…Taking this tactic of martyring their fellow Arabs to a new level, Hamas turned Gaza into suicide central. Above ground, residents were allowed to conduct a quasi-normal life, knowing that, below ground, every school, every hospital, and many private homes were booby-trapped for the Israelis whom their leaders would lure into their cities. The IDF continues to uncover a tremendous amount of infrastructure built over years, confirming Hamas’ intention of invading and killing Israelis en masse. In the words of one of its soldiers “[It] is clear they expected us to arrive and laid plans to exact a cost in the form of IDF casualties.” The attack of Oct. 7 had to be monstrous enough to provoke Israel into full-scale war in the hope of rescuing the hostages and destroying the terrorists—a plan that would also ensure the collateral death of as many Gazans as possible to attract Western sympathy.READ MORE
J Street, the self-described pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby, has rescinded its endorsement of New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman for “singling out” Israel for blame in the war in Gaza and accusing it of genocide. The group removed his name on Friday from a list of 122 members of Congress it endorsed in the 2024 election cycle. Bowman, 47, first elected in 2018, is facing a tough primary battle against George Latimer, Westchester County’s popular executive, who is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. READ MORE
JEWISH INSIDER George Latimer announces huge fundraising haul in campaign against Rep. Bowman Despite the warning, Latimer is expected to draw significant support from leading pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC, whose political action committee officially backed his campaign last week — in its first endorsement of a non-incumbent this election cycle.
Cabinet minister Gideon Sa’ar says he will begin working on having Israel file a case against Iran in the International Court of Justice on genocide charges, pointing out that Iranian leaders have called for Israel’s destruction and that Iran gives strong backing to Hamas and other Gaza terror groups that carried out the October 7 atrocities. Numerous experts in international law have said that the massacres and other crimes carried out by Hamas on October 7 likely constitute a genocidal act since they appear to have been aimed at destroying “in whole or in part” a national group, in this case Israelis. “There are public statements by senior Iranian officials in favor of destroying Israel,” Sa’ar tells the Kan public broadcaster. READ MORE
…Fetterman, who is not Jewish, has been criticized by member of his own party over staunch support of Israel to defend itself from Hamas terrorists in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. Fetterman has been a vocal supporter of Israel placing emphasis on the tragedy suffered by innocent Israelis. A deep intra-party rift has broken out among Democrats as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise and even President Biden has accused Israel of an ‘indiscriminate bombing campaign.’ Fetterman, meanwhile, plastered photos of Israeli hostages to the wall outside his office and draped himself in an Israeli flag in photos. READ MORE
Today I want to talk a little bit about the end of the two-state solution and why the two-state solution was dead from the beginning…I want to start by telling you a little story that happened to me…
After Hamas supporters were caught screaming “shame on you” at children receiving cancer treatment at a Manhattan hospital (“make sure they hear you, they’re in the windows”) some people wondered what they were trying to accomplish. Questions like that only reveal the vast gap between the pro-Hamas mob and everyone else. The pro-Hamas protests, allegedly in pursuit of a ceasefire, but in reality celebrating Hamas and now Houthi terrorism, have picked random fights with Starbucks, Christmas tree lightings and Alec Baldwin, to name a few. They are not so much for anything as they are against things. READ MORE
ALGEMEINER 21 Israeli Soldiers Killed as Buildings Collapse in Gaza BlastThe names of the fallen are: Major General (Res.) Itamar Tal, 32 years old, from Kibbutz Masilat, Sergeant major (res.) Adam Bismuth, 35 years old, from Samaria, Major General (Res.) Shay Biton Chayon, 40 years old, from Zichron Ya’akov, Major (res.) Daniel Kassau Zagiya, 38 years old, Mikneam Illit, Sergeant major (res.) Matan Lazar, 32 years old, from Haifa, Major General (Res.) Hadar Kapluck, 23 years old, from Mevo Beitar, Sergeant Major (Res.) Sergey Guntmacher, 37 years old, from Ramat Gan, Major General (Res.) Elkana Yehuda Sepaz, 25 years old, from Kiryat Arba, Maj. (Res.) Yuval Lopes, 27 years old, from Alon Shabot, Major (Ret.) Yoav Levy, 29 years old, from Yehud-Monoson, Major (Ret.) Nicholas Berger, 22 years old, from Jerusalem, Major General (Ret.) Cedric Green, 23 years old, from Tel Aviv-Yafo, Sergeant major (res.) Rafael Elias Moshioff, 33 years old, from Pardes Hana-Karkur, Major General (res.) Barak Haim ben Valid, 33 years old, from Rishon Lezion, Major General (res.) Ahmed Abu Latif, 26 years old, from Mahrat, Captain (res.) Nir Binyamin, 29 years old, from Givatayim, Major (res.) Elkana Wiesel, 35 years old, from Bnei Dekalim, Major (responsible) Israel Sokol, 24 years old, from Samaria, Captain (res.) Ariel Mordechai Wolfstal, 28 years old, from Elazar, Major General (Res.) Sagi Idan, 24 years old, from Rosh Ha’Ain, Major General (Res.) Mark Kononovitch, 35 years old, from Herzliya, Major David Nati Alfasi, 27 years old, from Be’er Sheva, Major Eli Levy, 24 years old, from Tel Aviv, and Captain Eyal Mebaruch Toito, 22 years old, from Beit Gamliel.
NBC NEWS Death of Israeli soldiers in explosion highlights friendly fire accidents in GazaOut of 170 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza last year, 29 were either shot by fellow soldiers or died in accidents, according to the latest available IDF data. That means nearly 1 in 5 or 17% of all Israeli losses have come not at the hands of Hamas, but from mishaps on their own side.
… It is one that has sparked a debate in Israel that challenges the inclination to draw distinctions between ordinary Palestinian civilians of Gaza—often referred to in Israel as bilti me’uravim (uninvolved)—and their terror leaders…Around 700 Palestinians stormed Barad’s kibbutz of Nir Oz—less than a five-minute drive from Gaza—that day, CCTV footage shows. The overwhelming majority of those, estimated by Eran Smilansky, a member of the kibbutz’s security squad, to be around 550, were civilians. They were largely unarmed and not in uniform. Some of those civilians carried out wholesale acts of terror themselves, including rape and abduction—and in some cases, the eventual sale of hostages to Hamas—while others abetted the terrorists. Others still simply took advantage of the porous border to loot Israeli homes and farms, including stealing hundreds of thousands of shekels in agricultural equipment. READ MORE
NEW YORK TIMES Bret Stephens: The Meaning of Gaza’s TunnelsAccording to a report this month in The New York Times, Israeli defense officials now estimate that Hamas’s tunnels measure between 350 and 450 miles in a territory that’s just 25 miles long. (By comparison, the London Underground is only 249 miles long.) Some of Gaza’s tunnels are wide enough for cars; some are more than 150 feet deep; some serve as munitions depots; others are comfortably kitted out as command bunkers. Israeli officials also estimate that there are 5,700 separate entrances to the tunnels — many of them with access from civilian houses and some directly beneath Gaza City’s main hospital, which U.S. intelligence agencies say was also used as a Hamas command center.
ARUTZ SHEVA Holocaust survivor: ‘Hamas atrocities many times worse than the Nazis’90-year-old Miriam Schlisser lived through the Holocaust and the years preceding it, but the emotional turmoil she has experienced since Oct. 7 has brought her to difficult conclusions. “The murderous Germans were intelligent and gentle. Yona, my husband, carried his brother on the Death March. They would walk at night and rest during the day. He weighed thirty kilos and carried another thirty kilos. If he had put him down, the Germans would not have beaten him, but fired a bullet through him and left him on the side of the road, where someone would collect him and transfer him to a mass grave.”
…The Washington Post [They were ready to give up on Israel. Now they’re all in] documents a common trend of Israeli liberals thinking they’d had it with their country only to see the national bond grow stronger in the wake of the attacks. A few weeks ago, the Postpublished a story on another sector of society that has experienced a rush of patriotism since the Hamas attacks: the Haredim. Since Oct. 7, 2,000 Haredim have applied to join the IDF despite being exempt from service so they can study Torah full time. Nechumi Yaffe, a teacher at Tel Aviv University, “polled Haredim on their attitudes about the military in March 2022 and again after Oct. 7. In 2022, 35 percent strongly agreed that they should contribute to Israel’s defense. After the attacks, that rose to 49 percent.” READ MORE
John Ondrasik, known professionally as the Grammy-nominated singer Five For Fighting, released a new song and accompanying music video in response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the aftermath in the U.S. and around the world. The song, titled “OK,” begins with an excerpt from Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ speech following the attack, then transitions to Ondrasik’s lyrics stating, “This is a time for choosing, this is a time to mourn.” The chorus relays a simple message shared by many in the aftermath of the attack: “We are not OK.” Alongside lyrics bemoaning a loss of morality in modern society, the music video features images from the Oct. 7 attacks and ensuing acts of antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism. The video takes aim at everyone, from students harassing Jewish peers on campus to politicians like Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. READ MORE
ArchitectGuy on Israel 