EXTREMELY IMPORTANT INVESTIGATIVE REPORT:
— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) February 7, 2024
Confirming my suspicions, this reporting confirms that Biden’s focus upon alleged “violent settlers” was literally lifted off of pro-Palestinian NGO reports. /1 https://t.co/IGvqD4cigJ
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has issued an unusual, not to say insulting request to the Netanyahu cabinet, in anticipation of his upcoming visit to Israel this week:
Based on exclusive information obtained by Israel Hayom, Blinken requested a private briefing session with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, excluding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the rest of the cabinet ministers.
The upside was that Israel Hayom has learned that the Prime Minister’s office rejected Blinken’s request, probably owing to the fact that Israel may be on its way to becoming a banana republic, but is still a few apples short. And so, Blinken’s security briefing will adhere to the format of previous visits, likely in the context of a broader meeting with the War Cabinet – which is almost as outrageous given that this is war and Blinken is not an Israeli official.
Blinken, who opened his current tour of the Middle East in Saudi Arabia (Saudis: No Palestinian State No Normalization), is expected to leave Cairo for Qatar, and from there fly to Israel close to the weekend.
In addition to the Secretary’s insulting demand, it appears that the Biden administration is on a war path against Netanyahu, determined to force the embattled PM to stop the fighting in Gaza and submit to Palestinian Statehood.
As we reported earlier today (US Restricts Visas to Spyware Makers, Lumping Israeli Hi-Tech with ‘Violent Settlers’), the administration’s attacks are intended to destroy Israel’s ability to trade in specialized hi-tech in the US and consequently severely damage the Israeli economy, while going after the national-religious population in Judea and Samaria, all as part of an effort to bring down Netanyahu.
In truth, the election is a mini national referendum on Joe Biden’s presidency and the Democratic Party.
Look at it this way: If you think it was a great idea to throw open the southern border and admit millions of unvetted foreigners, that Bidenomics is a cure for the economy, that crime in New York is under control and that America remains an unrivaled superpower, stick with the devil you know and vote for Suozzi.
If, on the other hand, you think the national culture is collapsing and the country is going to hell in a handbasket largely because Democrats in City Hall, Albany and Washington have gone way too far left, then Pilip is your clear choice.
She would be mine if I lived in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which is centered on Nassau County and includes parts of Queens. Election day is Tuesday, but early voting has started.
Both parties recognize the stakes and are pouring millions into the race. Suozzi’s backers reportedly booked nearly $10 million in TV ad buys, about twice what Republicans are spending on Pilip.
Making a choice based primarily on party affiliation is not my usual approach, but this face-off is special in more ways than one.
When the Halacha discusses freeing captives for more than their value- the subject is monetary. Here however we are talking of freeing terrorists who will threaten the lives of Jews and therefore the matter is very different,” Rabbi Eideles told the Kol Chai radio station.
“We have a rule that we don’t prefer one life to that of another. We saw in previous deals that the terrorists freed returned to their terrorist activities. Who is more paradigmatic than Hamas leader Sinwar who was already in Israeli jail and was released in a hostage deal to go back to his ways and lead terrorists.”
Rabbi Ovadia zts’l wrote a comprehensive Teshuva about the Entebbe operation in halacha. The kidnappers demanded the release of 40 terrorists and Rabbi Ovadia said that if releasing terrorists doesn’t directly cause murder, they can be released to save those in mortal danger. Yet it is clear that now, with terrorists declaring that they will return to terror- we can’t make such deals.”
Rabbi Eideles, who is married to Rabbi Aryeh Levin’s descendant and runs the Ish Tzadik Haya charity organization, says that unity has a different meaning after October 7th.
“Once they asked Rabbi Aryeh Levin how he can accept everyone, and he answered ‘I just listen to them’. That's the secret. People in Tel Aviv who didn’t want to say hello to us before now understand that we are one nation and must live here in harmony.”
In January 2023, Eynat Guez, CEO and Co-Founder of Papaya Global, a billion-dollar Israeli software company, announced that Papaya Global is withdrawing all its funds from Israeli banks in response to the reform, explaining: “This is a painful but necessary business step.”
Globes pointed out at the time that in addition to causing harm to the Israeli economy (Papaya Global is valued at more than $3 billion), the move would damage the company as well since it’s more profitable for Israeli unicorns to hold their deposits in Israel (Rich Hi-Tech Leftist Trying to Start a Run on the Economy to Avenge Justice Reform)
Karma knocked on Guez’s door on March 10, 2023, when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), where an estimated 500 Israeli companies kept their money, failed. The state regulatory agency revoked SVB’s charter and transferred the business into receivership in the second-largest bank failure in US history.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a calming statement, saying: “If necessary, out of responsibility for hi-tech companies and employees, we will take steps to help the Israeli companies (Israel Supporting Hi-Techs that Pulled Out Billions to Destroy Its Economy in Judicial Reform Protest).”
Is President Joe Biden scared of starting a broader war if he attacks Iran? Or is he worried about gasoline prices going up, torching his reelection bid?
The pusillanimous response of Biden to attacks on U.S. troops has enraged critics. Many want the president, who pledged to hold accountable "all those responsible" for the deaths of three U.S. soldiers, to strike Iran. To go after the head of the snake and squash Tehran’s ability to fund and train the terrorists who continue to attack U. S. personnel.
He won’t do it. Why? Because he’s scared to death that hitting Iran’s oil fields or export facilities would drive global oil prices higher, and boost the cost of gasoline in the U.S. Gas at the pump might go back to $5 per gallon, a record reached in 2022; Biden, already a massively unpopular president, cannot tolerate that. Nothing drags down his approval ratings faster than skyrocketing prices at the pump; in an election year, he will do everything possible to make sure that doesn’t happen.
This, folks, is the elephant in the room.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib rejected an international proposal for Hezbollah to withdraw away from Israel’s northern border to behind the Litani River, as set out under United Nations Security Council 1701.
His statement was carried by the Arabic language newspaper Al-Watan in advance of a visit today by French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, following his stop in Israel on Sunday.
This formula of a Hezbollah withdrawal eight to ten kilometers from the Israeli border was “rejected by Lebanon, which will not accept half-solutions that do not bring the desired peace and do not secure stability,’ Bou Habib told Al-Watan.
He demanded the full implementation of Resolution 1701, which included resolutions to points of geographical dispute between Israel and Lebanon, such as in the area of Sheba Farm area and the village Ghajar, explaining that no partial solutions were possible when it came to Resolution 1701, which set out the ceasefire terms that ended the second Lebanon War.
That resolution forbids the presence of a non-state actor, such as the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah, in the area between the Litani River and Israel’s border.
US special envoy Amos Hochstein, who last year spoke of the possibility of resolving the territorial dispute between the two countries, was in Israel on Sunday but, according to unconfirmed media reports, did not travel on to Lebanon. While in Israel, he met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz, who previously held that post.
Bou Habib’s statement comes amid an uptake in violence along the northern border and increased internal domestic pressure from Israeli evacuees in that area for a resolution to the crisis that would allow them to return home.
Israeli officials have said that they prefer a diplomatic solution but would not hesitate to open a second front to forcibly force revue Hezbollah from the border.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli citizens would only be secure when Hamas in Gaza was removed from the southern border and Hezbollah from the northern one. “We will not stop the war without achieving this goal of total victory, which will restore security to both the south and the north.”
The Israeli mainstream media is full of disheartening stories that say we are losing the war:
They say that it’s unwinnable, that the economy is on the verge of a downturn, that reservists are torn between state and family, that students are losing the academic year and couples are breaking up, that we should Bring Them Home, Now!—not to mention the horror stories about the fate of the hostages, and the constant display, front and center, of the terrible predicament of the families.
Read the Israeli papers, watch mainstream TV and you may arrive at the conclusion that all this is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fault, not Yahya Sinwar’s: Netanyahu is extending the war for his own political survival, Netanyahu kept Hamas alive with Qatari money, Netanyahu tore Israel apart over the judicial reform, Netanyahu is sidelining the generals—Benny Gantz, Yoav Gallant, and Gadi Eisenkot—in his own war cabinet, Netanyahu will ruin our relations with the U.S., Netanyahu puts his own career over Israel’s vital interests, and so on. These talking points run parallel to Washington’s messaging campaign against Netanyahu, as the Biden administration looks to impose its agenda on Israel, with help from its local clients.
For decades, the Israelis have worried about the quality, and reach, of their hasbara — the “explaining” to the world why Israel does what it does. And nothing has cried out for more ”explaining” to the world than the campaign in Gaza to uproot the Hamas terrorists.
It’s been little more than three months after the Hamas atrocities on October 7, and already, the shock has worn off for most of the world. There are pro-Palestinian marches in major cities in the Western world with protesters in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles, denouncing Israel, as if it, and not Hamas, had inflicted atrocities. These protesters demand an immediate end to the Gaza war, which would leave Hamas still standing, chant about a Palestine “from the river to the sea,” which means the obliteration of Israel and its replacement by a twenty-third Arab state, and inveigh against Israel as a “settler colonial apartheid state.” Most recently, these marchers have described Israel as guilty of “genocide’ and called for the Jewish state to be declared guilty of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
IDF spokesmen, such as Colonel Jonathan Conricus, have done outstanding jobs when they appear on television to explain in sober fashion how the IDF views the progress of the war, and describe the many ways that the Israeli military minimizes civilian casualties. As a spokesman for the Israeli government, Mark Regev has been unflappable and lucid in the face of often hostile interviewers.
But these Israeli spokesmen are few in number, and often have to content with unfriendly interlocutors. Meanwhile, the Palestinians and their supporters have been all over the airwaves and on social media, depicting the Israelis as irredeemably wicked, wanton killers of “women and children.”
Free Malky Rally in Monroe!!
The Mothers of IDF Soldiers group led a demonstration last week of army mothers, reservists in the Israel Defense Forces, bereaved families and other concerned citizens outside the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. They demanded that President Joe Biden stop leveraging power to force Israel to resupply Hamas.
The following day, hundreds of Israelis, including parents of soldiers, families of hostages and terror victims gathered outside Ashdod Port. For hours, they blocked trucks laden with supplies for Gaza from exiting the port. Activists have been blocking trucks from entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana border crossings for more than two weeks.
Speaking to the crowd in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, Shifra Shahar, who runs a nonprofit organization that cares for the needs of soldiers, addressed her remarks to Israel’s leaders:
“Government of Israel, defense minister, IDF chief of staff, get ahold of yourselves!
“No other nation feeds and sustains its enemy! It’s truly an Israeli start-up.
“We had elections last year. I don’t recall voting for [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken! Blinken is sitting in the war cabinet and protecting the interests of my enemy. … We have sons in Gaza. We have sons fighting. The entry of the trucks endangers them, prolongs the war, increases the number of casualties and delays the return of the hostages!
“They tell me, ‘There are constraints.’ He who is constrained doesn’t win the war.
“They tell me, ‘The Americans are threatening not to provide us with ammunition.’
“To this, I say, if we were besieging them, we wouldn’t need ammunition! The war would end. They’d be screaming for help, returning the hostages and the war would end!”
The rising expressions of rage at the Biden administration from ordinary citizens are a testament to the shock and anger Israelis feel at what they perceive as a betrayal of Israel’s most basic interests by Biden and his top advisers.
Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich on Monday afternoon excoriated the Biden administration for implementing sanctions against four Israeli “settlers” for alleged violence against Palestinians and for subsequent reports that Israeli banks froze the accounts of two of the “settlers” due to the US sanctions.
“Last week, the Biden administration decided, in an unprecedented manner, to impose severe sanctions against citizens of the State of Israel as part of a false and anti-Semitic campaign of ‘settler violence’ led by BDS elements and Israel’s enemies,” Smotrich said.
“The Biden administration is taking measures that are usually taken against terrorists and terrorist organizations and besmirches over half a million law-abiding Israeli settlers who these days are at the forefront of the war on terrorism and are paying, together with Israeli society, unimaginable prices with their lives. The State of Israel cannot accept the action of the US government that marks over half a million residents of Israel as enemies instead of friends and allies.”
“It is unfathomable that an Israeli citizen with Israeli money in an Israeli bank is deprived of rights and assets due to a US order. I am in conversation with the Supervisor of Banks. The conclusion is clear – such a reality must not be allowed. How to do this – we will have to hold an in-depth discussion on the legal and procedural aspects of the matter.”
Smotrich also spoke about the UNWRA. “The UNRWA refugee agency has become another battalion of Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,” he stressed. “Hamas took over UNWRA and turned it into a fighting force against the State of Israel and IDF soldiers. Our soldiers found weapons and tunnel shafts in all of UNWRA’s facilities in Gaza. UNWRA’s shelters serve as cities of refuge for Nukhba terrorists. The most serious thing is that Hamas is re-establishing its power and its control over Gaza with the help of the humanitarian aid that reaches it.”
“The State of Israel must act with all its power to bring about the closure of the UNWRA as soon as possible, and the IDF must hand over all the materials in its possession that point to UNWRA’s deep involvement in terrorism in order to promote this action. I instructed the professional team at the Finance Ministry to act with all the tools at our disposal to restrict UNWRA’s actions in Gaza, Yehuda and Shomron, and Jerusalem so that we bring about the cessation of its activities and its closure.”
“From the first day of the war, I said in the Cabinet and in relevant forums that the way humanitarian aid enters Gaza needs to be changed. Unfortunately for many weeks, it has been carried out incorrectly. The IDF, as part of the occupation of the Strip, must manage humanitarian aid in Gaza. This is part of the war effort and it serves well the goals of the war – the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the return of our hostages.
The incident occurred about a month and a half ago. Malchiel related to Channel 14 on Sunday how his battalion had fought in Gaza for two and a half months in such places as Gaza City’s Shejaia neighborhood.
They had been given 48 hours for rest and recuperation inside Israel before receiving an order to re-enter Gaza. Malchiel brought up the rear of his 450th Battalion. Fighters ahead had already entered houses ahead of him.
At one point his group halted and he took advantage of the opportunity to pray before the sun set. He turned east towards Jerusalem, the direction of all Jewish prayer, and in the midst of his prayer spied movement.
“I perceive, 10 meters from me, 15 meters from me [30 feet to 50 feet], something like that, metal moving on the ground. I said to myself it’s a cat or some animal,” Malchiel told Channel 14‘s show “The Patriots.”
A moment later he saw the metal lid of a tunnel, which the battalion hadn’t noticed as it passed, fly open and a terrorist emerge carrying a rocket-propelled grenade. The terrorist moved swiftly westward towards soldiers who had already entered a house.
“I’m south of him and he doesn’t observe me,” Malchiel recalled.
Malchiel, who admits he was in shock, managed to shout at the terrorist, who spun to face him. Malchiel fired at the terrorist, hitting him. In that split second, his friends, who had not spied the terrorist, turned and immediately opened fire as well.
“Thank God, we dropped him before he could fire his RPG,” said Malchiel.
Malchiel also threw a grenade at the tunnel opening to eliminate any additional threats.
He asked himself why he hadn’t prayed earlier that day as he had had other opportunities but was grateful that he didn’t.
Malchiel, an observant Jew, said that before that event he was sometimes joined by other religious soldiers in prayer, but since the incident, non-observant soldiers are eager to pray with him as well, a comment that produced general laughter from the audience.
The 450th Battalion is composed of soldiers from the Negev-based School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders (known by its acronym Bislamach), which in peacetime trains the IDF’s Infantry Corps squad commanders and platoon sergeants.
New video from October 7th show Gazans celebrating as Hamas terrorists return from Israeli territory with hostages, dead Israelis and stolen cars pic.twitter.com/HlGFqh4XgZ
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 5, 2024
As the world seeks to create an unnatural distinction between “civilian” Gazans and the members of the Hamas terrorist organization, it is important to note that the ordinary Gazans were not just complicit in the Oct. 7th massacre, with some actively taking part in the arson, rape and abduction of Israelis, but also gave strong support to Hamas for its actions.
A video clip taken on October 7th and recently revealed shows a stolen car carrying Israeli hostages, either dead or alive, with a huge mob following the car and calling out its support for Hamas actions.
October 7 they didn't cry.
— REAL JEW (@THEREALJEW613) January 28, 2024
Watch how excited civilians in Gaza were when they saw Hamas taking back innocent hostages to Gaza, they were literally jumping for joy at the sight of kidnapped Israelis.
Now they can cry 😭😭 I don't care! pic.twitter.com/Qn1sswUahT
In another clip, Gazans can be seen jumping for joy when they witness hostages being brought back into Gaza.
Israel will work to bring in 65,000 foreign workers from India, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan to replace Palestinian construction laborers amid the war with Hamas, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Sunday.
Hamas killed around 1,200 people, including foreign workers, in a massive attack launched from Gaza on Oct. 7, which included the firing of thousands of rockets and the infiltration of terrorist forces.
Before the attacks, some 190,000 Palestinians, nearly all from Judea and Samaria, were employed throughout Israel. More than 95,000 of them worked in construction.
In addition, thousands of foreign workers fled the country, while many Israelis have been called up for reserve duty, leading to a situation where half of Israel’s building sites have been closed down.
The new batches of foreign workers are expected to touch down in Tel Aviv in the coming weeks as Jerusalem aims to avoid a dramatic rise in real estate prices, the Construction and Housing Ministry said on Sunday.
An official in the Prime Minister’s Office declined to say on Monday whether the decision to recruit workers in India, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan reflected a policy change going forward.
In late October, Israel authorized the entry of 8,000 Arab workers from Judea and Samaria amid a severe shortage of labor. With the approval of security services, Palestinians were dispatched to “vital” industrial areas, food factories, medical facilities and burial societies, an official told JNS.
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that it is considering a pilot to admit additional Palestinian workers aged 45 and older who have undergone security screening and hold existing entry permits.
Plans to let in even more Palestinians have been met with dismay by coalition and opposition lawmakers alike.
In a December vote, the measure was opposed by almost all 15 members of the Socioeconomic Cabinet, which is smaller than the full government but includes the finance and economy ministers.
“Letting workers from the territory of an enemy population into Israel during a war is a terrible mistake that will cost blood,” Minister-without-Portfolio Gideon Sa’ar said at the time.
