Wall Street Journal: “Some captives believed killed in IDF strikes, some died of health issues, others being ‘used as human shields’ around terrorist leaders in Gaza tunnels”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
US, Israeli officials fear most hostages held by Hamas are dead
April 11, 2024

US and Israeli officials fear that most of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas since October 7 have been killed in captivity, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, as talks to secure a hostage release deal and a temporary truce continued in Cairo. While the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 34 of the 129 remaining hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza, the report said that “Israeli and American officials estimate privately that the number of deaths could be much higher.”…It came as some reports say Hamas has indicated it is unable to provide 40 living hostages in the category set for initial release under a potential hostage deal — women, children, the elderly, or those requiring medical attention. The release of other hostages including adult men and captured soldiers is under a separate category. READ MORE

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David Makovsky of the Washington Institute: “Expecting Hamas to abandon ideology for economics was a mistake with fatal consequences”

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY
Israel Seeks A New Strategic Concept
Ilan Berman
April 11, 2024

…Flawed assumptions: The first element of this approach was an extensive reliance on technology and innovation to provide “domain awareness” over the Palestinian territories. Policymakers in Jerusalem came to believe that the elaborate system of high-tech surveillance and monitoring erected over the past two decades in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip provided them with extensive security. This system, they contended, allowed them to spot key indicators of emerging threats to Israeli society. The second was a conviction that, over time, the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation could be significantly ameliorated, if not solved outright, through economic prosperity….The October 7th attacks underscored the bankruptcy of both of these assumptions. The fact that Israeli officials missed (or ignored) key indicators of preparations for a large-scale incursion from the Gaza Strip highlights what amounts to a multi-domain breakdown in intelligenceREAD MORE

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Rachel Goldberg: “I feel like we’re pawns in a game. Or maybe it’s theater”

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, is one of many young people taken hostage by Hamas during an incursion into Israel that killed more than 1,300 others. His parents Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, Americans who moved to Israel more than a decade ago, sat down with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday and described their pain since the couple’s only son went missing. Click to watch interview.

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“The IDF confirms that the three operatives are the sons of Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’s political bureau”

JEWISH PRESS
Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh Informed 3 Children, 3 Grandchildren Dead in Gaza
Hana Levi Julian
April 10, 2024

Hamas international leader Ismail Haniyeh was informed Wednesday afternoon that three of his children and three of his grandchildren “ascended to martyrdom” in an airstrike targeting terrorist infrastructure west of Gaza City…“The IDF confirms that the three operatives are the sons of Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’s political bureau,” the statement concluded…[Their father] Ismail Haniyeh himself lives a luxurious lifestyle in the Qatari capital city of Doha, along with other Hamas leaders. “I thank Allah for this honor that He bestowed upon us through the martyrdom of my three sons and grandchildren…” READ MORE

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Dershowitz: “Hamas must be required to surrender and the people of Gaza must be de-radicalized. Any other endgame will only postpone a repetition of October 7. Except this time, with calls this week for “Death to America” from within the United States, just as terrorism came to a theater near Putin, this time it may be coming to a theater near you”

GATESTONE
The Dangerous US Rush to Save the Terrorist Group Hamas
Alan M. Dershowitz
April 9, 2024

The Biden administration’s drift away from full support for Israel will cost more Palestinian and Israeli lives. It will encourage Hamas to keep fighting and to keep rejecting proposals for the return of hostages in exchange for a humanitarian cease-fire. It will persuade Hamas that it can win its war, weaken Israel and create distance between the US and Israel…Had the Biden administration maintained the strong support for the destruction of Hamas that it showed in the immediate aftermath of Oct 7, the fighting might already have subsided and all the hostages been returned. But every time the Biden administration weakens its support for Israel, it strengthens the determination of Hamas to raise its demands and threaten Israel, to the point that Israel cannot possibly agree. READ MORE

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But I, as a Canadian “Gentile,” will live and die a friend of the Jewish People

FUTURE OF JEWISH
Today, in Canada, it is like Nazi Germany in the 1930’s
Paul Finlayson
April 9, 2024

Five months ago, I was happy to be an academic nobody, just a scruffy, hoodie-wearing, never-a-tie, student-friendly professor…On November 27th, 2023, I went in early before my marketing course to help a student review her project. A week ago, a friendly student told me a group of students and parents were stirring, angry at me for responding to an “educator” in South Asia who called for the destruction of Israel. But I was not concerned. My comment was no worse than what you see on the editorial page; Canada believed in free speech. Cancel culture was only in the papers or on X, but they surely would not come for me. READ MORE

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Tariq Salami Otha Abu Shlouf, captured at Rafah Hospital, admits terror group lied about IDF strike on hospital that was hit by an Islamic Jihad rocket

ARUTZ SHEVA
Islamic Jihad spokesman: ‘Terror orgs use all hospitals in Gaza’
April 8, 2024

During the recent operation carried out by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) in the Shifa Hospital, more than 500 terrorist operatives associated with terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip were apprehended. The terrorists, who were transferred to Unit 504 of the Intelligence Directorate and the ISA, included senior officials and operatives who are significant sources of information for the terror organizations…During the interrogation, Tariq revealed details of the operational method used by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to manipulate the Arabic and international media, with a focus on creating false narratives and lies about what is happening in the Gaza Strip. READ MORE

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“Six months after the Hamas massacres, the Squad’s intense hostility to the Jewish state has spread far beyond the original members to become mainstream opinion within the Democratic Party”

NATIONAL REVIEW
Biden Loses the Plot on Israel
Matthew Continetti
April 6, 2024

…According to the White House, Biden on Thursday called for an “immediate ceasefire” and told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “strikes on humanitarian workers” and “the overall humanitarian situation” are “unacceptable.” Biden went on to say that “U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action” and on steps to “address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.” This is a demand that Israel appease Hamas at the negotiating table. This is a threat to condition military assistance to Israel based on absolutely no evidence and grounded in a ridiculous and unachievable standard of conduct. The move is cynical, opportunistic, and counterproductive. Biden has lost the plot. READ MORE

BREITBART Joel Pollak: How Biden Brought Israel to the Brink of Failure  The problem, actually, was that Israel accepted responsibility for the welfare of the Palestinian civilian population in the first place, over and above its legal obligation not to target civilians (as Hamas does in both Gaza and Israel). In a typical war, each side is responsible for its own civilians. The side that can no longer protect its people loses and surrenders. Certainly the aggressor — as Palestinians were in this case — has no right to demand special treatment. That rule is inverted in Gaza, where anti-Israel activists and left-wing “progressives” have pushed the false idea that Israel is an occupying power. (Israel pulled its soldiers and civilians out in 2005; Hamas took over in a 2007 coup). READ MORE

JNS Jonathan Tobin: Who can stop the Democrats’ pivot away from Israel? Large numbers of Democratic members of the House and Senate have come out in favor of bans on military aid to the Jewish state, as well as endorsing Hamas propaganda talking points about Israel committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. The turn against the Jewish state has spread from “The Squad” to Joe Biden, with exceptions like Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman standing against the pro-Hamas tide. READ MORE

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EVENT: Killing America Screening – Chicago

Jewish Institute for Liberal Values invites you to a screening of “Killing America”
Where: AMC Northbrook Court
When: Sunday April 21, 2024 at 4:00 pm

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Eli Steele screens his latest groundbreaking documentary, Killing America at AMC Northbrook Court. Subjects in the documentary will be available for a panel discussion at 5:00 pm after the 40-minute film.

The film exposes the explosion of antisemitism and racial hate that has permeated California’s schools and chronicles the experience of public-school communities in the wake of the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas. Click here to register.

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“If we don’t see changes from their side, there’ll have to be changes from our side,” White House advisor John Kirby said

JNS
Gaza policy will change if Israel doesn’t meet US conditions, Biden warns Netanyahu
Andrew Bernard
April 4, 2024

U.S. President Joe Biden demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, per a White House readout of their call on Thursday. “President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” the readout stated. “He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.” Biden also “made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” the statement added. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL World Central Kitchen names ‘seven heroes’ killed in IDF strike on Gaza aid convoy An Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza reverberated around the world on Tuesday, as friends and relatives mourned the losses of those who were delivering food in Gaza with the charity World Central Kitchen. Killed were three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian. Some had traveled the world, participating in aid efforts in the aftermath of wars, earthquakes and wildfires.

ARUTZ SHEVA After Netanyahu-Biden conversation: Cabinet approves increased humanitarian aid to Gaza  The Political-Security cabinet on Thursday night approved an increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. The statement said that the Cabinet authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz to take immediate steps to increase humanitarian aid to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip…The Cabinet meeting took place hours after a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden. READ MORE

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