI CT Legal Director, discusses the case brought by South Africa against Israel alleging genocide @CIJ_ICJ and the risk that it will further undermine respect for international law @i24NEWS_EN:
UK Lawyers For Israel-tweet-11January2024-South Africa Lawfare against Israel
Natasha Hausdorff talks to I24’s Laura Cellier about the ICJ
Masterful display of international law
Eylon Levy-tweet-12January2024-Israel’s superstar legal team
Not all heroes wear capes, but many of them wear gowns.
Our superstar legal team rebutting South Africa’s absurd blood libel at the ICJ, headed by the expert who literally wrote the textbook on international law.
Eylon Levy-tweet-12January2024-Israel’s superstar legal team
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-13January2024-Prof. Malcolm Shaw international law South Africa case at ICJ
In case you missed, here is the full video of Prof. Malcolm Shaw’s masterful display in international law and meticulous take-down of #SouthAfrica’s case at #ICJ, during his submission on behalf of #Israel.
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-13January2024-Prof Malcolm Shaw international law South Africa case at ICJ
Prof. Malcolm Shaw’s masterful display in international law and meticulous take-down of South Africa’s case at International Court of Justice
Israel-tweet-12January2024-Dr. Tal Becker legal case at ICJ
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝟑𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭.
Today Dr. Tal Becker and Israel’s legal team presented its case to the @CIJ_ICJ.
With them stood the souls of the more than 1,000 Israelis who were murdered by Hamas on October 7th and are unable to testify.
Watch Dr. Becker’s opening remarks:
Israel-tweet-12January2024-Dr Tal Becker legal case at ICJ
SA-Israel ICJ case | Tal Becker: Legal advisor to Israel’s department of foreign affairs
SA/Israel case at the ICJ: Dr. Galit Raguan, Israeli Ministry of Justice on SABCNews
Posted 15January2024 AIJAC:
South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN) for the Gaza War
Dr. Galit Raguan, Israeli Ministry of Justice
The ICJ called for the release of Israeli hostages
John Aziz-tweet-26January-2024-The ICJ called for the release of Israeli hostages
Big takeaway:
The ICJ called for the release of Israeli hostages, and declined to order an immediate ceasefire.
They also called for Israel to do measures such as “preventing the commission of genocide” which Israel ALREADY ACCEPTS & which the Israeli judge voted for
Israel War Room-tweet-26January-2024-ICj does not accept South Africa’s demand
⚡️The court in The Hague does not accept South Africa’s demand to stop the war in Gaza.
John Aziz-tweet-26January2024-The ICJ called for the release of Israeli hostages
StandWithUs Supporting Israel
StandWithUs Rejects ICJ Ruling & Language, but Agrees with Court’s Decision Demanding Hostages be Released and Not Calling for a Ceasefire
(Los Angeles, January 26, 2024) https://www.standwithus.com/post/standwithus-expresses-disappointment-over-icj-ruling-but-agrees-with-court-s-decision-demanding-host
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has rejected a demand by the South African government to order a “ceasefire” that would allow Hamas to remain in power in Gaza, continue to oppress its own people, and rearm for the next massacre of Israeli civilians. However, StandWithUs is appaulled by the ICJ’s decision to accept other parts of this slanderous case, which uses the Genocide Convention to defame Israel and undermine its right to defend itself against genocidal terrorism. Read the entire press release HERE.
In its ruling, the ICJ calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the remaining 136 hostages held by Hamas since October 7. We take note that Hamas said they would abide by the court’s ruling, and as such Hamas must release the hostages immediately.
Of note, the ICJ did not rule on South Africa’s main and unsubstantiated contention that Israel is committing a “genocide” in ongoing war started by Hamas on October 7th. A decision on this matter is not expected until years from now, if at all.
We take further note that the majority opinion of the court relies exclusively on statements made by UN officials, including leaders of UNWRA, about the situation in Gaza. The anti-Israel bias of these officials and the UN system has long been known and proven.
South Africa’s decision to bring Israel before the ICJ was politically motivated and lacked legal merits. The South African government has allied itself with the genocidal Hamas terrorists responsible for the October 7th massacre. The Jerusalem Post revealed, a “network of several South African organizations and straw man companies deeply involved with funding Hamas activities through the Al-Quds Foundation, an international group sanctioned by the US and outlawed by Israel, using accounts registered in major local South African banks: Standard Bank, Nedbank, and Absa.” Furthermore, after the October 7th atrocities, a senior level delegation of Hamas officials visited South Africa for a global “solidarity” gathering held from December 3-5, 2023.
The evidence South Africa presented to the court was decontextualized and often deeply misleading. Their case relied heavily upon inflammatory and out of context statements, demonstrably false claims, and gross misrepresentations of Israel’s actions. Israel is acting in accordance with international law as it is waging a war of self-defense against Hamas, an antisemitic terror group with explicitly genocidal aims.
Hamas started this war when it invaded southern Israel on October 7th, 2023. Their death squads attacked 22 Israeli towns and villages, murdered 1,200 Israelis and other nationals, committed mass rape against scores of Israeli women, burned entire families alive in their own homes, paraded the naked bodies of women in the streets of Gaza, and kidnapped over 250 people, including children, women, and the elderly, most of whom are still being held hostage in Gaza. Their leaders have promised to repeat these atrocities again and again until Israel is destroyed.
StandWithUs calls on the international community to stop demonizing Israel in forums like the ICJ. For the sake of Israelis, Palestinians, and humanity, the world must unite around pressuring Hamas to release the hostages, surrender, and bring this war to an end.
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, nonprofit and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs throughout the U.S., in Israel, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Brazil and the Netherlands.
For the last eleven years, SWU has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator and Guidestar, two charity watchdog groups that assess hundreds of thousands of charities in the United States.
www.standwithus.com and www.facebook.com/standwithus and www.twitter.com/standwithus and www.instagram.com/standwithus.com
High Noon at the Hague: South Africa vs Israel
The ICJ ruling is unsatisfactory for at least six reasons
Raymond Wacks
29January2024 https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/hypocrisy-at-the-hague-south-africa-vs-israel-marsmmnm
The world has watched the apocalyptic scenes of medieval privation and devastation in Gaza with horror. The scale of death and injury is a damning indictment of the callous indifference and cruelty of the jihadists whose well-heeled leaders are safely ensconced in five-star hotels or luxuriating in lavish spas. Provoking Israel by their despicable depravity of 7 October — murder, rape, torture, abduction, arson, and pillaging — the butchers have reaped a whirlwind whose calamitous consequences will endure for decades.
Gazans obviously deserve better, and it is incomprehensible that their voices have not been raised against the terrorists for triggering their disastrous predicament. Exhorting them to surrender and release the surviving hostages would bring an end to their torment.
Amid this seemingly intractable chaos, it fell to South Africa to assume the role of conscientious accuser. Although its application to the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention failed to secure a ceasefire as a ‘provisional measure of protection’, the court ordered Israel to observe with several requirements to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, including the killing of Palestinians, causing serious bodily or mental harm to civilians, and ending the imposition of measures intended to prevent births. Israel is also to directed to take immediate steps to permit the provision of humanitarian assistance to residents in Gaza.
It is important to note that the decision is both interim and unenforceable by the court. And while it explicitly avoids deciding on the merits, the judgment does constitute an uncomfortable rebuke to Israel in respect of its military execution of self-defence.
The decision is, I believe, unsatisfactory in a number of respects.
First, the Court passes lightly over Israel’s defence. It is extraordinary that the judges fail to acknowledge the critical fact that Israel is fighting an enemy that is demonstrably committed to the Jewish state’s annihilation. The 2017 revised Hamas Charter is explicit in its ambition to continue its resistance until Israel is obliterated: “Palestine symbolizes the resistance that shall continue until liberation is accomplished, until the return is fulfilled and until a fully sovereign state is established with Jerusalem as its capital…[Palestine] was seized by a racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project…” A pronouncement that requires little clarification.
Second, it surprisingly overlooks the terrible reality that Israel’s cold-blooded foe hides its fighters, weapons, and hostages in a subterranean city, and operates amongst civilians in schools, mosques, and hospitals. It also continues to fire rockets into Israel.
Third, the court uncritically concurs with the applicants’ assertion that various bellicose statements, uttered in the aftermath of the gruesome 7 October attacks, demonstrate the requisite intention by Israel to commit genocide.’ A moment’s thought would explain why, following the barbaric, sadistic onslaught, which left at least 1,200 dead, many wounded, and some 250 taken hostage, certain Israeli political and military leaders rashly unleashed clamorous calls to arms, promising vengeance and retaliation for the unspeakable suffering that befell so many innocent citizens and foreign visitors. To treat such injudicious remarks—made in the heat of a national tragedy—as evidence of a state’s intention to commit genocide is both disingenuous and highly tendentious, especially as they included comments made by individuals with no direct role in Israel’s military decision-making.
Fourth, the court ought to have considered whether the Genocide Convention is, in fact, the appropriate legal basis for the litigation. As the ad hoc Israeli judge, Aharon Barak points out in his dissenting judgment, the framework of international humanitarian law affords a more congenial authority under which the application should have been mounted. It provides that harm to innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure should not be excessive as compared with the anticipated military advantage. The loss of innocent lives is not unlawful providing it complies with the rules and principles of this law.
Fifth, the court abjures finding of facts, yet it unhesitatingly cites a plethora of evidence from various agencies of the United Nations whose neutrality is, at the very least, questionable. They include the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UN Human Rights Council, and the Commissioner-General of (the recently discredited) UNRWA.
Sixth, the judges fail to enquire whether South Africa’s application might be tainted by its cordiality towards Hamas. The country, it seems, wishes to be seen as the conscience of the world. To this end, it predictably invokes the memory of Nelson Mandela to shore up its crumbling legitimacy. One might have thought that the moral standing of the ANC government, mortally wounded by years of corruption and broken promises, had reached rock bottom. Yet its shameless embrace of the Hamas murderers and rapists condemns it to infamy from which it may never recover. A mere ten days after 7 October, South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, held a telephone call with the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, to express the country’s ‘solidarity and support’ for the Palestinian people. This was followed in January by a delegation of three Hamas officials to Pretoria.
Is it unreasonable to detect a thinly disguised strain of antisemitism in this opportunistic campaign? While strongly castigating Israel, the social justice warriors of Pretoria barely mention the malevolence of Hamas and other Iranian proxies. Could it be that in this conflict Jewish lives are regarded as somehow less worthy? Or is it simply that the ANC’s yearning to burnish its radical pro-Palestinian (and even pro-Iranian) credentials, blinds it to the suffering of the victims of these crimes—particularly as it faces a general election this year?
Among the ironies at play in this sorry charade is the fact that many South African Jews were in the vanguard of the struggle against the grotesque injustice of apartheid. They were tortured, imprisoned, and vilified by the apartheid state. In his memoir, Mandela reflects:
I have found [South African] Jews to be more broad-minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice.
He might have added that several had relatives who were victims of a real genocide at the hands of the Nazis.
Unlike most of his successors, Mandela was, in many ways, a paragon of humility and modesty. I was fortunate enough to spend an hour with the great man soon after his release from almost three decades of incarceration. These virtues were palpable; the nearly total absence of ego and bitterness was genuinely unsettling. This, unhappily, is a far cry from the tone of pious hubris of the South African submission to the ICJ, quick to assign all blame to Israel for defending itself against the sadistic barbarity of terrorists (exultantly recorded and celebrated by them). South Africa’s application—and the court’s judgment—is silent on the scourge of antisemitism and the existential threats to Israel from its neighbours since its very establishment in 1948.
The sad state of South Africa must, in large part, be attributable to the governance of the ANC. The level of violence (27,000 deaths in a single year), corruption, unemployment, poverty, and falling life expectancy, speak for themselves. Solemn undertakings to provide basic utilities—water, electricity, housing—have not been met. None of this is easy to achieve, but ought not the focus of the administration be directed toward improving the plight of its people rather than posturing on the world stage and cosying up to authoritarian regimes and terrorists?
In fairness, I do wonder whether my revulsion at South Africa’s allegation of Israeli genocide is principally based on the fact that it has been brought by a country whose motives seem, at best, impure. Is it the moral turpitude of the ANC that troubles me so deeply? Suppose that, say, Sweden, Switzerland, or Spain had launched the application. Would that diminish my indignation? It would not, of course, alter the spurious nature of the case—the notion that Israel is engaged in genocide is both odious and absurd—but it might conceivably subdue my irritation.
Sadly, the leaders of post-apartheid South Africa have failed to follow the laudable example of its first President. That they have the audacity to side with savagery, renders it morally unfit to stand before the World Court—and the world— to denounce a country engaged in defending itself against an abhorrent, inhuman adversary.
Raymond Wacks, Emeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory, is the author of 16 books, and editor of ten. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. His books include Personal Information: Privacy and the Law; Privacy and Media Freedom; Privacy: A Very Short Introduction; Law: A Very Short Introduction; and Justice: A Beginner’s Guide. Among his most recent publications are Protecting Personal Information: The Right to Privacy Reconsidered, COVID-19 and Public Policy in the Digital Age, and National Security in the New World Order: Government and the Technology of Information (with Andrea Monti). The sixth edition of his Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory appeared in 2021, as did The Rule of Law Under Fire? His latest book, Animal Lives Matter: The Continuing Quest for Justice, is to be published next month.
Israel can limit the ICJ’s damage
Israel must immediately end its acceptance of the ICJ’s jurisdiction with respect to the Genocide Convention. Even a slight change in the composition of the Court or the geopolitical climate would bring a disastrous result – and hostile states like South Africa can roll the dice as many times as they want, with no consequence if they lose and a huge payoff if they win.
By Prof. Eugene Kontorovich
Published on 28January2024 10:19 – Last modified: 28January2024 19:52 https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/israel-can-place-limits-on-the-damage-the-icj-can-inflict/
Israelis on Friday displayed what is called Jewish joy – they celebrated that the pogromniks only broke the windows, but did not kill anyone. The good news was the International Court of Justice did not effectively order us to wait to be tortured and murdered, by demanding a halt to the Gaza War. That is certainly good – but only in the twisted world where the ICJ is putting Israel, not Hamas, on trial for the absolutely absurd charge of genocide.
Otherwise, the decision was horrible. The Court accepted South Africa’s argument that it has jurisdiction and that Israel could possibly be proven to be committing genocide. The case is not over and will go on for years. In the meantime, the Court has made clear that it considers itself to have authority to review and superintend every aspect of Israel’s war for survival – and demands monthly reports. No other country receives such treatment, and it is designed to make the military constantly look over its shoulders.
The ICJ is not an independent body – it is an organ of the United Nations. They serve a renewable nine-year term, further undermining their independence. Its judges are elected by the General Assembly and Security Council, and their positions largely track the foreign policy of their home countries. Thus while we might get lucky sometimes, over the long run, the policy of the Court will reflect the policy of the United Nations.
The General Assembly’s obsessive condemnation of the Jewish State is well known – Israel would never agree to have its fate determined by them. But agreeing to the jurisdiction of the Court indirectly does the same thing. In Israel it is thought unacceptable to have judges appointed by democratically elected politicians decide the meaning of ordinary laws. Yet we have agreed to have judges elected by dictatorial regimes decide the basic question of whether we can exist – whether we can defend ourselves.
It does not have to be this way: the ICJ does not automatically have jurisdiction over countries – they must specifically agree, typically by agreeing that The Hague can decide a specific dispute or questions under a specific treaty. In this case, Israel signed the Genocide Convention, which provides that “disputes between the …parties” about the treaty can be decided by the ICJ. But that does not mean cases like this, where a totally unrelated State has brought a purely political complaint in a matter it has no relation to. The Court should not have accepted jurisdiction, and by doing so it effectively claimed for itself power to supervise the conduct of wars around the world, so long as some country claims genocide is involved.
Israel did not have to agree to the ICJ jurisdiction to be a member of the Genocide Convention, and in retrospect, doing so was a major mistake. Countries are allowed to opt out of ICJ jurisdiction in various treaties, and very commonly do so. Indeed, sixteen countries have opted out of the Genocide Convention minus the ICJ jurisdiction – including the world’s largest democracies, the United States and India. Even the world’s biggest superpowers did not trust the ICJ to hear cases involving the use of force in an apolitical way.
The United States also did not agree to the provision of the Genocide Convention that deals with speech, knowing the Court can twist legitimate speech into supposed “incitement.” Indeed, those who think the statements of some MKs are what got Israel into trouble should consider the comments of President Obama, who spoke of “eradicating a cancer” in the campaign against ISIS, or Biden, who once said, “We should never take anything off the table when we are in war.”
But Israel did not opt out, leaving itself exposed. The Genocide Convention was a response to the Holocaust, and it seemed appropriate that the Jewish State would be fully on board. Also, Israeli officials did not expect such a gross abuse of the Court’s authority. But they should have. And the Genocide Convention which Israel so respected was turned into a farce, a platform to accuse the Jews of genocide even as they defend themselves from a systematic attempt to wipe them out.
The hearings in The Hague were a judicial Oct. 7th – a completely unjustified surprise attack that shows us we must fundamentally rethink our defensive posture. In this case, the extraordinary work of the State’s lawyers, and good fortune, prevented disaster.
But we must see that mere sentimentalism, or some lingering faith in international institutions, cannot leave us open to such attacks again. Even a slight change in the composition of the Court or the geopolitical climate would bring a disastrous result – and hostile states like South Africa can roll the dice as many times as they want, with no consequence if they lose and a huge payoff if they win.
Thus Israel must immediately end its acceptance of the ICJ’s jurisdiction concerning the Genocide Convention. This will not end the current proceedings, but it will prevent further such attempts in this or other conflicts. Moreover, Israel must review all of its treaties for provisions granting ICJ jurisdiction and opt out of those. The US did just that when Iran used a long-forgotten treaty to bring America to The Hague a few years ago.
Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein of South Africa-Put the UN on trial, not Israel at ICJ
Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein-tweet-11January2024-Put the UN on trial, not Israel at ICJ
The UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) is illegitimate, and lacks the moral authority to adjudicate Israel’s just war of self-defense.
Allegations of genocide against Israel are bizarre and without foundation in fact or law, and the ICJ proceedings are a dangerous farce. The UN General Assembly, who appoints ICJ judges, is dominated by dictatorships and riddled with antisemitism. Therefore by definition, those judges lack the moral authority to stand in judgment over any democracy, especially Israel.
The UN and its institutions have increasingly been hijacked by undemocratic societies to advance objectives that threaten freedom, peace, and prosperity in the world. The majority of countries making up the General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council (HRC) are repressive, authoritarian regimes.
Consider that of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly only 84 are ranked as free societies, according to Freedom House. Or that of the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council (whose very reason for existence is to protect and uphold human rights) only 13 can be defined as fully economically and politically free, according to the Social Research Foundation Global Freedom Scores.
That makes the ICJ case against Israel a theater of the absurd – where a majority of non-free societies are weaponsing a UN platform to undermine the self-defense rights of a liberal democracy. Allow that precedent to continue and the outlook for freedom in the world is dire.
Among the ICJ judges hearing this case, one is from serial human rights abuser, China, and another is from Lebanon, where Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy and combatant in the current war on Israel, is a key member of the government.
The UN’s anti-Israel bias and obsession with the world’s only Jewish state, and the only free democracy in the Middle East, is clear. At the General Assembly, each year there are more condemnations of Israel than the rest of the world combined. The HRC has adopted 103 resolutions condemning Israel, and zero for countries guilty of real human rights violations such as China, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
The ICJ case is nevertheless an opportunity for free countries to reassess their relationship with the UN. For constitutional democracies to continue to submit themselves to the judgment of UN institutions is ludicrous. No UN body should exercise authority over Israel or any free society’s sovereignty, and certainly not over national security decisions such as how to conduct an existential war of self-defense.
The time has come to build a new global alliance of free societies with shared values and a sincere commitment to human rights.
View the full video ➡️ https://youtube.com/watch?v=UbWeJrpuxGA
#PutTheUNOnTrial
#ICJ #israel #SouthAfrica #un #InternationalCourtofJustice #international_justice_Court
Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein-tweet-11January2024-Put the UN on trial, not Israel at ICJ
Chief Rabbi: Put the UN on trial, not Israel at ICJ
BREAKING: Israel on Trial in the Kangaroo Courtroom of the ICJ | The Caroline Glick Show
Posted 14January2024 JNS TV:
Caroline Glick speaks with Professor of Law (Bar Ilan University, San Diego School of Law) Avi Bell on the inner workings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and what the accusation of genocide from South Africa is really about.
Judgement below
13January2024 https://thinkforyourselfpublishing.com/judgement-below/
This morning, I had an amazing thought pop into my head, during hitbodedut.
It was this:
JUDGEMENT BELOW.
(Can you tell where this is going already?)
====
The Midrash in Devarim Rabbah 5:4 says this
This is a very well-known teaching in Breslov circles, as it’s part of the explanation for why we do hitbodedut every single day (try to….) in order to ‘catch’ what we might be thinking, saying or doing that isn’t what it should be.
When a person ‘judges themselves below’, then there is no ‘judgement above’.
And then, all the spiritual harsh decrees are ripped up.
====
Unless you live in a cave, you are probably aware that the misnamed International Court of Justice is currently ‘judging’ the State of Israel for war crimes in Gaza.
This is ‘judgement below’ – mamash.
We all know, the puppets here are working with the puppets there to give the nations of the world an excuse to gang up on Israel and ‘invade’, whenever this pre-planned exercise in hypocrisy actually ends.
(My guess is: in super-quick time.)
====
It’s already totally ridiculous that this ‘came to trial’ so quickly – what a joke!
Anyone who has ever had a court case understands that even the most simple ‘infraction’ takes many weeks, months, and even years before it comes to court.
But here, literally in 10 seconds, Puppet 1 here sent Puppet 2 out for the ‘show trial’ and it’s foregone conclusion.
(Whisper it: a two state solution, ‘imposed’ by the nation of the world….)
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In the meantime…..All the nations of the world have now officially ‘ganged up’ on Israel.
And spiritually, this is also fantastic news.
Why?
This comes from something that Rav Yaakov Moshe Salmanovitch had to say eight years ago, at the height of the first wave of terrible persecution of Rav Berland.
Snippet:
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Yet again, we see the parallel between what the (misnamed) ‘justice system’ in the State did to the Rav over the last 12+ years…. and what is now happening to Israel, internationally.
But pay attention to this bit:
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B’kitzur – the nations of the world have just managed to blast all the ‘spiritual dinim’ stacked up against Israel into outer space.
Let them chase, with all their puppet-show planned show trial.
Where it really counts, now THERE IS NO JUDGEMENT ABOVE.
Which means things are about to get really interesting.
In a good way, for the Jewish people who are doing their best to hold on to Hashem, to at least try to follow His Torah – and to stick close to the real Tzaddikim.
Hold on to your hats.
====
REMINDER:
You can help to write the Rav’s Sefer Torah for the soldiers in the following ways:
20,000 nis – donates a whole section of parchment (including the actual writing), and gets your names transcribed as donors.
5,000 nis – donates a page (parchment and writing).
OR, donate whatever amount you can afford.
In all cases, just go to THIS link, and make it clear in the comments that the donation is for the Rav’s Sefer Torah.
YOU CAN ALSO MAKE A ‘STAGED’ DONATION OVER A FEW MONTHS, IF YOU WANT TO BUY A PAGE ETC, BUT CAN’T AFFORD TO DO IT IN ONE SHOT.
Once again, click:
HERE
And may all the decrees be sweetened very, very fast.
TOP
MUST READ! THE DIABOLICAL BLINKEN PLAN EXPOSED!
Mark R. Levin-tweet-18November-2023-the-diabolical-blinken-plan-exposed
MUST READ! THE DIABOLICAL BLINKEN PLAN EXPOSED!
It is crystal clear now that Blinken is exploiting the war against Israel to destroy the existing state of Israel by using pressure, threats, blackmail, leaks, the media, diplomatic backstabbing, the Arab states, the EU, and the UN. Read the Blinken memo I have included in this post. Here’s a pull paragraph:
“…. As I said in private and in public, we believe Palestinian people’s voices and aspirations must be at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza. We believe in Palestinian-led governance of Gaza, with Gaza unified with the West Bank. Gaza’s reconstruction must be supported with a sustained mechanism. We also underscored America’s firm opposition to actions that would undermine efforts to build lasting peace and security. No forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians from Gaza – not now, not after the fighting stops. No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza. No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks, and no tolerating the use of the West Bank to carry out such attacks. No more violence from extremist settlers in the West Bank. These steps are not ends in themselves. They must lead to Israelis and Palestinians living side.”
https://pdf.ac/2hDL9F
This also explains the current pressure campaign by leftists in Israel to try and topple the Netanyahu led conservative government and replace it with radical leftwing parties that will deliver Israel to the effective control of United States State Department where Blinken, a mere appointed U.S. cabinet secretary in our government, will determine Israel’s fate. And with the Blinken plan, Israel will not survive, certainly not for long. This has been the plan since Obama was president, when Blinken was deputy secretary of state. John McCain was 100% right when he went to the Senate floor to excoriate Blinken and he refused to vote for his confirmation as deputy secretary of state. Check this out:
https://c-span.org/video/?323344-6/senator-john-mccain-tony-blinken-nomination
Blinken, the Biden whisperer, is behind pouring $100 billion into the rearming of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Youtes. Blinken set the Middle East on fire immediately upon taking office at the State Department nearly 3-years ago, lifting or refusing to enforce virtually every sanction on Iran. Blinken destroyed the popular uprising in Iran, where the Iranians sought to remove their murderous regime, by backing the Iranian regime over its people. Blinken chose Robert Malley, a Marxist supporter of Iran, as the U.S. envoy to Iran to negotiate another nuclear deal. Malley installed a high-level Iranian spy ring in DC and undermined our nation (and Israel) at every turn. Check this out:
https://tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-spy-ring-robert-malley-lee-smith
The Obama-Biden-Blinken “Realignment” is now underway, and the consequences are dire and grave for Israel and the United States, indeed for the entire Middle East and the world. It is a hideous and diabolical plan, being instituted right now without any transparency, involvement of Congress, or the American people. It is the brainchild of a small cabal of rogue, radical leftwing foreign policy arsonists who could easily trigger WWIII.
https://tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/realignment-iran-biden-obama-michael-doran-tony-badran
The question is, how long will this go on before Blinken is stopped? Where are the House Republican committee chairmen? Where are the Senate Republicans? Where are conservative think-tanks? Where are the conservative media? I understand that the Democrat Party media and the Democrat Party are worse than useless. In fact, they are colluders and propagandists for this, from Thomas Friedman at the New York Times to Jamie Raskin in the House. But if there is not an organized pushback immediately, a relentless and public demand for accountability and transparency, and the targeting of Blinken for impeachment (successful or not), evil to prevail. Never forget all the disasters the Biden whisperer has unleashed in a mere 3-years running American foreign policy, and the death, inhumanity, and impoverishment he has imposed on one region and society after another.
Mark R. Levin-tweet-18November-2023-the-diabolical-blinken-plan-exposed
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Leftist Propaganda vs Reality
Jewish Voice for Peace has a Twitter account managed by the Hamas
Caroline Glick-tweet-13May2023-Quite a discovery.
“Jewish” Voice for Peace has a Twitter account managed by the Hamas aligned leader of the BDS movement in the US.
Caroline Glick-tweet-13May2023-Quite a discovery
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Queers for Palestine v Palestine for Queers
Paddy Manning-tweet-13October2023-Queers for Palestine v Palestine for Queers
Wishful Thinking/Propaganda
Queers for Palestine
This is like Chickens being “Chickens for KFC !”
This is like Chickens being like “Chickens for KFC !”
vs. Reality
Palestine’s Official message to-Queers for Palestine
Gay Palestinian living under asylum in Israel murdered, beheaded in Hebron
Suspect uploaded footage of murder to social media; unclear how the victim ended up in the West Bank, with some claiming he was kidnapped
By Jack Mukand 6October2022 https://www.timesofisrael.com/gay-palestinian-living-under-asylum-in-israel-murdered-beheaded-in-hebron/
Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh (Social media)
A gay Palestinian man living under asylum in Israel was murdered and beheaded Wednesday in the West Bank city of Hebron. The unnamed suspect, who was arrested by Palestinian Authority police near the scene of the crime soon after committing it, recorded the act in a video that he uploaded to social media before his capture.
The victim was 25-year-old Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, who according to reports on Ynet and Channel 12 had been living in Israel for the past two years as an asylum-seeker after authorities acknowledged his life would be in danger if he returned to Palestinian territory.
It was not immediately clear how or why the young man ended up in Hebron. Friends of Abu Murkhiyeh in Israel believe he was kidnapped to the West Bank before his murder, though it was not clear that they had evidence of this.
Rita Petrenko, founder of Al-Bayt Al-Mukhtalif, a non-profit organization for the empowerment of the Arab LGBT community, said that she had helped to arrange for Abu Murkhiyeh’s asylum papers in preparation for his eventual resettlement in Canada and that he’d actively participated in LGBT discussion groups. Describing the young man as “hard-working and intelligent,” Petrenko regretted that he had not been transferred to safety in Canada before his life was brutally taken from him.
Israeli sources, the PA police and the Abu Murkhiyeh family have all been unable to clarify if the victim and his killer had any prior relationship. No motive has yet been disclosed as a result of the Palestinian Authority police’s investigation, but the suspect is currently being interrogated.
A spokesman for the PA police, Lu’ay Arziqat, described the beheading as a “new kind of crime in Palestine” and urged people to refrain from circulating the morbid video.
The circumstances surrounding the crime remain unclear while the Palestinian police in Hebron carry out a full investigation.
A view of the West Bank city of Hebron. (photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90)
In an interview with Palestinian radio station Karama, an older member of the victim’s family, also named Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, asserted that the young man was residing in his father’s native Jordan but often visited Hebron to work and to spend time with family in the city.
That account contradicted multiple Israeli sources, and was possibly indicative of relatives’ reluctance to acknowledge his reported life in Israel.
Petrenko said that to the best of her knowledge, Abu Murkhiyeh had not returned to the West Bank since his asylum, out of fear for what his estranged family and residents of his native village might do to him. She added that his stay at various LGBT shelters in Israel is a documented fact. He had not informed any friends of an intention to enter the West Bank.
Palestinians have expressed revulsion at the exceptionally violent nature of the crime, even as Abu Murkhiyeh’s sexual identity and Israeli residency have been kept under wraps in Palestinian reports. The presenter on the Karama radio station distilled the common outrage when saying the beheading “crossed every single red line in our society, whether in terms of morals, customs, or basic humanity.”
The filming of such brutality for distribution on social media has had a particularly shocking effect. Speaking for police, Arziqat said the recording and upload of the video represented “the most dangerous” aspect of a crime he characterized as the most terrible one he’s ever dealt with.
About 90 Palestinians who identify as members of the LGBT community currently live as asylum-seekers in Israel. They suffered discrimination, and, in extreme cases, violence in their communities before fleeing. Until this past July, the law allowed them to reside in Israel but not to work.
Petrenko said that since the law changed, Abu Murkhiyeh had been searching diligently for a stable, legal job, but only managed to find low-paying, under-the-table gigs at restaurants in Tel Aviv’s Sarona neighborhood, one of the city’s upscale culinary hubs.
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Palestine’s Official message to-Queers for Palestine
Visegrád 24-tweet-28October2023-
A Palestinian scholar from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem sends a message to the “Queers for Palestine-crowd” in the West:
“The people of Palestine will not allow a single homosexual in our land,” such perversion brings the wrath of Allah”
Visegrád 24-tweet-28October2023-message to-Queers for Palestine-crowd
Gay Conservative-tweet-24October2023-This is how Palestinians respond to those “Queers for Palestine” (sorry to be so graphic)
Gay Conservative-tweet-24October2023-This is how Palestinians respond to those “Queers for Palestine”
(sorry to be so graphic)
Palestinians respond to those -Queers for Palestine-1
Palestinians respond to those -Queers for Palestine-1
Doug-tweet-21October2023-Pride month in Gaza
Doug-tweet-21October2023-Pride month in Gaza
Pride month in Gaza-21October2023
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How Queers react to: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on 7October
Bari Weiss-tweet-28December2023-How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on 7October
The first victim she said she saw was a young woman with copper-color hair, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back.
She said she then watched another woman “shredded into pieces.” While one terrorist raped her, she said, another pulled out a box cutter and sliced off her breast.
“One continues to rape her, and the other throws her breast to someone else, and they play with it, throw it, and it falls on the road,” Sapir said.
She said the men sliced her face and then the woman fell out of view. Around the same time, she said, she saw three other women raped and terrorists carrying the severed heads of three more women.
Sapir provided photographs of her hiding place and her wounds, and police officials have stood by her testimony and released a video of her, with her face blurred, recounting some of what she saw.
Yura Karol, a 22-year-old security consultant, said he was hiding in the same spot, and he can be seen in one of Sapir’s photos. He and Sapir were part of a group of friends who had met up at the party. In an interview, Mr. Karol said he barely lifted his head to look at the road but he also described seeing a woman raped and killed.
Since that day, Sapir said, she has struggled with a painful rash that spread across her torso, and she can barely sleep, waking up at night, heart pounding, covered in sweat.
“That day, I became an animal,” she said. “I was emotionally detached, sharp, just the adrenaline of survival. I looked at all this as if I was photographing them with my eyes, not forgetting any detail. I told myself: I should remember everything.”
‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html
rachel wahba-tweet-28December2023-
And u kno what many in my queer community tell me? “Don’t send me this stuff it’s triggering” code for “ I am pro Hamas” I did not stop and was then called a “bully” — amazing Jews who fight back are “ bullies” Dara Horn spot on w her chilling book “ people love dead Jews”
Bari Weiss-tweet-28December2023-How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on 7October
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Live Action Role-Playing gamers-Keep standing on the side of genocide
A live action role-playing game is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments while interacting with each other in character. Wikipedia
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-FAKE JEWS FOR HAMAS
This rally, which shut down Grand Central Station on Friday night, started after Shabbat began.
These aren’t Jews. They are LARPers who use kippot and tallitot as props against the vast majority of real Jews. Their only use of Judaism is to twist it into ammunition against the Jewish state. Their knowledge of Judaism starts and ends with a wrong interpretation of “tikkun olam”. Their only use of Jewish practice or objects is to subvert them; if it wasn’t for their political play-acting, they would never don a kippah or attend a seder. In short, they twist and trivialize a great religion in the service of terrorism and genocide against Jews.
They are the modern version of the Verband Nationaldeutscher Juden, a tiny group of pro-Nazi Jews who derided everything about Judaism (and Zionism) in a failed attempt to ingratiate themselves with Hitler’s Germany. They ended up in the gas chambers along with those they hated. See more: https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2021/07/ifnotnow-jewish-voice-for-peace-and.html
JVP and IfNotNow are disgusting pieces of garbage, and have no place in the Jewish community.
https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2021/07/ifnotnow-jewish-voice-for-peace-and.html
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-FAKE JEWS FOR HAMAS
Don Incognito-tweet-29October2023-Keep standing on the side of genocide
So proud to organize Hanukkah Shlishi
Rabbi Linda Goldstein-tweet-20February2024-So proud to organize Hanukkah Shlishi
So proud to organize Hanukkah Shlishi and Havdalah in solidarity with Palestinian resistance ❤️🇵🇸
Fred Menachem-tweet-20February2024-Freeks
The guy all the way in the back looks like he would give the Unabomber a run for his money.
The guy with the mask needs to be kept away from any place where children congregate and the dude in the front looks like he’s building a pipe bomb out of a Chanukiah.
Make your own judgements… 🇮🇱
Rabbi Linda Goldstein-tweet-20February2024-So proud to organize Hanukkah Shlishi
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Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and their spiritual ancestor the Verband Nationaldeutscher Juden
01July2021 https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2021/07/ifnotnow-jewish-voice-for-peace-and.html
Today’s antisemitic Jews of IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace have an illustrious antecedent.
Dr. Max Naumann Still Loyal to Nazi Opppressors
From JTA, August 13, 1933:
Anti-Zionist? Check.
Dividing Jews into “good assimilationist Jews” and “bad proud Jews”? Check.
Politics above logic and self-preservation? Check.
Sound familiar?
Even in 1935, as members of his group realized that Hitler is not someone to rely on, Naumann held his course – and accused his detractors of being “Zionists.”
Nazi Jews hold Stormy Berlin Session
What happened to Dr. Naumann? From the B’nai B’rith Messenger, 20 December 1935:
Exit: Dr. Max Naumann
Exit: Dr. Max Naumann – continued
Taking the side of the enemies of the Jews invariably ends up badly.
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You can’t hijack planes. You can’t throw Molotovs. You can’t self-immolate
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-2March2024-The problem is not with the means but with the goal
The problem is not with the means employed by Palestinians, as abhorrent as many of these means were and are, but with the goal.
As long as the Palestinian “cause” continues to be defined by a total negation of Jewish sovereignty in any part of the land, it will breed failure.
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-2March2024-The problem is not with the means but with the goal
Mohammed El-Kurd-tweet-26February2024-You can’t
You can’t protest peacefully. You can’t boycott. You can’t hunger strike. You can’t hijack planes. You can’t block traffic. You can’t throw Molotovs. You can’t self-immolate. You can’t heckle politicians. You can’t march. You can’t riot. You can’t dissent. You just can’t be.
Mohammed El-Kurd-tweet-26February2024-You can’t
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