“US hostage envoy Adam Boehler reportedly engaged in the first direct talks between the US and Hamas in decades over the remaining American hostages and chances for a deal to end the war”

ARUTZ SHEVA
Trump Admin. holding secret direct talks with Hamas over hostages
March 5, 2025

The Trump Administration has been engaged in direct talks with the Hamas terrorist organization in an effort to release the American citizens who are still held hostage in Gaza, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported Wednesday. Two anonymous sources told Ravid that the talks held between Hamas and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler constitute the first direct talks between the US government and Hamas in nearly three decades. The focus of the talks is reportedly the release of five Americans who were abducted during the October 7 massacre. Of these US citizens, only one, Edan Alexander, is believed to still be alive. The talks are also meant to examine the possibility of a deal to release all of the 59 remaining hostages, both the living and the dead, and a deal that would end the war permanently. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Trump defends direct US-Hamas talks as Israel seethes, attempts to sabotage them US president says effort aimed at releasing Israeli hostages, but Witkoff admits US captives are priority and that Trump issued ultimatum after Hamas didn’t play ball in meeting

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Trump: “Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye – You can choose”

JNS
US, Israel could take joint military action against Hamas if negotiations fail, Witkoff says
Andrew Bernard
March 6, 2025

Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters on Thursday that the United States and Israel could take joint military action against Hamas if negotiations with the terrorist group fail. Speaking with journalists outside the White House, Witkoff was asked if there was a deadline to advance a deal to release more hostages before Israel resumes combat operations in the Gaza Strip. “There definitely is such a date, but I’m not at liberty to discuss what that is,” Witkoff said. “It’s unclear exactly what’s going to happen. I think there’s going to be some action taken. It could be jointly with the Israelis.” READ MORE

JPOST ‘This is your last warning!’: Trump gives ultimatum to Hamas Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” US President Donald Trump shared on Truth Social and X/Twitter on Wednesday evening, addressing Hamas…“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” indicating Trump’s desire to back Israel in further military operations if Hamas does not release all hostages. 

JNS Rubio: Trump has ‘lost his patience’ with Hamas over hostages “He’s tired of watching videos of emaciated hostages being released,” the secretary of state said of the ultimatum for the terrorists to free the captives.

ARUTZ SHEVA Freed hostages thank Trump: You were our hope Speaking after the meeting with Trump, Keith Siegel said, “We are here today in Washington, D.C., a group of released hostages who came to the White House to express our great appreciation and gratitude for President Trump and to his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. They made the deal possible, they got us all home and we urge them to continue their enormous efforts.”

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Those protesting the loudest about Trump’s alleged ‘ethnic ceansing’ plan are more interested in exploiting Gazans for the purpose of destroying Israel than helping them”

WALL STREET JOURNAL
International Law Is No Bar to Trump’s Gaza Proposal
Eugene Kontorovich
March 3, 2025

…The president is successfully trolling European and United Nations officials, who have insisted the plan would violate international law. They’re wrong. The legal basis for the proposal is straightforward. Gaza is one of the very few pieces of land not under the sovereignty of any nation, a status known as terra nullius in international law. Such situations are rare because in the postwar era local populations can win recognition for a new sovereign state with relative ease. Once established, sovereignty is hard to extinguish. But because of a confluence of circumstances, Gaza has a sovereignty vacuum. A distinct Gaza Strip came into being as a result of Egypt’s invasion of Israel in 1948. Cairo failed in its attempt to destroy the newly independent Jewish state, but it did occupy a finger of coastal territory between Sinai and Tel Aviv, which came to be known as the Gaza Strip. READ MORE

MIDDLE EAST FORUM A.J. Caschetta: What Country Would Accept Relocated Gazans When Donald Trump proposed to relocate over a million people from Gaza while it is rebuilt, many derided it as a combination of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia. Others thought it just too ridiculous to take seriously. But more people are coming around to his way of thinking. Liel Leibovitz now argues that, “we must embrace this proposal, because at its heart is the one true and inescapable sentiment: Israelis can no longer be expected to live in proximity to those who desire nothing more than their death.”

GATESTONE Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Arabs Don’t Want To Receive Palestinian Ex-Prisoners The Jordanians and Lebanese, for their part, have not forgotten how Palestinians sparked civil wars in their countries in the 70s and 80s.

TABLET MAG A History of Mass Relocation What does the 20th century show us about President Trump’s proposal to permanently move the population of Gaza?

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran nuclear facilities on high alert for surprise ‘Israel-US strike’

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Time running out: What we know about how Israel could strike Iran
Ariel Kahana
March 6, 2025

…Very little time remains to address Iran’s nuclear program. The Islamic Republic is placing its underground nuclear infrastructure so deep that even the American bunker-busting bomb will eventually be unable to penetrate it. “It will be so deep that conventional weapons won’t be able to do the job,” in the diplomat’s words. Meanwhile, the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency determined that, “if Iran decides to produce weapons-grade uranium (90% enrichment) instead of 60% (currently), it could do so quickly…Therefore, according to this source, the Americans need two days to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. Either way, even if eight hours is sufficient for the Americans, the Israeli Air Force, lacking the bombs they possess, would need much more time. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Iran nuclear facilities on high alert for surprise ‘Israel-US strike’ “They [Iranian authorities] are just waiting for the attack and are anticipating it every night and everything has been on high alert – even in sites that no one knows about,” one source revealed to The Telegraph. “

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Investigation finds guns of most members of security team were locked in armory, inaccessible due to power outage; 3 cases of ‘friendly fire’ as troops entered kibbutz to clear it of terrorists”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Civilians, police stopped 1st wave of terrorists at Nahal Oz; IDF arrived 7 hours later
Emanuel Fabian
March 4, 2025

…On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces presented its probe into the battle at the kibbutz — among its detailed investigations of some 40 battles that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when some 5,600 terrorists stormed across the border, massacred some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages to Gaza. It highlighted the heroism of Nahal Oz’s local security team and other Israeli forces that participated in the fighting, as well as the army’s colossal failures that allowed throngs of terrorists to overrun the kibbutz. The probe concluded that the IDF “failed in its mission to protect” the residents of Nahal Oz, largely because the military had never prepared for such an event — an Israeli community being captured by terrorists, as well as a widescale attack on numerous towns and army bases simultaneously by thousands of terrorists. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mandel: “The Hamas-Israel war didn’t have to happen and Egypt could very well have prevented it”

COMMENTARY
Egypt Tells Trump to Pound Sand
Seth Mandel
March 5, 2025

Despite presumably having watched the way Donald Trump has responded recently to world leaders who question or challenge him, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has decided to poke the U.S. president in the eye and see what happens. The much-ballyhooed Arab Plan for postwar Gaza has been released, and it is unimpressive even by the standards of past pan-Arab peace proposals. Perhaps even deliberately so…We can go back further and point out that the war itself didn’t have to happen and that Egypt could very well have prevented it. Cairo had stopped policing the smuggling routes between Egypt and Gaza in the area of Rafah, a town that is split between the two jurisdictions. Those smuggling routes enabled Hamas to resupply and reinforce its armyREAD MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hollywood: “The symbolic shedding of Jewishness, the criticism of Jews and the embrace of antisemites has become an almost mandatory ritual in an industry formerly created by Jews, but where it’s trendy to despise Jews and career suicide to stand up for them”

JEWISH PRESS
Hollywood Hates Jews
Daniel Greenfield
March 3, 2025

The symbolic shedding of Jewishness, the criticism of Jews and the embrace of antisemites has become an almost mandatory ritual in an industry formerly created by Jews, but where it is trendy to despise Jews and career suicide to stand up for them. “From ‘A Real Pain’ to ‘The Brutalist’ and beyond, Jewish movies were everywhere in 2024. What does it mean?” the JTA asked. What it means is that these movies aren’t Jewish. They are the work of people who hate Jews and Jews who hate themselves. Two years after life fundamentally changed for Israeli and American Jews, the industry continues to roll out highly fictionalized prestige Holocaust movies and neurotic shlock about Jewish hipster losers. Only one movie, September 5, the story of the media coverage of the Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes, dealt with anything remotely relevant to Jews after Oct 7. READ MORE

TABLET MAG Sasha Stone: Who Killed the Oscars? Hollywood no longer knows how to celebrate, much less create, art. If you want to know what happened to it, look at what happened to me…I’d been standing against “cancel culture” for almost 10 years, and now it was my turn to be canceled.

FUTURE OF JEWISH The award for Best (Antisemitic) Documentary goes to… Of the many reviews of the newly Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” none of them even hint at the facts. The film is pure propaganda meant to incite people to hate Israel.

TABLET MAG You Will Regret This Within this limp moral logic, it becomes understandable—no, even commendable—that Adrien Brody bravely uttered the word “antisemitism” in his incredibly long acceptance speech for portraying a Holocaust survivor in The Brutalist. Never mind that he immediately went on to equate it with “racism and othering,” whatever “othering” means, in order to ensure that the word didn’t draw undue attention during his record-smashing six minutes of blathering.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Antisemitism thrives in loopholes. Congress has the power and the obligation to close them”

JNS
Senate panel hearing addresses line between Jew-hatred, free speech
Mike Wagenheim
March 6, 2025

As the Trump administration threatens to take a hard line on antisemitic protesters, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Wednesday that addressed where to draw the line between free speech and Jew-hatred…Adela Cojab, a legal fellow at the National Jewish Advocacy Center, testified about encountering Jew-hatred as a New York University student even before the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Cojab endorsed the pending Antisemitism Awareness Act, which passed the House last year and codifies Jew-hatred at a federal level. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who was then the body’s majority leader, declined to put it up for a vote, reportedly fearing insufficient votes from within his party. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA State Department to use AI to crack down on foreign students who support Hamas US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launching an AI-driven “Catch and Revoke” program to cancel the visas of foreign nationals who express support for Hamas or other designated terrorist organizations.

FORBES BREAKING NEWS Video: Applause Breaks Out When John Kennedy Grills Witness About Antisemitism On College Campuses At yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) questioned witnesses about antisemitism on college campuses.

FORBES BREAKING NEWS Video: Josh Hawley’s Call To Deport Foreign Students Engaged In Antisemitic Violence Wins Applause At today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned witnesses about antisemitism on college campuses.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The film “October 8” takes a chronological look at U.S. college scenes from Oct. 8, 2023 until today

DAILY NORTHWESTERN
‘October 8’: Medill alum’s new documentary sheds light on rising antisemitism in universities since Israel-Hamas war
Alexia Sextou
February 25, 2025

Northwestern Hillel and End Jew Hatred hosted a screening of “October 8” — a documentary exploring the surge of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses, social media and beyond since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel — Monday evening in Medill’s McCormick Foundation Center. In an emotional compilation of interviews with about 40 people — including activists, authors, college students and university faculty — the documentary tells the story of Jewish and non-Jewish individuals within the past year. In her opening remarks before the screening, documentary director and producer Wendy Sachs (Medill ’93) addressed the audience, noting the film’s success in getting major theater chains to screen the documentary — including AMC Theatres. Almost every seat was filled in the auditorium, which holds 197 people. READ MORE

Click here for trailer

Click here for theatre locations and to purchase tickets

Chicago area theatres

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

MSNBC whistleblower reported Joy Reid’s “100 percent antisemitic” comments

NEW YORK POST
Ex-MSNBC host Joy Reid went on antisemitic ‘rant’ about COVID, former staffer claims
Doree Lewak
March 1, 2025

Former MSNBC host Joy Reid went “on a vile antisemitic rant,” in which she blamed Orthodox Jews for the spread of COVID-19 in New York City, a former production assistant at the network claims. In the summer of 2020, the lefty former “TheReidOut” host allegedly ripped Orthodox Jews, saying they “only care about themselves” and are “in their own bubble,” and accused the group of reckless behavior during the opandemic, according to the PA. The ex-PA, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she is speaking out now that Reid’s been axed because “people should know what her character is.” READ MORE

NATIONAL REVIEW Rachel Maddow Strikes a Blow Against Institutional Racism at MSNBC It was inevitable that the network devoted to accusing people of racism would accuse itself of racism for canceling the show of an African-American host famous for accusing people of racism.

Posted in Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment