Hypocrites!
President Joe Biden said Sunday that the U.S. “shall respond” after three American troops were killed and dozens more were injured in an overnight drone strike in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. Biden blamed Iran-backed militias for the first U.S. fatalities after months of strikes by such groups against American forces across the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The interviewer is 12 (and a half) and far more knowledge than the interviewee (and note when she forgets to say 'Zionist' instead of 'Jewish') pic.twitter.com/8Z0DoWxHvW
— Daniel Berke (@DanielBerke1) January 28, 2024
Over the past few weeks, an investigation has been conducted at the Beit Shemesh station in the Jerusalem District following the arson attack on a cellphone store in Beit Shemesh.
According to the suspicion, the background in the act is the issue of the "kosherness" of the devices and the opposition of extremist elements to their sale. As part of the investigation, Beit Shemesh Station detectives arrested two suspects involved in the act, and their investigation was completed in recent days. They are expected to be indicted on Sunday.
On Sunday three weeks ago, at around 3:15 A.M., the police received a report of a fire at a cellphone business in the city of Beit Shemesh. As a result, the business and its contents were severely damaged. Police officers from the Beit Shemesh station in the Jerusalem district and fire brigade forces were called to the scene.
Israelis who have been planning since October 7, 2023 for the eventual resettlement of Gush Katif, or at least parts of Gaza that were formerly home to thousands of Israelis, are set to meet at 7 pm on Sunday at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.
The event was organized by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and the chairperson of the Nachala movement, Daniella Weiss.
“We need to take this area back and establish a settlement in Gaza,” Dagan said in a statement. “We need to start in the north of the Gaza Strip. The area where Elei Sinai, Nitzanit, and Dugit used to be located … It’s close to Sderot, and that’s where the first settlements will be built.”
Nevertheless, Dagan acknowledged, “Without the government, it won’t work. We’re not challenging Netanyahu, although our position is unequivocal.”
Sderot is located less than a mile from Israel’s border with Gaza, and was among the 22 Jewish communities attacked by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7.
Some desperate families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have begun blocking the aid trucks delivering supplies to Hamas.
Despite promises by the Biden administration that the aid would not go to Hamas, videos show Hamas making off with the materials.
While Hamas supporters in America are blocking ambulances and school buses to demand that Israel stop attacking the terrorist group (a demand that they falsely claim is a ‘ceasefire’), families held hostage by Hamas are blocking supplies to Hamas.
Hundreds of protesters were set on Friday to descend on the Kerem Shalom border crossing to block humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip for the third day in a row.
The protesters, including some families of hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza, are demanding that all aid be cut off until some 136 remaining captives are freed.
On Wednesday, the protesters from the “Order 9” movement demanded that “no aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns, no equipment be transferred to the enemy.”
Traffic officials said that dozens of trucks turned around and drove away from Kerem Shalom due to Wednesday’s protest.
The protesters have plenty of support inside Israel.
The Mothers of Combat Soldiers foundation announced that hundreds attempted to block convoys of aid entering the Gaza Strip, saying that they are doing so to “help our fighting sons come out victorious in Gaza.
“Any aid to Hamas must be conditioned with disarming its forces and returning all hostages,” member of the organization Hana Giat, whose husband and two sons are fighting in Gaza, said. “We are here to block Hamas’s logistical re-supply points.”
Protesters were seen carrying signs reading, “humanitarian aid is killing IDF soldiers.” This comes after IDF soldiers were pictured alongside graffiti on a Gaza wall, reading: “Humanitarian aid = coffins,” last week. The IDF said the incident was being probed
Protesters set up tents near the border, sending a message that they are prepared for a long stay and that “no aid goes through until the final hostage returns.”
And the Biden administration is not happy.
According to Kann reporter Amichai Stein, in response to the hostage families blocking the entry of the trucks, the Biden administration informed Israel that the Kerem Shalom crossing must remain open [for humanitarian aid] and operate as usual.
The Biden administration won’t stop pro-Hamas protests shutting down airports and roads, but demands that Israel shut down anti-Hamas protests.
The New York Times headlined its coverage as “Widening Mideast Crisis: Families of Israeli Hostages Protest at Border Crossing to Block Aid to Gaza.”
Yes, it’s the protesting families of hostages that are really widening this crisis.
Photos from the crossing on Thursday showed a small group of demonstrators holding signs with the faces of hostages on them. The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, the group representing the relatives of Israeli hostages abducted to Gaza in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, said that the aim of Thursday’s protest was “stopping aid to Hamas until all hostages return.”
“Our soldiers are fighting in Gaza and we are giving supplies to Hamas,” Danny Elgarat, whose 69-year-old brother, Itzik, was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, said in an interview on Israeli television.
“It’s just not acceptable that soldiers are putting themselves at risk fighting in Gaza, and the terrorists they’re fighting are getting fuel and food from us,” said Mr. Elgarat, who said he participated in a protest at the border on Wednesday.
Kerem Shalom is one of two border crossings through which aid enters Gaza; most of it transits through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Relatives of hostages believe that stopping aid from reaching Gaza will raise pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.
Mr. Elgarat said in the interview that Hamas militants steal humanitarian supplies that get into Gaza and that civilians get only “the leftovers,” a common view in Israel. Hamas officials have denied diverting humanitarian aid.
There are actually plenty of videos and testimonies from people in Gaza showing that Hamas is making off with the aid.
Aid to Gaza is aid to Hamas. Period.
{Reposted from FrontPAgeMag}
Sky News Arabia has obtained new details about the Philadelphi Corridor crisis, which sparked tensions in the relations between Israel and Egypt recently, against the backdrop of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
The Philadelphi Corridor is the Israeli code name for a narrow strip of land, 8.699 miles long, located along the entire border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Shortly after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, its sadistic massacre of 1,200 Israelis and kidnap of 246 men, women and children from southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government declared war on Iran’s Palestinian Arab proxy.
The government set four war goals: the military eradication of Hamas; the eradication of Hamas’s civilian regime in the Gaza Strip; the return of all the hostages; and the permanent pacification of Gaza to ensure that it will never pose a threat to Israel again.
Almost immediately thereafter, anonymous “senior IDF sources” began grousing to the media about the government’s war goals. “Sources in the General Staff” have been regularly cited advocating for replacing the goals of the war with others that rule out Hamas’s eradication and the permanent pacification of Gaza.
The mandates are distributed as follows:
Anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside the Braddock, Pa. home of Sen. John Fetterman — who responded to the din by going on his roof and waving an Israeli flag at them.
The progressive-hating Democrat, silently waved the blue and white flag Friday night as protesters waved Palestinian flags and screeched “Fetterman, Fetterman, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide.”
The first-term senator, once a darling of progressives, has incurred wrath from the left over his staunch support of Israel to defend itself from Hamas terrorists in the aftermath of Oct. 7. He’s responded by publicly trolling them.
At a November rally for Israel in Washington D.C. he arrived draped in an Israeli flag.
His office is covered with posters of missing and returned Israeli hostages.
Though he once described himself as a progressive, he says the movement has abandoned its principles.
“Increasingly, [progressives] moved and migrated into some positions that I don’t agree with and I really just feel much more comfortable just being a Democrat,” the controversial Pennsylvania lawmaker told The Post last week during an exclusive sitdown in his D.C. office.
Fetterman has also taken to calling the migrant flood at the U.S. border a crisis — something most others in his party have been loathe to do.
The newly centrist senator has picked up many new admirers among conservatives.
“I can’t believe it, but I’m starting to really like & respect Fetterman. 2024 is wild, y’all,” conservative radio host Clay Travis wrote on X after Fetterman’s flag-waving.
Sky News issued an apology on Friday after one of its hosts compared the idea of voluntary migration by Gazans to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
The outrageous comparison came as Sky News anchor Belle Donati interviewed MK Danny Danon (Likud) following the International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
In the interview, Donati brought up an article which Danon published in the Wall Street Journal in November, in which he brought up the idea that countries around the world would accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.
“You’ve called for a voluntary migration of Palestinians from Gaza. In November you co-authored a piece in the Wall Street Journal. You suggested the ethnic cleansing of some of Gaza’s population to Western countries that would accept the refugees,” Donati claimed.
“The exact quote from that article: ‘One idea is for countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.’ Do you stand by those comments?”
Danon blasted Donati’s assertion that he was suggesting the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and said, “I will not allow it. Ethnic cleansing, that’s a word you used. If you read my article, I spoke about voluntary immigration.”
“Let me remind you. You spoke about ethnic cleansing, I spoke about voluntary immigration. I think anyone in the world who voluntarily wants to move to another country should be eligible to do that,” he added.
Donati then said, “The sort of voluntary relocation of many Jewish people during the Holocaust, I imagine, is not voluntary relocation.”
Danon replied, “Shame on you for that comparison. That is a shameful antisemitic equation. I will not allow you to speak about the Holocaust and compare [it] to what’s happening today. This is pure antisemitism what you just said, comparing the Holocaust to what’s happening today in Gaza.”
Later in the day, Sky News issued an apology over Donati’s comments.
“In an interview earlier today with Israeli politician Danny Danon a Sky News presenter made a comparison between Mr. Danon’s comments on Israel’s war with Hamas and the treatment of Jewish people in the Holocaust. Sky News recognizes the complete inappropriateness of this comparison and the offensive nature of those comments,” the broadcaster said.
“Sky News would like to apologize unreservedly for the comparison and to Mr. Danon personally for making the comparison,” it added.
In November, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy was asked by Sky News presenter Kay Burley whether Israel agreeing to free 150 security prisoners in exchange for 50 hostages held by Hamas showed that Israel sees Hamas lives as worth less than Israeli lives.
Levy’s reaction, in which he was seen raising his eyebrows in astonishment over the question, went viral.
Burley later provided the following explanation for the ridiculous question in a post on X: "We often put one side of an argument to a guest so they can offer a counterclaim. Yesterday, I raised a controversial view from an earlier guest to allow another to respond. Each morning we’re dedicated to presenting fairly the news of this war."
Several countries have joined the US in pausing funding for UNRWA, the United Nations relief organization which in Gaza is controlled by Hamas.
On Saturday, Britain, Finland, Canada, and Australia announced their decision to follow the US' lead.
In a statement, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said, "The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK government has repeatedly condemned."
"The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNRWA whilst we review these concerning allegations. We remain committed to getting humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza who desperately need it."
"The Italian government has suspended financing of the UNRWA after the atrocious attack on Israel on October 7," Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X, formerly Twitter.
Canada's Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen posted on X, "Canada unequivocally condemns the October 7th attack on Israel. I am deeply troubled by the allegations relating to some UNRWA employees. I have instructed Global Affairs Canada to pause all additional funding to UNRWA pending the outcome of the investigation."
Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in a statement, "The allegations of the involvement of 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the 7 October Hamas terrorist attack on Israel are serious. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is calling for an independent and thorough investigation of the matter."
"Finland has a four-year agreement (2023–2026) with UNRWA to provide humanitarian assistance, amounting to EUR 5 million a year. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio has decided that Finland's payments to UNRWA will be suspended due to the allegations."
Minister Tavio stressed, "We must make sure that not a single euro of Finland's money goes to Hamas or other terrorists. The suspicion that employees of an organization receiving humanitarian assistance are involved in a terrorist attack is the reason for suspending the payments. The case must be investigated thoroughly."
Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Penny Wong wrote on X, "Allegations UNRWA staff were involved in the abhorrent October 7 terror attacks are deeply concerning."
"Australia welcomes UNRWA’s swift response and will engage closely on investigations.
"We are speaking with partners and will temporarily pause disbursement of recent funding."
On Friday, a senior Israeli official said that the Shin Bet and IDF provided information which proves the participation of UNRWA employees in the October 7 massacre, as well as the use of UNRWA buildings and vehicles for the attack.
"This is evidence-based, cross-checked information, due to which the US has decided to suspend its aid to UNRWA," the sources said.
South Africa brought the case, which goes to the core of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, and had asked the court to order Israel to halt its operation.
In the highly anticipated decision made by a panel of 17 judges, the International Court of Justice decided not to throw out the case — and ordered six so-called provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza.
“The court is acutely aware of the extent of the human tragedy that is unfolding in the region and is deeply concerned about the continuing loss of life and human suffering,” Joan E. Donoghue, the court’s president, said.
Friday’s decision is only an interim one; it could take years for the full case brought by South Africa to be considered. Israel rejects the genocide accusation and had asked the court to throw the charges out.
While the case winds its way through the court, South Africa has asked the judges “as a matter of extreme urgency” to impose provisional measures.
Top of the South African list was a request for the court to order Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But the court declined to do that.
South Africa also asked for Israel to take “reasonable measures” to prevent genocide and allow access for desperately needed aid.
The court ruled that Israel must try to limit death and damage.
The agency, known by its acronym UNRWA, has been the main agency providing aid for Gaza’s population amid the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7 attack. UNRWA officials did comment on the impact that the U.S. halt in funding would have on its operations.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said it terminated contracts with “several” employees and ordered an investigation after Israel provided information alleging they played a role in the attack. The U.S. State Department said there were allegations against 12 employees. UNRWA has 13,000 staffers in Gaza, almost all of them Palestinians, ranging from teachers in schools that the agency runs to doctors, medical staff and aid workers.
In a statement, Lazzarini called the allegations “shocking” and said any employee “involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.”
He did not elaborate on what the staffers’ alleged role was in the attacks. In the unprecedented surprise attack, Hamas fighters broke through the security fence surrounding Gaza and stormed nearby Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping some 250. Other militants joined the rampage.
“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October” and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages, Lazzarini said.
As the US continues to support Israel's war in Gaza, new polling shows that half of President Joe Biden's coalition views that war as constituting a genocide.
50% of voters who voted for Biden in 2020 think that Israel is "committing genocide against Palestinian civilians, according to polling from YouGov and The Economist conducted from January 21-23 that surveyed 1,664 US adult citizens.
Another 20% of Biden voters said that's not the case, while another 30% said they were not sure.
Among all registered voters, 32% said that Israel is committing genocide, while 42% said no and another 26% said they were not sure. 67% of Republicans said Israel is not committing genocide.
The new polling comes as Democratic divisions deepen over US support for Israel, and as the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 25,000 people. Israel launched an offensive after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks killed 1,200 people.
At recent public appearances, Biden has often been confronted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and progressives have increasingly pushed the Biden administration to help bring an end to the war.
To much of the world, such a statement sounds strange, as they are not aware of traditional Jewish beliefs regarding the “Parah Adumah”, the red heifers used for purification. The “bringing of red cows” which Obeida was referring to was the 2022 arrival of five red heifers to the Temple Institute, a Jewish organization focused on establishing the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The heifers are quietly being groomed by the Institute for their ultimate goal.
The rare animal is the main component in a ritual purification ceremony for cleansing ritual impurity from proximity or contact with a dead body. Since the destruction of the Second Temple, all Jews today are considered ritually impure, thereby preventing the return of the Temple service and even entering the holy places on Temple Mount.
Securing a potential unblemished red heifer is key to the first steps of restarting the Temple service, which implies the removal of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Omar building, rebuilding the Temple, and, ultimately, the return of the Temple Mount to Jewish control. The mere fact that all Jews would be able to ascend to Temple Mount would create pressure to resume services there and rebuild the Temple. Some Jewish traditions maintain that the Third Temple will come down from heaven, but others say that the temple will like its predecessors be constructed by the Jewish nation.
The current effort to rebuild the Temple is not supported by Israel’s government or universally supported within Judaism, but the step toward performing the arcane red heifer ceremony doesn’t just imply a return to the Holy Temple service; it points to the nearness of Moshiach and the ultimate redemption of Israel. According to Rambam, nine red heifers were brought in previous times, the tenth red heifer will be presented by Moshiach himself.
Abu Obeida may not be versed in all Jewish traditions, but he does realize the ultimate threat to Hamas claims of Muslim superiority: The reconstruction of the Temple and the resumption of the holy services there.
An NYU professor says that Hamas did not commit atrocities such as beheading babies and torturing women on October 7, telling a group of students: “We know it’s not true.”
“We live in a Zionist city,” Amin Husain said at an event in December organized by Students for Justice in Palestine at The New School. “No, let’s be real about this, let’s be ——— real.”
In the video of the sickening comments, Husain sits wearing a keffiyeh while speaking to a classroom as he comments on the “Palestinian liberation struggle.”
The adjunct professor also joked about his reputation for being antisemitic, referencing a petition launched by an NYU alumnus calling for his dismissal: “I have a petition going around, right, because I’m antisemitic. I won the honors of antisemitic multiple times.”
Husain mentioned his profile on the site Canary Mission, which says he organized multiple violent disruptions and incited hatred of the US, police, and pro-Israel supporters. The profile also states that he claimed to have participated in the first intifada, visited a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and has expressed support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“Everything they cite. . . is true,” Husain said about the profile.
Congressman Ritchie Torres, a staunch Israel supporter, commented on the professor’s remarks: “October 7th denial, a close cousin of Holocaust denial, is the latest mutation in the DNA of antisemitism. The latest embarrassment is Amin Husain, a professor who not only downplays but also outright denies the atrocities of Hamas, telling his students that October 7th is ‘not true’”..
“The higher education industrial complex has been exposed as a cesspool of antisemitism.”
In an email to The Free Press, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the university does not “discuss the details of an employee’s work records. All members of our community must adhere to the University’s discrimination and anti-harassment policies. We investigate all complaints we receive and take appropriate action, which may include taking interim measures such as suspension.” When pressed on whether or not Husain is still employed by NYU, Beckman wrote, “He’s not currently in the classroom.
Oklahoma is conservative. Raichik has been instrumental in the parental rights movement, so the association was a natural fit. It's the kind of thing that, back in the golden days of the local newspaper, would get maybe 10 column inches on page D16, at best.
“Chaya is on the front lines showing the world exactly what the radical left is all about -- lowering standards, porn in schools, and pushing woke indoctrination on our kids,” state Superintendent Ryan Walters said in a statement, according to NBC News.
“Because of her work, families across the country know just what is going on in schools around the country.”
In those halcyon days of column-inches, of course, the most controversial aspect of Raichik's appointment is that she's not a resident of Oklahoma or has official training in education -- although her impeccable credentials in chronicling the current moral Babylon of state-sponsored education makes up for those. Not at NBC News, though. No, to the fine folks at the Peacock Network, the real story was that a "far-right influencer" who was inspiring "bomb threats" got the job.
A far-right influencer who was accused of instigating bomb threats last year against a school library in Tulsa has been named an adviser to a state library committee, the head of the Oklahoma State Department of Education says. https://t.co/joS0KS5Xfi
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 24, 2024
Making lemonade 🍋 from watermelons 🍉 pic.twitter.com/lM0CvA52q6
— (((noa tishby))) (@noatishby) January 22, 2024
