Hand it to Hamas. As this week’s events in Gaza showed, the terrorist organization committed to Israel’s destruction can still manipulate the media into demonizing Israel for the legitimate actions it takes to defend itself. Hamas’s four-step formula for success is by now familiar. First, get a media that is largely hostile toward Israel, simply ignorant or both to ignore Hamas’s genocidal goals and excuse its terrorism. Second, put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way. Third, force Israel, while defending itself, to kill some of those civilians. Fourth, rely on that same hostile and ignorant media to blame Israel for these deaths. READ MORE
No one has suggested yet that the Trump withdrawal from Barack Obama’s nuclear-weapons deal will cause the sea level to rise, but we’re almost there. The chain reaction of post-withdrawal disasters cataloged by the global media includes the possibilities that Iran will race now toward building a nuclear weapon, that a war between Iran and Israel could engulf the Middle East, and that America has become “divided” from its allies. Then it got worse. One week later, the U.S. moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, creating more “friction” with our allies.READ MORE SUBSCRIPTION CONTENT
ARUTZ SHEVA Poland backs Trump on IranPolish leaders planning to defend U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal within the European Union.
WALL STREET JOURNAL Iran, Get Ready for the Battle RialThe Trump administration has declared financial war on the regime. It’s a good bet America will win.
The “deep state” is in a deep state of desperation. With little time left before the Justice Department inspector general’s report becomes public, and with special counsel Robert Mueller having failed to bring down Donald Trump after a year of trying, they know a reckoning is coming. At this point, there is little doubt that the highest echelons of the FBI and the Justice Department broke their own rules to end the Hillary Clinton“matter,” but we can expect the inspector general to document what was done or, more pointedly, not done. READ MORE
Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honour to take the floor on behalf of United Nations Watch. I commanded British troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland, and served with NATO and the United Nations. I have come straight from the Gaza front line to share my assessment. Based on what I observed, I can say that everything we just heard here is a complete distortion of the truth.
The truth is that Hamas, a terrorist organization that seeks the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews everywhere, deliberately caused over 60 of its own people to get killed. They sent thousands of civilians to the front line — as human shields for terrorists trying to break through the border…Your failure to admit that Hamas is responsible for every drop of blood spilt on the Gaza border encourages their violence and use of human shields. It makes you complicit in further bloodshed.READ MORE
Colonel Richard Kemp is the featured speaker at the StandWithUs Chicago gala Sunday, November 4, 2018. To be an event sponsor, click here.
TIME OF ISRAEL UN Human Rights Council votes to investigate Israel for Gaza protest deathsThe UN Human Rights Council on Friday voted to establish an investigation into Israel’s killing of Palestinians during protests along the Gaza border, in a move Israel rejected as being an attempt to undermine Israel’s right to self-defense. The council voted 29 in favor and two against with 14 countries abstaining. Australia and the US were the two countries to oppose the decision. The council also condemned “the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians.”
The US may for the first time recognize Israeli sovereignty over an area secured by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War, ending a 51-year precedent of refusal to officially acknowledge Israeli sovereignty over areas which came under Israeli control after 1949. A new proposal brought before the House of Representatives by Florida Republican and House Foreign Affairs Committee member Ron DeSantis would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel secured from Syria in 1967. READ MORE
…Most Western viewers experienced these events through a visual storytelling tool: a split screen [the Embassy opening and the Gaza riots]…The attempts to breach the Gaza fence, which Palestinians call the March of Return, began in March and have the stated goal of erasing the border as a step toward erasing Israel. A central organizer, the Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar, exhorted participants on camera in Arabic to “tear out the hearts” of Israelis.But on Monday the enterprise was rebranded as a protest against the embassy opening, with which it was meticulously timed to coincide.READ MORE
ISRAEL BLOGGER Micha Mitch Danzig: Morally Challenged – American Jews Acting as Tuesday Morning Quarterbacks Unfortunately, after returning from Israel where I was inspired by the bravery, courage and sense of duty by most of the Israeli youth I met, I was immediately confronted by a barrage of social media regarding the results of the Hamas led onslaught this past Monday on Israel’s border with Gaza. This online commentary was mainly from American Jews criticizing Israel and the incredible young men and women of the IDF.
GATESTONE Alan Dershowitz: Why Does the Media Keep Encouraging Hamas Violence? If this were the first time that Hamas deliberately provoked Israel into self-defense actions that resulted in the unintended deaths of Gaza civilians, the media could be excused for playing into the hands of Hamas.
…Hamas made clear what its intentions were, though [Michelle] Goldberg seems to have missed it: “We will tear down the fence, and tear out the hearts from their bodies”Hamas had offered $100 to every rioter. During previous violent assaults back in April, the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group had been offering $200 to anyone shot by Israelis, $500 for severe injuries and $3,000 to the dead. One would have to be naive to think Hamas did not want to absorb many casualties. Goldberg also offers support for a right of return for Gazans who want “merely to return to homes their families were forced from at Israel’s founding.” Here is another big lie.READ MORE
For the third time in two weeks, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have set fire to the Kerem Shalom border crossing, through which they get medicine, fuel and other humanitarian essentials from Israel. Soon we’ll surely hear a great deal about the misery of Gaza. Try not to forget that the authors of that misery are also the presumptive victims. There’s a pattern here — harm yourself, blame the other — and it deserves to be highlighted amid the torrent of morally blind, historically illiterate criticism to which Israelis are subjected every time they defend themselves against violent Palestinian attack. READ MORE
…But while Trump’s behavior is often indefensible, it isn’t as simple as that. Like most things in life, politics is a series of choices. Religious Trump supporters are doing the same thing every other group does: weighing the costs and benefits of backing a candidate and making a rational choice that does the most to advance causes they believe are of the greatest importance. The theoretical case for ignoring Trump’s misbehavior was actually made 20 years ago by Nina Burleigh, a liberal journalist and Columbia University Professor of journalism. READ MORE
The Forward has published Ari Feldman’s big expose on clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson, whose books and videos on religion, morality and psychology have made him an international sensation. Juxtaposing Peterson’s picture with Adolf Hitler’s, the headline on the article read: “Is Jordan Peterson Enabling Jew Hatred?”… In sum, what Feldman did was to 1) lie about a neo-Nazi’s opinion of Peterson; 2) use that lie to suggest he has a vast neo-Nazi following at the Daily Stormer; 3) conceal all the Jews who like him; and 4) seek out political partisans to smear him as a possible Holocaust denier.READ MORE
ArchitectGuy on Israel 