How the United States blinded Israeli intelligence gathering efforts on Hamas and other Palestinian groups inside Lebanon

TABLET MAG
Eyeless in Gaza
Tony Badran
October 18, 2023

It will be a while before we’re able to piece together a more complete picture of how Israel, despite its vaunted intelligence-gathering capabilities, was blindsided by the massive Hamas terrorist onslaught on Oct. 7…A key focal point for these inquiries will be Lebanon…So how did Israel find itself blind and deaf in Lebanon? Why was it that, with all this activity taking place in Lebanon over several months, Israel was not able to pick up meaningful intelligence on a lethal adversary? To answer these questions, we must turn to the current security environment in Lebanon, which in turn shaped and constrained Israel’s intelligence gathering capabilities. READ MORE

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“The leadership of Harvard have proven they have lost their moral compass. Not only do they allow Jew-hatred and pro-terror rhetoric to permeate their campus, but they cannot bring themselves to immediately condemn terrorism”

JNS
‘Stunned, sickened’ by Harvard’s silence on Hamas, Wexner cuts ties
October 16, 2023

…Following Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis, the Wexner leaders were “stunned and sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists,” they wrote. “Since then, many of our Israel fellows no longer feel marginalized at HKS. They feel abandoned,” the leaders wrote. “Our core values and those of Harvard no longer align. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST UC Berkeley law professor urges firms to not hire his ‘antisemitic’ students Steven Davidoff Solomon, who teaches corporate law at the University of California, Berkeley, alleged that some of his students at the college promoted hate toward Jews and therefore should not be given jobs, in an op-ed he penned for the Wall Street Journal.

NBC NEWS Top law firm rescinds job offers to Ivy League students over Israel letters Top U.S. law firm Davis Polk announced in an internal email that it had rescinded letters of employment for three law students at Harvard and Columbia universities who it believed were tied to organizational statements about Israel, one of the latest responses to open letters from university groups about the Israel-Hamas conflict that have roiled university donors, employers, alumni and students.

WSJ Hamas War Shows Us What American Universities Stand For A Cornell history professor appearing at a pro-Palestinian rally this week referred to Hamas’s butchery as “exhilarating” and “energizing.” Columbia political scientist Joseph Massad described the attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, including at least 30 U.S. citizens, as “awesome” and a “major achievement of the resistance.”

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As the buses carrying family members to bury Shapira at Mount Herzl move down the street, neighbors and friends follow slowly, singing Hatikvah softly

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Neighbors gather on street for Jerusalem family burying son
Jessica Steinberg
October 13, 2023

Hundreds of neighbors in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona are gathering with Israeli flags to accompany the family of Anar Elyakim Shapira, as they boarded buses to bury their son, grandson and brother. Shapira was killed during the Hamas massacre at the Supernova desert rave, as he saved the lives of friends around him, reportedly throwing out grenades that were tossed into the field shelter where he and others were standing. Shapira and his friend, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, went to the desert rave together on October 6 at night, camping out before Hamas invaded the event attended by thousands of young people. Goldberg-Polin, whose arm was blown off, is being held hostage in Gaza. READ MORE

PEOPLE Mother of American-Israeli Hostage, 23, Shares Her Anguish as She Prays for His Return: ‘Going Through Hell’ When people ask Rachel Goldberg how she is doing following the kidnapping of her 23-year-old firstborn and only son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, she speaks plainly: “Terrible,” accompanied by a soft shrug. Hersh, an American-Israeli born in Berkeley, Calif., was at the deadly Nova music festival in Israelwhere more than 260 attendees were massacred by Hamas terrorists. While taking cover in a bomb shelter, a grenade blew off Hersh’s arm from the elbow down. When Hamas ordered those who could walk to leave the shelter, Hersh was among them, and his phone would soon ping from across the border in Gaza, where authorities say he is being held hostage.

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MD Senator objects to condemning “anti-Israel, pro-Hamas” rhetoric; Hawley calls this a revealing moment

NEWSWEEK
Democrat Blocks Resolution Condemning Student’s Praise of Hamas Attacks
Rachel Dobkin
October 19, 2023

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, blocked Senator Josh Hawley’s resolution condemning “anti-Israel, pro-Hamas” rhetoric on college campuses. Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, tried to pass the resolution on Thursday through unanimous consent, but Van Hollen objected, saying that by passing the resolution, the Senate is “smearing all of the students who engaged in these protests,” which he called “wrong.” The college students’ statements against Israel came after Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history on October 7. READ MORE

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EVENT Magen David Adom relief benefit in Chicago Saturday October 21, 6:30pm

Chicago for Israel
Community Event & Fundraiser
Saturday October 21, 6:30pm
River North, Chicago

In response to the terrorist attacks that took place in Israel and the ongoing hardships facing the Jewish community, we want to give our community in Chicago an opportunity to come together and support Magen David Adom, which provides critical disaster relief, ambulance, and blood services in Israel.

Join us for an evening of meaningful discussion and connection with speakers, food and drinks. We look forward to finding strength and resiliency as we come together during this exceedingly difficult time. To attend, purchase a ticket here and visit our fundraising page. Raising $115K supports one Life Support ambulance. Donors of $5K and above will have their names inscribed on its doors.

Click here to purchase tickets, click on + button to add tickets to cart

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Netanyahu said the people of Israel and its leadership were united: “We have put aside all differences because the fate of our state is on the line”

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
‘It is not political, it is a shared fate,’ Gantz says on unity gov’t
Reuters and ILH Staff
October 12, 2023

Israel formed an emergency unity government on Wednesday as its jets pounded Gaza and tanks massed around the Palestinian enclave, and the army said it killed three Hamas terrorists in a fresh confrontation on nearby Israeli territory. Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a centrist opposition leader, spoke live on Israeli television alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after forming a war cabinet focused entirely on the conflict. “Our partnership is not political, it is a shared fate,” said Gantz. “At this time we are all the soldiers of Israel.” READ MORE

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Moral reflections on Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden – and Gaza

FRONT PAGE MAG
Will Israel Do What it Takes to Secure Peace?
Jason D. Hill
October 11, 2023

The joint aerial bombing by the British and the United States of Dresden, Germany between February 12-15, 1945, killed up to 25,000 people. They were mostly civilians. The bombings had a devastating effect on Hitler’s Germany and played a key role in Germany’s surrender in the Second World War on May 8, 1945. On August 6th and 9th of that same year, the United States of America detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosions killed between 129, 000 and 226,000 people. Less than a month later, the Japanese surrendered, thereby ending World War II and Japanese imperialism. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Avi Bell and Erielle Davidson: Israel has the right — and the duty — to besiege Gaza Anything other than an end to Hamas’ rule will leave Israel’s and the world’s citizens unacceptably exposed to savage criminal activity. Israel’s government has a duty to its citizenry and the world to move rapidly and effectively to use every lawful means of warfare to defeat Hamas; deny Hamas territory in which to operate; and kill or capture all Hamas terrorists. The defense minister announced a “complete siege” on Gaza, meaning it will receive “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” from or through Israel. Since Hamas’ ascent to power, Israel has continued to be the main conduit of trade and supply for the Gaza Strip, providing its own fuel, electricity, water and medical care to Palestinian civilians that Hamas neglects and abuses.

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Every one of these attacks on Israeli civilians was a war crime. It is a moral imperative to destroy the forces who committed them and who — as they tell us — are intent upon eradicating Israel and the Jewish people

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The Hamas pogrom is the result of the West’s refusal to accept the idea of evil
Melanie Phillips
October 9, 2023

Israel’s heart has been broken. At war once again against genocidal enemies, its people are shattered by shock, grief and horror. At time of writing, the number of those murdered has risen to 800, with 2,315 wounded and at least 100 being held hostage in Gaza. The images of what happened will stay with us forever. Dozens of Israelis were gunned down in their homes and their cars. Elderly people and small children were slaughtered; women were raped; bodies taken into Gaza were paraded and desecrated; mothers with children in their arms were abducted and are now being held as hostages in Gaza’s terror tunnels. This was barbarism and depravity, not seen on such an infernal scale since the Holocaust. READ MORE

NEW YORK TIMES OPINION Bret Stephens: The Anti-Israel Left Needs to Take a Hard Look at Itself I went to see the rally for myself: Would there be even perfunctory condemnation of Hamas’s methods? A brief nod of sympathy to Israel’s anguish? Some banal nod to the cause of peace and nonviolence? Not that I heard. What I saw was giddiness and gloating, as if someone’s team had won the World Cup. Hamas had perpetrated the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and the crowd was euphoric.

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Wall Street Journal: Iranian officers worked with Hamas since August to plan incursions from the “air, land, and sea”

JPOST
Iran ‘gave green light,’ helped plan Hamas massacre – WSJ
Staff
October 9, 2023

Hamas’s attacks on Israel, which began Saturday morning, were planned weeks in advance with assistance from Iranian security officials, according to a Sunday report from The Wall Street Journal. The report, citing senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, stated that the Iranian officials “gave the green light” for the attacks during a meeting between them and Hamas in Beirut last week…Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were also at the meetings in Beirut. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had praised the attacks, posting on X earlier this week that the cancer of the usurper Zionist regime will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people and the Resistance forces throughout the region.” READ MORE

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The assault on Israeli towns was as cruel as Hamas could make it, and every agonizing minute was broadcast to Israelis as a message and a humiliation. Now comes the Israeli answer

TIMES OF ISRAEL
A wounded, weakened Israel is a fiercer one
Haviv Rettig Gur
October 8, 2023

…The footage from Saturday, the snuff videos shared gleefully by Hamas supporters, including in some Western far-left circles, weren’t an aberration. Hamas gunmen didn’t get “carried away,” as some explained. They were the essence of the whole enterprise. They were Hamas’s basic message to Israelis: That they weren’t being killed and kidnapped just for tactical advantage in the struggle for Palestinian independence, but rather were being humiliated and dehumanized as traitors against God…Hamas did everything it could to shock Israelis, to humiliate and horrify, kidnapping children, desecrating corpses, and then crowing about it to the world. READ MORE

CBS NEWS Mother of missing Israeli-American says she believes he is a hostage in Gaza The mother of a 23-year-old Israeli-American told CBS News that she believes her son may be among those have been taken captive in Gaza after Saturday’s unprecedented attack inside Israel by Hamas militants.  Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was born in California, was attending the dance music festival in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Re’im, near the Gaza Strip, when the bloody invasion by Hamas militants began — an attack in which at least 260 festival attendees were killed.  His father, Jonathan Polin, told CBS News on Sunday that Goldberg-Polin sent his parents two short messages on Saturday morning as the attack began. The first one just said “I love you,” and the second only: “I’m sorry.” It was the last interaction that Goldberg-Polin had with his parents. 

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