“Both Israel and the Palestinians have competing aspirations for the land, but because E1 is located in Area C, Israel is within its rights”

Posted on August 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Israel resumes construction of settlement project that would divide West Bank
Pesach Benson
August 20, 2025

Israel’s Civil Administration approved major construction projects in West Bank, marking a significant expansion in Ma’aleh Adumim in an area known as E1 and the recognition of a new community in Asahel south of Hebron. The E1 plan, long delayed, will add approximately 3,400 housing units, while Ashahel’s project includes 342 units along with public buildings and infrastructure. Finance and Defense Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who led both initiatives, described the approvals as “historical facts on the ground,” calling them a defining moment for settlement, security, and the State of Israel. “Today we are finally realizing what has been promised for years in E1,” Smotrich said, adding that the developments represent concrete steps toward full Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. READ MORE

I24NEWS 21 nations condemn Israel’s settlement project, urging immediate reversal 21 countries, including several of Israel’s closest allies, issued a joint statement Thursday condemning Israel’s approval of a major settlement project in the E1 area, east of Jerusalem [kind of like Hillary Clinton chastising Israel in 2012].  The foreign ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom signed the statement, calling the move “unacceptable” and “a violation of international law.”

REUTERS Israel approves settlement plan to erase idea of Palestinian state A widely condemned Israeli settlement plan that would cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a state received final approval on Wednesday, according to a statement from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The approval of the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, was announced last week by Smotrich and received the final go-ahead from a Defence Ministry planning commission on Wednesday, he said.

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The capture of Gaza City represents the most ambitious phase of Israel’s campaign against Hamas since the October 7 attacks

Posted on August 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

URBAN WARFARE
What to Expect in the 2025 Battle of Gaza City
John Spencer
August 21, 2025

On August 20, Defense Minister Israel Katz formally approved the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) plan to capture Gaza City under the operational name Gideon’s Chariots B…The first step would be the evacuation of civilians. Between 800,000 and one million people remain in and around Gaza City, with many already moving southward. The IDF has begun issuing warnings to medical authorities and aid organizations in northern Gaza, telling them to prepare for a full transfer of patients and equipment to the south…Once most civilians are evacuated, the IDF will seek to isolate Gaza City before moving in. The operation will test Israel’s ability to fight in the most challenging urban terrain it has ever faced. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL 60,000 IDF reservists to be called up in coming days ahead of Gaza City takeover Reserve troops will get at least 2 weeks’ notice before reporting for duty, with some sent to replace standing army elsewhere; Katz meets top defense officials to approve IDF’s plans

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“If Hamas is ready to accept a ceasefire, the reason isn’t because it wants to stop the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Rather, Hamas wants to ensure that it can continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war (and keep killing Jews)”

Posted on August 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Do Not Be Fooled By Hamas’s ‘Positive Response’
Khaled Abu Toameh
August 21, 2025

The Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas said earlier this week that it has delivered a “positive response” to mediators on the latest US proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal with Israel. The group’s leaders, however, continue to talk about the need to continue the “armed struggle” against Israel. For Hamas, the “armed struggle” means launching more terror attacks against Israel and murdering as many Jews as possible. Hamas leaders, in addition, continue to stress that they refuse to lay down their weapons…Hamas leaders seem to believe that they can deceive Israel and the rest of the world again by pretending that they want an end to the war with Israel. They might accept a ceasefire, but it would be only on a temporary basis until they were ready for the next attack on Israel. READ MOREi

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“The disclosure may be a trial balloon from the government, hoping to gauge how the Syrian public might react should an agreement with Israel materialize”

Posted on August 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FDD
For the First Time in 25 Years, Syria Acknowledges Direct Talks With Israel
Ahmad Sharawi
August 21, 2025

Israel and Syria are talking — and for once, no one is denying it. Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani met with an Israeli delegation in Paris on August 19, the Syria’s official news agency announced. The unprecedented encounter between Shaibani and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer focused on “enhancing stability in the region.” This was actually the second meeting between Shaibani and Dermer, but the first did not appear in the official press. The meeting — and the official recognition of it — comes amid widespread anger toward Israel for bombing the Ministry of Defense in Damascus, and against the backdrop of growing chaos around the country. Israel has laid down red lines for the new government in Damascus: no military deployments south of Damascus, and protection for the Druze community in the country. READ MORE

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A Free Press investigation found that the viral photos lacked important context: The subjects have cystic fibrosis, rickets, or other serious ailments.

Posted on August 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems.
Olivia Reingold
Tanya Lukyanova
August 18, 2025

…An investigation by The Free Press reveals that at least a dozen other viral images of starvation in Gaza also lacked important context: The subjects of those photos have significant health problems. Those appeared all over social media, in the reports of leading international aid organizations, and on some of the most prestigious news outlets in the United States, including CNN, NPR, and the Times—without disclosing the complicated medical histories that help explain their stark appearances…But those photos have helped convince a growing number of Americans that Israel has induced famine and is committing war crimes in Gaza. In a poll this month from the progressive Data for Progress, nearly half of the likely voters surveyed said that they believe Israel is “committing genocide against the Palestinian people living in Gaza.” READ MORE

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Since October 7, ‘anti-Zionist’ activist groups targeting Jewish landlords have sprung up across Brooklyn

Posted on August 20, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH CHRONICLE
More than 30 years after Crown Heights riots, Orthodox Jews face a new threat from their ‘anti-Zionist’ neighbours
Eliana Silver
August 19, 2025

On a recent Tuesday afternoon at the intersection of Utica Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, people queued for free food. The scene looked like any neighborhood outreach effort, tables high with groceries, volunteers chatting with residents. But unlike most food bank programs for needy people, this one was run by a group who have been accused of antisemitic targeting of Jews in the Chasidic neighbourhood...The flyers accuse Chasidic Jews of exploiting Black tenants and fueling gentrification, echoing tensions that have been present in the area for decades. “[What] they’re really doing is taking people that are struggling with poverty…and they’re giving them food while doing a sick form of manipulation by trying to use that food…to create and to plant in them antisemitic ideas and to create racial tension in a community that has come so far over the last 30 years,” Behrman said. READ MORE

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“Korff’s connection to Israel spans several years, marked by his substantial charitable donations to various Israeli causes, including the IDF, medical institutions, and local community projects”

Posted on August 20, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Billionaire behind Paramount mega-deal obtaining Israeli residency
August 20, 2025

Brandon Korff, a Jewish-American billionaire renowned for orchestrating one of the media industry’s landmark deals, the $35 billion sale of Paramount, is in the process of securing Israeli residency. A senior government official confirmed that Korff recently filed his application for Israeli residency, framing his decision as a gesture of solidarity in the face of global boycotts and rising hostility. In 2025, Korff significantly increased his time spent in Israel, becoming a more visible figure within the country…His philanthropic support has noticeably grown in tandem with his longer stays in the country. Additionally, his brother served as a lone soldier in an elite IDF unit. Korff is the grandson of the late Sumner Redstone, the influential media mogul behind Paramount, which, under his leadership, grew into a global powerhouse. READ MORE

TJV NEWS Shari Redstone said Oct 7 and CBS News’ anti-Israel bias prompted her to sell Paramount Shari Redstone, the longtime steward of Paramount, said the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel was the decisive factor that led her to sell the family’s media empire after years of resisting offers. She also said she was hoping the longstanding investigative reporting show “60 Minutes” would expose ABC’s anti-Israel bias, but instead, it did the opposite with its feature on Gaza.

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In this imagined essay, Anne Frank reflects on the Holocaust, the massacre of October 7, and why the State of Israel and a strong IDF are the only guarantee that “Never Again” is not an empty slogan.

Posted on August 18, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH JOURNAL
If I Had Lived: Anne Frank on Why Israel Must Always Defend the Jewish People
Shmuley Botach
August 21, 2025

…On October 7, 2023, Jews again saw what happens when their enemies believe they are weak. Hamas, heirs to the same murderous Nazi hatred that consumed Europe, invaded Israel’s borders, massacring families, raping women, burning homes, and dragging children into captivity. It was a pogrom in the modern age, proudly broadcast on social media. I saw in those horrors the same dark patterns I once lived: babies torn from mothers, women degraded, Jews shot and burned alive for the simple fact of being Jews. And just as in my time, there were those who rushed to justify the slaughter. Intellectuals, activists, politicians explained it away as “resistance.” “The one great difference between my time and now is this: the Jewish people have a state. The Jewish people have an army. The Jewish people are no longer lambs to the slaughter.” READ MORE

Naomi Ragen: Israel War Diary  In many ways, the war we are now involved with is a Holocaust replay, except that now the Jews are armed and dangerous, not helpless victims. This is because they are no longer just Jews, oppressed, barely tolerated outcasts from mainstream Christian or Muslim societies, they are proud Zionists in their own country. This is the fundamental, underlying cause of the cult of hatred now engulfing the entire world against Zionism. They long for the days when the Jews were easy victims. I use the word cult deliberately. Because no amount of information, facts, photos, reasonable discourse will budge the Israel-haters. Despite the well-documented piles of food literally flooding Gaza, we still have people like Keir Starmer talking about a “catastrophic failure of aid…

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“Lox & Loaded — it’s the catchy name behind a new gun club formed in Chicago”

Posted on August 18, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

CBS NEWS
Lox & Loaded gun club aims for self-defense for Jewish community amid antisemitism threat
Charlie De Mar
August 18, 2015

…The gun club is aimed at giving Jews and allies the tools to defend themselves with antisemitism at historic levels in the U.S. On a recent Saturday morning, Gayle Pearlstein was not observing the Jewish sabbath in the traditional sense. She was instead leading a weekly ritual of a different kind — in the form of target practice at Article II Range in Lombard…”I think people that were in liberal households, or weren’t accustomed to firearms, are realizing that the police cannot be at every street corner and every event,” added Pearlstein…The Lox & Loaded chapter that practices at the Article II range is just one of several chapters that meets regularly in the Chicago suburbs and a handful of other states. Since Oct. 7, 2023, Pearlstein said sales for firearm instruction have jumped some 60%. READ MORE

Lox & Loaded™ is a Jewish Owned and Operated Shooting Club. Lox & Loaded™ is here to empower. We introduce responsible firearm ownership and safety in a way that’s approachable, professional, and deeply rooted in community values.

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The book that the Communists wanted to kill is more relevant than ever

Posted on August 15, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FRONT PAGE MAG
Animal Farm Turns 80
Daniel Greenfield
August 20, 2025

…The 80th anniversary of the publication of Animal Farm passed almost without notice on college campuses where Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto is the most assigned political work and in a culture where ‘Equity’ took the book’s sardonic corruption of equality from satire to reality. Orwell, a fierce opponent of the Soviet Union, had his journalism relentlessly censored by British Communists and their fellow travelers, forcing him to resort to fiction, first Animal Farm and then 1984…Orwell used a story about some pigs and other barnyard animals to distill a capsule history of the Bolshevik revolution through its various phases from the promise of liberation to the descent into an even bleaker tyranny than anything that had come before. READ MORE

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