“Because it’s unlikely that his name will be publicly remembered for long, it’s worth pausing to consider the grisly murder of Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh in the West Bank city of Hebron.”

NEW YORK TIMES
A Cruel Death in Hebron
Bret Stephens
Oct. 11, 2022

…Murkhiyeh (some news accounts transliterate his surname as Marhia) was a 25-year-old gay Palestinian man who had been living for two years in Israel and had filed papers for resettlement in Canada. An acquaintance, Natali Farah, described him to the newspaper Haaretz as “a pleasant and sensitive guy, always appreciative and grateful. He had goals he sought to achieve in life, he found a good job and it seemed like it was all going to work out for him.” Last Wednesday, he was found beheaded in Hebron. A suspect, now in the custody of the Palestinian Authority police, filmed the beheading and uploaded it to Palestinian social media, according to a report from The Times of Israel. READ MORE

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“Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin’s legal action against internet giants gets added to US justices’ docket, with decision possibly rendered by the summer of 2023”

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Israeli NGO gets US Supreme Court nod in bid to hold social media accountable for terror
Ariel Kahana
October 10, 2022

Is the legal status of the Internet giants, Google, Facebook and Twitter, about to be upended by the highest court in the land? The US Supreme Court agreed in early October to hear a case that had been by Shurat HaDin-Israeli Law Center and other groups over the interpretation Section 230, which generally protects social media platforms from liability over users’ content. The organizations filed lawsuits claiming that international technology companies can no longer shirk responsibility for online terrorist content. READ MORE

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#TwoStateSolution “The idea that a Jewish and a Palestinian state will coexist peacefully is widespread in contemporary academic and political circles but ignores the reality on the ground”

JERUSALEM INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGY AND SECURITY
Understanding Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution delusion
Professor Efraim Inbar
October 11, 2022

…Unfortunately, a stable and peaceful outcome according to the two-state concept is not expected in the near future for two reasons. The two national movements, the Palestinian and the Zionist, are not close to a historical compromise, and the Palestinians have proven in the meantime that they are unable to build a state. The predicted “peace process” failed, despite repeated efforts, mainly by the US, to reach a permanent agreement. At this historical juncture, Palestinian society, under the influence of a nationalist and Islamic ethos, is unable to reach a compromise with the Zionist movement. Recent polls (March 2022) show that two-thirds of Palestinians share the opinion that Israel is an apartheid state, and 73% believe that the Koran contains a prophecy about the disappearance of the State of Israel. READ MORE

GATESTONE Khaled Abu Toameh:Palestinians’ New Enemy: British Prime Minister Liz Truss Now, as is evident from the attacks on the British prime minister, Western leaders are themselves becoming victims of the Palestinians’ smear campaigns. This is what happens when Western governments lavish untold millions of dollars on the Palestinians without requiring accountability and without demanding an end to the venomous Palestinian rhetoric against Israel and Jews.

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Jordan Peterson called Israel the “cardinal model of the nation state,” and asked whether “as Jews in Israel, are you telling the greatest story ever told?”

JNS
Conservative stars Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro address sellout crowd in Jerusalem
Alex Traiman
October 6, 2022

Conservative superstars Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro lectured a standing-room only audience of approximately 3,000 at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center on Thursday. In their speeches, the Daily Wire pundits addressed major challenges currently facing the Western world, the dynamics of power and totalitarianism, how the Torah’s well-known stories and a core belief in God serve as pillars of morality for all of mankind and the role Israel can play as an emerging technological and moral superpower on the world stage. READ MORE

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“The Biden administration’s destructive cooperation with an anti-American tyranny is undercutting a brave, principled, and popular opposition movement”

TABLET MAG
Khamenei Regime Thugs Attack Iran’s MIT
Mariam Memarsadeghi
October 7, 2022

Iran’s Islamist regime wields varied instruments of violent repression and totalitarian control, but most detested may well be the Basij force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary militia of young ideologues that polices Iranians’ everyday lives. Since the beginning of the nationwide uprising sparked by the gruesome killing of Mahsa Amini for not covering her hair, the Basij have been called up to provide their usual service of clubbing and shooting protesters. This time the response from demonstrators has been a deep fury that is expressing itself in open rejection of the regime. READ MORE

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“Tistounet, 61, is accused of instructing his staff at the UN Human Rights Council to systematically discriminate against UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, an outspoken critic of the council”

UN WATCH
Chief of UN Human Rights Council Staff Targeted Watchdog, Leaked Emails Reveal
October 7, 2022

The top official at the UN Human Rights Council stands accused of ordering his staff to manipulate speakers lists and engage in other illicit activities to block speeches by a watchdog that is the UN body’s staunchest critic, according to explosive new testimony from a UN whistle-blower, and from the release of a first tranche of leaked internal emails. In a 30-page legal complaint filed in New York today with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the independent non-governmental organization UN Watch charged Eric Tistounet, the chief of the Human Rights Council branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, with “systematic harassment, censorship and discrimination.” Tistounet, a French national, helped negotiate the creation of the council in 2006, has overseen its running ever since, and is considered its institutional memory and central figure. READ MORE

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Dershowitz: “Universities have an educational and moral duty to foster dialogue and learning, not banning and censorship”

GATESTONE
Berkeley Clubs Ban Zionist Speakers
Alan M. Dershowitz
October 11, 2022

…Those [Berkeley]clubs are engaging in a combination of Stalinism and antisemitism: Stalinism in the sense that they allow no dissenting views from their “politically correct” doctrine of no Israel; antisemitism in the sense that among all the nations of the world which are involved in controversies — Russia, Iran, China, Belarus, to name a few — they have singled out for banning only the nation-state of the Jewish people…Clubs and universities generally have a right to choose their speakers, but there is a vast difference between individually deciding who will speak and making a collective decision banning all people of a particular ideology, religion or race. These clubs are effectively banning most Jews…Imagine if a university club were to exclude all speakers who support Black Lives Matter? READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL We Zionists are actually thriving at Berkeley Law Yes, the ban on Zionist speakers by some student groups is shameful. No, our alma mater is not a hotbed of antisemitism, and claims of ‘Jewish-free zones’ are harmful

BERKELEY LAW UC-Berkeley Law Faculty Statement In Support Of Jewish Students We hereby endorse the principle of free and open speech at the law school. This includes the fundamental principle that all students should be freely admitted to all student groups and under no circumstances should any student be denied admission to any student group.

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“Invented by the KGB, perpetuated by Western leftists, Palestinianism makes the conflict in the Land of Israel a zero-sum game”

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Palestinianism is an ideology and an identity
Victor Rosenthal
September 29, 2022

…Palestinianism originated in the 1960s and was created by the cognitive warriors of the Soviet KGB. At the time, the Soviets were supporting pan-Arab nationalists like Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in order to counter American and British influence in the Middle East. With the decline of pan-Arabism, Palestinianism became a useful way to incite the Arab world against the West. It also provided an excuse for opposing Israel, which the USSR now considered an enemy. Ironically, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had initially hoped that Israel would join the socialist camp, but it had become clear by the mid-1950s that Israel was drawing closer to the West. READ MORE

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The complex backstory on Ukraine that most of us don’t know

IMPRIMUS
Complications of the Ukraine War
Christopher Caldwell
October 4, 2022

According to what we hear from the White House and from the television networks, the issues at stake in the Ukraine War are simple. They concern the evil of Vladimir Putin, who woke up one morning and chose, whether out of sadism or insanity, to wreak unspeakable violence on his neighbors. Putin’s actions are described as an “unprovoked invasion” of a noble democracy by a corrupt autocracy. How we ought to respond is assumed to be a no-brainer. The United States has pledged vast quantities of its deadliest weaponry, along with aid that is likely to run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and has brought large parts of the world economy—particularly in Europe—to a standstill. Now, whenever people in power tell you something is a no-brainer, there’s a good chance that it’s a brainer. And the Ukraine War is more complicated than we’ve been led to assume. READ MORE

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Gantz orders IDF on alert in north as Lebanese maritime border deal falters

JERUSALEM POST
Israel readies for war with Hezbollah after Lebanon ups maritime deal demands
Lahav Harkov
October 6, 2022

Israel is preparing for a possible confrontation with Hezbollah after rejecting increased demands from Lebanon in maritime border talks on Thursday. Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the defense establishment “to prepare for any scenario in which tensions increase in the northern arena – including defense and offense readiness,” his office said. The instruction was issued following an assessment of the situation with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi and other senior military officers and defense officials. Shortly afterwards, the Security Cabinet authorized Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Gantz and Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to take decisions if there were to be an escalation in the North. Gantz warned that Israel will defend its infrastructure regardless of the outcome of negotiations. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Mossad head said to warn of face-saving Hezbollah strike on gas field as deal wavers The head of the Mossad spy service reportedly told government officials that the Hezbollah terror group would likely attempt a limited attack on Israeli-controlled installations in a disputed offshore gas field, as Jerusalem put troops in northern Israel on alert after a maritime border deal appeared to falter Thursday, sending tensions spiraling.

JNS Lapid rejects Lebanese ‘amendments’ to maritime border deal “Israel will produce gas from the Karish platform as soon as this is possible. If Hezbollah or anyone else attempts to harm the Karish rig or threaten us—the negotiations over the maritime border will cease immediately, and Hassan Nasrallah will have to explain to Lebanon’s citizens why they don’t have a gas rig or an economic future,” the source added.

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